Health & Wellness Scholarship

I have had several hobbies and interests that have come and gone, but my passion for health and nutrition has persisted throughout my life. Chronic disease is rampant throughout my family, and it grieves me to see the hopelessness and powerlessness they feel about their circumstances. I want to educate, counsel, and empower people in nutrition and the lifestyle factors they do have control over. After seeing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in my own life and the detrimental effects of poor lifestyle choices in my own family, I feel it is my life’s calling to counsel others to have the best quality of life possible, regardless of their circumstances. This background has set me on the path to becoming a Registered Dietician Nutritionist. I am currently pursuing my master’s in clinical nutrition to achieve this goal. I am a strong advocate for empowering people on an individual level. With this degree, I want to do just that—empower individuals, giving them the tools and resources they need to live vibrant, healthful lives. My passion for both nutrition science and psychology will be a harmonious combination in my professional endeavors in the field of nutrition. In addition, my own personal experiences with health and wellness will provide me with the patience, empathy, and compassion I will need to counsel others. In addition to seeing the great need for proper nutrition in my own immediate family, our Air Force career has given me insight into how vast this need is. Moving around more than most people do in their entire lives has exposed me to a wide breadth of people from various backgrounds. What I’ve learned is that most Americans abide by the Standard American Diet—a diet rich in highly processed, high fat, high sugar foods that is dismally low in fiber and vital nutrients that are essential to our health and well-being, resulting in a host of chronic illnesses and disease that are often preventable with proper nutrition. The sad reality is that these chronic illnesses that we often associate with the aging process (heart disease, arthritis, and even erectile dysfunction) are becoming more prevalent in our younger population. This need has inspired me to spend a large portion of my free time educating and counseling my peers, friends, and family in the same nutrition principles that I have applied to my own life. This counseling primarily manifests as personalized meal plans, based on the client’s food preferences and dietary restrictions, as well as directing them to the latest publications in nutrition research. Witnessing the physical and emotional changes in people I have helped firsthand has been an incredibly humbling and gratifying experience, which has only further affirmed my desire to pursue a career in nutrition. Western medicine is primarily focused on treating disease after the fact. I want to be an agent of change that encourages preventative medicine. If we can counsel, empower, and educate our communities before a diagnosis, we could save millions of lives and millions in healthcare costs. The value of nutrition education is grossly underappreciated and underutilized in treatment plans. By working with a team of healthcare professionals, I would like to see nutrition education play a bigger role in treating patients. Changing the paradigm starts with me, and I want to encourage patients to use food as medicine.