By: Dana Magee

Last Friday I went back to elementary school as a Beltsville Academy Bulldog and had the opportunity to speak at their Career Fair about becoming a Registered Dietitian. I had a few fears when it came to presenting to the Bulldogs.  The first was that I had never spoken to room full of third, fourth, or fifth graders before.  This brought me a little anxiety, but with the help of fellow classmate and senior dietetics major, Camille Schneider, who taught the lesson with me I felt a little better. The next obstacle was how I was going to get these young students to understand the profession of dietetics.  I had only learned of the major my sophomore year of college after scouring over the list of majors my school had to offer for an entire year while I was undeclared.  Not only had I not known of this profession, but even adults that ask about my major seldom know what a dietitian does or what a dietetics student studies. To combat this much expected unfamiliarity with the subject we started the lesson by writing the word DIETITIAN on the board. As expected the class looked back wide eyed with confusion, but they were very ready to learn. First we started with the word DIET and the students were quick to answer that a diet is something you go on to lose weight.  We were able to expand that to all of the items they eat or drink throughout the day. We then explained that diets aren’t solely about weight loss but about all the foods you eat that give you nutrients and fuel your body. The rest of the word –itian means someone that specializes in, therefore giving them the full picture of a dietitian- a food and nutrition expert! After breaking down the word just once they were already getting it.  They were incredibly well behaved and helpful.  They even asked questions that went right along with lesson.  It was truly a pleasure to talk with them and answer their questions.  Some of the questions included: “Can I eat donuts every day?”, “Do dietitians help soccer players?”, “If my Daddy gains any more weight can you come to my house and help him?”, and “What is a food allergy”. The kids really seemed to be understanding and were very excited to hear of a career that was all about food! 

 Aside from fears of giving an informative and fun presentation, which were quickly at ease, a new fear came about after pulling into the parking lot.  That was the fear of having to present after the firefighters. They even had their truck waiting in the parking lot for tours.  In a third graders mind there just simply isn’t any career that can beat a full-fledged fire truck with the sirens going, not even a dietitian!

 Many thanks to Beltsville Academy for being such great students and listening to my presentation!  A special thank you to our student guides that directed us to all of the classrooms!