{"id":104193,"date":"2025-09-24T15:17:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T15:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=104193"},"modified":"2025-09-24T15:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T15:17:38","slug":"leadership-program-cultivates-uri-change-makers-in-nutrition-and-dietetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2025\/09\/leadership-program-cultivates-uri-change-makers-in-nutrition-and-dietetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership program cultivates 溏心vlog免费B站 change makers in nutrition and dietetics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 24, 2025 \u2013 Seven 溏心vlog免费B站 students majoring in dietetics in the College of Health Sciences<\/a> are learning what it takes to become leaders in their field through a joint project with LaGuardia Community College and New York University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inclusive Model for Developing Future Nutrition, Food, and Culinary Leaders program, or IMODEL for short, is funded by a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIMODEL is an innovative leadership development and mentored experiential learning program for nutrition, food, and culinary undergraduates to prepare for post-graduate opportunities, increase content knowledge, and build a community of practice,\u201d said Ingrid Lofgren, professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition<\/a> at 溏心vlog免费B站, who co-leads the program with her counterparts from the other two institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Olivia Skapczynski did her summer internship on weekends at the Milford Farmer\u2019s Market in Connecticut, where she answered nutrition-related questions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

IMODEL Fellows commit to 13 weekly workshops via Zoom during the spring semester, a summer internship, and professional development and a virtual presentation toward the end of the fall semester at which the students from all three institutions talk about their summer internship experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of the program and at the conclusion of each of the three components, students complete surveys on leadership, problem solving, networking, and belonging. The survey responses and student feedback will be used to measure the success of the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community of practice<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 63 students, 21 from each school over three cohorts, will participate in the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weekly workshops include faculty and students from all three institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Traveling across her home state of Maine, Abby Houp produced social media posts for the Farm Fresh Rewards and SNAP programs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As part of the program, fellows have attended annual meetings for the American Society for Nutrition and the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Some of the 溏心vlog免费B站 fellows will attend a research conference at New York University in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experiential learning<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of each fellow\u2019s 10-week summer internship, they spend 18 hours each week in their internship position as well as two hours in workshops reflecting on what they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francesca \u201cFrankie\u201d Albanese, a senior from North Providence, conducted her internship at All Foods Nutrition, a private practice that specializes in digestive health, eating disorders, and women\u2019s health. She shadowed Shira Hirshberg, a registered dietician who opened the practice 11 years ago, during in-person and virtual appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI enjoyed learning how each eating disorder is unique,\u201d said Albanese. \u201cIt takes a special provider to assist in recovery while making the patient feel safe. The internship fueled my dream of owning my own practice someday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia LaHue and Finnigan Schwoebel conducted their internships together, splitting it into three different experiences. They used Canva to create artwork for social media posts for the Department of Nutrition and to revamp materials for a course this fall. They also assisted a professor with a SNAP outreach call line for people with questions on their SNAP benefits or those who are interested in applying for SNAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve always been deeply interested in food insecurity,\u201d said Schwoebel, a junior from North Kingstown. \u201cTalking to people who face food insecurity gave me a better understanding of just how relevant the issue is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the last part of their internship, LaHue and Schwoebel prepared food in the kitchen at Camp Surefire, a camp in Rhode Island for children and teens with Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI counted the carbohydrates in the meals, so that the kids knew how much insulin to give themselves,\u201d said LaHue, a senior from East Greenwich. \u201cThe experience taught me about diseases and disorders in which people have different nutritional needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Skapczynski spent most of her internship at the Milford Farmer\u2019s Market, close to her hometown of Guilford, Connecticut. She answered nutrition-related questions asked by attendees and researched evidence-backed answers to questions for which she didn\u2019t have an immediate answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI learned to communicate with strangers about topics that I didn\u2019t necessarily know were going to come up,\u201d said Skapczynski, who is a senior. \u201cThis is a skill we don\u2019t get practice much in college, because we\u2019re always surrounded by people we know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Abby Houp did her internship in her home state of Maine for the Good Shepherd Food Bank. The Gorham native created picture recipes for non-English speakers using Canva, attended statewide seminars, and traveled across the state to create social media content for the Farm Fresh Rewards and SNAP programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe experience taught me how community-based programs can improve food access for families across Maine,\u201d said Houp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ella Weidman a junior from Essex Junction, Vermont, who is double majoring in public health, conducted her internship at two Innovative Renal Care dialysis clinics in Westerly and Wakefield, Rhode Island with a registered dietitian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI learned a lot about patient interaction, electronic medical records, and everything that goes into the renal diet and dialysis treatments,\u201d said Weidman. \u201cI created educational resources for patients with guidance from the registered dietician and had the opportunity to assess a patient’s food log and offer recommendations. I also learned the calculations for weight change and fluid gain and was taught the markers of significant weight loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Carmen Fiorindo did her internship in 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Isaac Agbemafle\u2019s Sustainable Dietary Innovations Lab. She analyzed qualitative data, wrote a data brief, and made some educational material for caregivers to provide proper nutritional care to their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe IMODEL program has prepared me to achieve my career goals by teaching me important communication skills and forcing me out of my comfort zone,\u201d said Fiorindo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 24, 2025 \u2013 Seven 溏心vlog免费B站 students majoring in dietetics in the College of Health Sciences are learning what it takes to become leaders in their field through a joint project with LaGuardia Community College and New York University. The Inclusive Model for Developing Future Nutrition, Food, and Culinary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":104194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,1906,1903,1902,1915],"class_list":["post-104193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-health-sciences","tag-experiential-learning","tag-health-and-wellness","tag-student-engagement","tag-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104193"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104199,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104193\/revisions\/104199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}