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Students Share Nutrition Information
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| Meredith Byrne (left), HNFE dietetic student, provides Virginia Tech Senior Holly Harnist advice on how to eat more healthy and develop a plan for improvement. |
As America continues to fight a growing epidemic of obesity, one group of Virginia Tech students is learning and teaching the importance of sound nutritional habits. Through the Student Nutritional Counseling Service, a course offered in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise (HNFE),
senior dietetic students have the opportunity to meet with clients within the university community to put their learning to work.
“My tasks are to meet with clients and give them the nutrition
information pertinent to their goals and make referrals if needed,” says HNFE student Meredith Byrne. “I usually spend about five to six hours per week with the nutritional service meeting with clients, working on client reports, or meeting with the independent study group.”
The class puts students in a work environment and face-toface
with clients. Students assess their client’s nutritional intake,
establish goals for improvement, and evaluate successes. More
that 102 clients took advantage of the counseling service
provided by the 17 students participating in the class last year.
“It’s been a great experience working with clients and I have had
a chance to be comfortable talking with them,” says HNFE
student Angela Gourley. “It can be difficult sometimes to get
them to tell you the information you need to know to help them.”
In a survey given by the counseling service, clients said that
their knowledge of nutrition increased during their involvement.
Not only was it beneficial to the clients, but also, according to
the students involved, the hands-on experience was one of the
greatest learning tools.
“I’ve learned how to work with many different types of
people from different backgrounds. I also learned to work to
meet many different needs because people have different goals
when seeking nutrition counseling,” says Byrne.
For many of the students, the opportunity has not changed
their career ideas, but has strengthened them. “It has definitely
strengthened what I knew and enforced what I wasn’t sure
about,” Gourley says. “It has made me more confident and I
have learned a lot about real-world experience and what it will
really be like practicing as a registered dietitian.”