Hi All,
I began my practicum in September 2013 and will carry it over into the spring semester. As a community college biology professor teaching nutrition, I wanted to focus my efforts on nutrition and college students. To that end my practicum will focus on a one day Nutrition and Wellness Education Symposium to be held on March 21, 2014. A needs analysis indicates that students are not only lacking in general nutritional knowledge, but are unclear as to the role nutrition plays in chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The educational symposium will serve to address those issues through scheduled speakers, informational tables and the screening of nutrition related documentaries. We currently have scheduled Patrick Stover, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and Josephine Connolly Schoonen, PhD, RD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Executive Director, Nutrition Division, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Director, Dietetic Internship Program. We are still in the process of firming up their presentation topics which will focus on the areas of the importance of nutrition education or nutrition and health related issues. We are also in discussion regarding a third speaker.

Work on the information tables is slow going with long delays in responses from potential participants. We will have tables for our documentaries, which currently are set to be “Forks over Knives” and “Genetic Roulette”. We are still awaiting licensing information from the producers. We will also be performing blood pressure screening through our nursing department and BMI analysis by current nutrition students. Our local branch of the Cornell Cooperative Extension has agreed to participate as well as the New York Chiropractic College School of Applied Clinical Nutrition Master’s program. We are also seeking participation for the local American Heart Association, American Cancer Society of Long Island and American Diabetes Association Long Island Chapter. There are many other potential participants in consideration.

We were off to a slow start since there was a tremendous amount of “red tape” in securing the space we wanted, which is quite large, for the date we wanted. We originally requested a date in April, which would provide plenty of time for planning. When all was said and done we finally got March 21. That cut approximately one month off of our planning time but it did position the event during National Nutrition Month, which was nice. The amount of coordination for an event of this size can be overwhelming. Fortunately, my site advisor, Professor Denise Deal, has a lot of experience with planning events such as this on our campus. Like myself, she is faculty member in the biology department, but she also serves as the advisor of our Biology Club, which currently has approximately 200 members. Denise has numerous contacts around campus and has been able to guide me through the detailed procedures to get things done.

My expectation is to have all speakers in place by the beginning of the spring semester as well as having all documentary licensing paperwork completed. I suspect that the informational tables will be a work in progress until the day of the event, but the more the better. We will obviously promote the event on campus and encourage our faculty to bring their classes, but we will also promote to other local colleges and universities. Also, since we are a “community” college, we will open it up to local community residents by promoting through various community organizations. We anticipate use of the college radio station and newspaper for promotion as well as the Long Island newspaper. That’s it for now! Hopefully things will move smoothly in the spring!
John Spano