For my junior year summer, I had the opportunity to intern at the Union Square Hospitality Group, a company that I have admired for its vision of hospitality. I was hired as a restaurant operations intern at the Union Square Cafe, the company’s flagship restaurant. This 10-week internship allowed me to understand the entire operation of a fine-dining restaurant. I started off as a kitchen server which allowed to interact with the chefs and guests and more importantly,  understand the flow of the restaurant.

In my preparation for becoming an occupational therapist, I have involved myself with many different experiences. I worked on the STRONGKids2 research team with Dr. McBride, developing operational definitions for research. I helped write our research paper and created our poster for the SRCD 2019 Conference. HDFS professors all express a strong desire to see us succeed; this was made clear to me when Dr. McBride offered me these great experiences and wrote me a strong letter of recommendation for OT school. 

As the end of the calendar year approaches, there is typically an increase in mail and email from a variety of non-profit organizations seeking contributions. You might be asking yourself if and how your philanthropic contribution can create an impact. Often, it’s the collective of annual contributions that provides critical support for a mission. This is certainly the case with the more than 1,300 gifts made each year to the College of ACES Annual Fund. Gifts of all sizes to the ACES Annual Fund are imperative to fulfilling our land-grant mission.

Following the close of my freshman year, I was questioning my purpose at this university. I had little direction with respect to my studies, and was having trouble pinpointing my passion. After significant thought and intense debate, I made the decision not to return to the university for the upcoming fall semester.

With the fall semester of school at the University of Illinois now in full swing, college students from all majors and cities, with many different talents can be seen walking, talking, and exploring campus. Despite the many activities going on throughout the heart of the university, many students are unaware of the rich, exciting history that has affected their daily lives.

I have wanted to travel to Africa since I was 14 years old, and this past winter break I was able to finally fulfill that dream. I traveled to Sierra Leone, where I, and nine other students, did work with the World Fish Foundation, educating farmers about how to grow their fisheries and supply better fish to customers and their families. This tied in with the nutritional aspect of the trip, which was focused on educating farmers and villagers about the importance of adequate protein intake.

When I joined HDFS, I wanted to explore all that the major had to offer, especially in terms of working with faculty. I read up on our professors, their research, and the opportunities they presented to undergraduates. After reaching out to some of these professors, I was lucky enough to join the Healthy Experiences Across Relationship Transitions (HEART) Lab with Dr. Brian Ogolsky.

I had the amazing opportunity to spend four and a half months in the Netherlands this past spring semester. I studied at Wageningen University, a school dedicated to educating its students about environmental health and sustainability. I decided to study abroad at this university because it is a prestigious school in the field of environmental science, which also happens to be my major. Throughout my adventure, I had the opportunity to grow both as an individual and as a professional in my career field.

Since October 2019, I’ve performed undergraduate research in Dr. Helferich’s Lab, earning credit for FSHN 295. During my time in the lab, I’ve gained practical knowledge extremely important to food scientists ranging from the handling of mouse tissue all the way to conducting proper protein assays.

Working in Dr. Shardé Smith’s lab with C-HeARTS (Community Healing and Resistance Through Storytelling) has expanded the idea of home and given me a bigger village in the Champaign-Urbana community, which I have grown to love, that supports me on my academic journey.

My project has allowed me to be actively engaged in the community while still having ties to the university. The goal is to bridge the gap between these two entities.