Six and a half years after graduation, I'm happy to write to you as the manager to a community nutrition program called Community Kitchens Northwest for Seattle Tilth (recently featured in the Seattle Times), and the lead RD at an intensive outpatient eating disorder clinic called, Center for Discovery. I am able to boast these statements because I took the long way. This destination was not direct and I didn't even apply for an internship until 2014, four years after graduating from the University of Vermont.

Upon graduation, I decided to repeat the trend I set after high school and get more life-education under my belt by interning with farms around the country. After all, how could I really talk about food if I didn't understand how to produce it?

The decision to learn how to grow food brought me to two different farms, Growing Power and Pie Ranch. Growing Power is a non-profit farm located in Milwaukee, WI and founded by Will Allen. He is known as a leader in the Urban Agriculture and Food Justice movement. He has received recognition from First Lady Michelle Obama during her Get Moving campaign and was invited to assist in the installation of a garden at the white house. Will Allen started a non-profit farm on 2 acres of land in what would otherwise be a food desert in the city of Milwaukee.

During my 3 month apprenticeship with Growing Power, I learned the importance of soil in the food system, sustainable growing methods in small spaces, and composting strategies that anyone can do. For more information on Growing Power, here is a 3 minute video created the season I was there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs7BG4lH3m4

Working at Growing Power primed me for my time at Pie Ranch, another incredible non-profit farm on the coast of California, just South of San Francisco. During my 9 month apprenticeship, I helped visitors ranging from Facebook executives to high school students experience the food system from farm to fork. This 7 minute video was created the year I was there and does a much better job than any collection of words at capturing the experience: https://vimeo.com/27347513

After a year of working in the field, I wanted to get back into nutrition. Accordingly, I contacted a former supervisor from a Work Study position I held at the Dept of Health in Burlington. I mentioned I was looking for a position and what do you know, an entry-level position was opening. I applied, interviewed over the phone, and made the trek back to work for their WIC Clinic as an Outreach Specialist. Within a year of working there I was promoted to Public Health Nutritionist, School Liaison and served the Department of Health for a total of 2 years.

Throughout this time, classmates were completing internships and eventually, I felt the pressure to seriously look into some myself. In the winter of 2013, I went through the application process and in April of 2014, was matched to SeaMar Community Health Centers. It took two month of studying to pass the licensing exam, one month to get my first RD job and four months to get my second one.

Six full years of diverse life experience lie between graduating from UVM and landing my dream jobs. Did I know living in Peru, volunteering with ASB, and hustling at the Dept of Health would get me where I am? Of course not. But the thing I decided to trust was my bliss, curiosity, and sense of wholeness.

So take your time, forge your own path, and stay open to the opportunities that are presented to you.

And that is how I ended up as a Cheese-maker at Shelburne Farms !  I have been making raw milk cheddar cheese for a year and a half now.   I have gained an incredible amount of food science and food safety knowledge during my time at the farm.  I have also drawn heavily on what I learned from the food science courses at UVM.  For example, I am part of the HACCP team, I write sanitation plans and Good Manufacturing Practices, and I help with Quality Assurance of our products. 

Buzzwords from classes such as "rennet", "listeria monocytogenes", "FAT TOM" and "campylobacter" all came flooding back when i started working at the farm.  I even get flashbacks to freshman year Chem 23 because we take the Titratable Acidity of our milk/whey 8 times throughout a cheese make-day.  It's pretty incredible to be able to use a lot of skills we learned in classes and labs in my everyday life.

In addition to leading make-day, I have various other roles in the cheese-making operation.  Some morning I am driving to the dairy barn to recieve that day's milk.  Other days I am cutting 40lb blocks into 1/2lb pieces.  Still other days I am shipping packages or selling cheese at the Burlington Farmers Market.  Being a part of the whole operation, from milk to consumer, has been a very rewarding experience.

Some days, usually when I am elbows-deep in whey, I can't help but think, "How the heck did I get here?".  I never would have guessed this is the career path I would be on. 

I hope that sharing my experience will give you all some piece of mind that there are always other fun and interesting options.  Nutrition and Food Science is a incredibly diverse field with many career paths to offer.  Your undergrad course work has set you up for success, no matter what your path may be!

So I went for my DTR certification and obtained a job with UVMMV in-patient nutrition services. Two years later I changed jobs and became a health coach with the Community Health Team counseling patient in their PCPs offices around healthy eating habits and physical activity. During the 4 years I have been in this position, I have become a certified health and wellness coach through Wellcoaches and am planning to continue with national certification once it has been finalized.  I have also started wellness coaching for Employee Wellness at the hospital.  Additionally, through my job with CHT, I have become a tobacco treatment specialist, am a facilitator for Healtier Living Workshops in Diabetes, and as of October 2016, was trained as a facilitator for the YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program.

In short, I am thrilled with where my dietetics degree from UVM has taken me, even without an internship.

Upon graduation in May 2015, I had almost landed a position in the Food Corps working as a nutrition educator, but that didn't work out either (Good thing, or else I would've been in the middle of nowhere Iowa!). I then decided to stay in Burlington and manage a frozen yogurt store and reevaluate my career path. My passion for nutrition and public health steered me in the direction of an MPH, and I'm currently 3/4 of the way through the MPH program at Southern New Hampshire University. It's an online program, which has allowed me to work full time and get another degree!

Finally, in April 2016, almost a year after graduating, I landed a job as a Public Health Nutritionist in the WIC Clinic at the Vermont Department of Health in Burlington. I'm so happy here and grateful that the timing worked out, right when I was doubting my desire to work as an RD.

These last 6 months have taught me so much, and my hope is that in the next few years, my MPH and experience as a nutritionist will help me get a dietetic internship!