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49 views3 pages

Personal Statement Umndi

Uploaded by

api-749628687
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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McKenna Lewis

Personal Statement

I would like to enter the dietetics profession because I have always been interested in
how food makes the body work and how It can change how it functions. When I started looking
into nutrition as a major before attending the University of Minnesota, it was because I loved
food and wanted to learn more about what it does for the human body. I knew that food was
necessary to live, but I did not know how much it really impacts our lives. Once I started
learning more about dietetics, I started to become even more passionate about learning how
food can impact the human body. I started to learn things that I wish I had known more about
while growing up, playing sports, and watching people close to me struggle with eating
disorders. And I started to learn things that I knew would allow me to help people in the future.
The University of Minnesota nutrition master’s program plan C would allow me to gain overall
knowledge in nutrition and apply this knowledge to a dietetic internship and to my career as a
registered dietitian.

I have worked in the culinary department of a long-term care facility for 4 years as a
dietary aide and a prep cook. This experience has given me invaluable knowledge about food
service and long-term care. My time at Timber hills has helped me develop interpersonal
communication skills when caring for our residents. As a dietary aide, I work with certified
nursing assistants as well as other dietary aides to ensure each resident is receiving the proper
nutrition related to any health problems they may be experiencing. Mealtimes are often a
highlight of many residents’ days and it has been so uplifting to be able to impact the lives of
the residents at timber hills through customer service and foodservice. As a prep cook, I was
able to prepare and serve meals to residents with varying levels of care and varying diets for
conditions such as dysphagia, diabetes, and hypertension. This experience has prepared me to
learn more about nutrition and food service and be able to apply this knowledge to real-life
situations and caring for patients.

Beginning in summer 2020, I have been interning at the Training HAUS powered by Twin
Cities Orthopedics. During this internship, I was able to assist athletes with their post-workout
nutrition and answer any questions they had about nutrition. I also worked alongside the
dietitian, Kaela Colvard, to help clients reach their own nutrition or performance goals. While
working with another one of our dietetic interns, I researched and helped come up with ideas
for a new eating disorder intake form which would then be tested and implemented for
different sports programs to screen for athletes who struggle with disordered eating. Once my
time at TCO was coming to an end for the summer, Kaela asked me if I would like to stay for the
fall semester as well. I gladly accepted her offer because while interning at TCO, I became even
more passionate about sports nutrition and eating disorder recovery and I am still currently
interning at the training HAUS. This experience has prepared me for graduate level studies of
nutrition because it has given me more knowledge about how food affects performance in
sport and how important food is in athletes who struggle with disordered eating. Because of
this, I am prepared to learn more about eating disorders, sports nutrition, and supplement use
at the graduate level.

My short-term goals include graduating with a bachelor’s degree with a GPA of 3.2 to be
competitive for graduate school and a future dietetic internship as well as gaining more
experience with clients at my internship. I will achieve my first short-term goal by focusing on
my schoolwork and continuing to cultivate my passion for dietetics through education. I will
achieve my second short-term goal by asking the dietitian at TCO if I may sit in on more
consultations with athletes so I may observe how she conducts her counseling sessions with
them. I am excited to be learning more about the areas of dietetics that I wish to build a career
in, such as sports dietetics and disordered eating.

My long term goals are to graduate with an MPS in nutrition in the summer of next year
at the University of Minnesota, be accepted into the UMN TEP dietetic internship, and upon
completion of the dietetic internship, pass the CDR and start practicing in either sports dietetics
or eating disorders. Graduate study relates to my long-term goals by supplying me with higher
level learning which will help me in my future supervised practice in a dietetic internship as well
as in a career following the internship. The knowledge I gain from this graduate program would
enhance my knowledge of nutrition and I will be able to apply this knowledge to my future
career with athletes or disordered eating clients.

Some of my strengths are adaptability, empathy, and conflict resolution. These


strengths have helped me to succeed at my job in food service as well as at my internship in
sports dietetics. A weakness I have is procrastination. I have been continuously working on this
weakness by planning out my day and week and putting my assignments and tasks in order of
priority so that everything can be completed on time. I have improved on this weakness in my
undergraduate studies and will use my learned habits during graduate level studies to avoid
procrastinating my studies.

I have been studying at the University of Minnesota in the college of food, agriculture,
and natural resource sciences so I am already familiar with the missions which are also
associated with the college. The University of Minnesota M.P.S. Plan C program is extremely
interesting to me because I am passionate about educating myself in ways that would better
help me treat patients in the future and an extra year of higher level studies would assist me in
this passion. My internship at Twin Cities Orthopedics has brought me many interactions with
athletes who have little to no knowledge about nutrition and how to fuel their bodies properly.
Being able to educate these athletes with the knowledge gained in my graduate level studies in
the future would allow me to help athletes improve their health and performance. Using what I
learn in graduate studies would also prepare me to work with disordered eating clients by
educating them and helping them through the recovery process of disordered eating. I have
experience in food service at a long-term care facility and with sports dietetics which will allow
me to use past experiences to supplement my learning in graduate school at the University of
Minnesota.

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