First Rotation Done!

I finished my first rotation for my internship yesterday. I actually have two summer rotations, the second of which comes around in another week, and which you will hear all about when it’s over. This first rotation came as a surprise from my director about a week after graduation. She emailed us about the possibility of helping out with two summer food programs in the Auburn School District.

The cool and unusual thing about this rotation is that the internship director’s husband is the Food Service Director for the Auburn School District and I know his reputation for being passionate about whole foods, good nutrition and supporting local farmers. I also know that he started an organic garden and fruit orchard at one of his schools with the hope of bringing fresh food into the cafeteria and teaching the kids about gardening. This rotation would involve working with two different programs in the Auburn school district – the Summer Food Service program and the Summer Food Academy – so I immediately signed up.

The Summer Food Service program is a continuation of the National School Lunch Program, making free lunches available throughout the summer to those families who qualify for free or reduced lunches during the school year. Most school districts, at least in Washington, set up one or two meal sites throughout the district and require the families to bring their kids to the sites every day to get their lunches.

The Auburn School District, on the other hand, literally goes the extra mile by bringing the meals to the communities that need it most. Besides the free meals provided at schools where summer school is in session, there are about 33 other sites where free lunch is served throughout the summer. There are teams of two or three people who prepare the food, pack it into a bus or station wagon, drive out to a neighborhood and literally set up a tray line on the side of the road or in front of an apartment complex so that the kids in the neighborhood can get their free meal. Any child in the neighborhood can come have lunch. Each team goes out to 4-6 sites every day.

As an intern, I participated as part of one of these teams and observed trends in food selection by the kids. They did a pretty good job for themselves! Most of them took both fruit and vegetables, though not many of them knew that the little pinkish-yellow fruit I was offering them was an apricot. They thought it was a peach or a plum, and one kid even said, “I’ll have the mango.” Actually, I think it was the parent who called it a mango.

The Summer Food Academy (days 2 thru 4 of the rotation) is more like a day camp for kids. They enroll in the program ahead of time and pay a fee of $36.00 for a 3-day experience. They help cook breakfast and lunch for the group, and in between meals there are lessons in the organic garden about bugs and plants (and nutrition, now that there are Bastyr interns!) taught by an educator from the FoodSense program.

Part of my responsibility at the Summer Food Academy was to incorporate nutrition “messages” into the curriculum, so I taught a little lesson on “What is a Whole Food?” based on Cynthia Lair’s lesson from the Whole Foods Production course at Bastyr. The kids got really into trying to decide whether or not chicken pot pie was a whole food, and they were absolutely positive that Cheeto’s were NOT a whole food. Guess I did my job there.

The second day I talked to the kids about fiber: what kind of foods have it, what it does for the body… They liked hearing about the 100,000,000,000,000 bacteria (10x the number of cells in the human body) living in their intestines, and how eating fiber feeds the bacteria and keeps them healthy. We also talked about pooping and constipation, not the best topic for breakfast but they took it in stride.

I also did a lesson on “Chip” the compromised corn cob (from Jenn Dazey’s book Naturopathic Gardening -- Jenn teaches organic gardening at Bastyr). Jenn taught us that a plant that successfully fends off bugs and disease or survives a drought has strong genes and a powerful innate immune system that should be preserved by being replanted. The Mayans, famously reliant on corn for food, always kept the seeds from plants that bore Chip-like ears of corn and mixed them in with other corn seeds in a 50:50 ratio, thereby ensuring genetic diversity and a strong crop for the following year.

I learned in a different class altogether that plants that are allowed to defend themselves against adversity (meaning that they aren’t sprayed with pesticides or otherwise artificially protected) actually contain more phytonutrients, the compounds in plants that function as an immune system. This is good to know for those of us who are put off by the imperfect produce at the farmer’s market, or who are used to the uniform and unblemished produce in the grocery store.

I combined these two lessons and taught the kids that the imperfect or blemished fruits and vegetables they see in the store may actually be more nutritious than the perfect F&V. Carey, the garden educator, added a great illustration of this concept by explaining how having chicken pox gives our bodies the tools to fight the virus off and strengthens our immunity.

This was a fantastic experience for me. I found that I instinctively know how to talk to kids despite not having kids of my own, though I need to practice using a louder voice. I tend to start big and loud and end with a whimper. I think I could also practice making a point in two or three different ways, so that the kids who don’t understand a concept the first time around might understand the second time.

I also had some practice in asserting myself (something that is challenging for me), because the people I worked with weren’t sure what I was supposed to be doing and I needed to make sure I fit my assignments into their schedule. I think I did a good job of communicating my needs and also at being flexible about my lesson plans and when and how to offer them. On my last day, Janet, the kitchen manager, told me that I hadn’t been a pain in her butt – this was meant as a compliment. I guess she expected to have to do some hand-holding but I was independent and helpful and didn’t get in the way. Mission accomplished!

After the Pomp and Circumstance

Before all the details slip my mind, I need to write about my graduation from Bastyr University this past Monday. It was a true celebration, far more grandiose and joyful than I expected. Just trying on my gown the night before felt momentous, even if it did make me look like a linebacker.

The time spent rehearsing, eating a quick lunch provided by Bastyr, and getting lined up for the procession was our last chance to bond before going our separate ways. After all, we had spent the last two years in the same classes every quarter – these faces have become a part of my life. I felt buoyed by the collective excitement, proud of our accomplishments, and ready to move on.


My mother had flown in from California, and my brother and his family came from Arizona to witness the ceremony. As I filed into Benaroya Hall with the rest of the graduating students I had no hope of finding them in the audience because nearly every seat was full, and the noise from the cheering and clapping was so tremendous that it would surely drown out any sound they made. Nonetheless, I was not five steps down the aisle when I heard someone yell my name and, looking to my right, saw my family shouting and waving at me, my husband holding the camera up high above his head in an attempt to videotape the procession.


I felt like a star. In retrospect, that sounds a little ridiculous, but at the time it felt great. And of course I wasn’t the only star that afternoon – we were a constellation of stars! (I can’t help being maudlin…) This was nothing like my first college graduation, twenty years ago now. I can barely remember that graduation. This one I will likely never forget. This one I really worked hard for, and this one felt like the end of a journey, not just a transition.

Later, my husband stood at the edge of the stage to capture the moment that my name was called and I crossed the stage to accept my diploma. My sister-in-law whooped loudly enough to scandalize her two boys, and Dr. Kestin, who was presenting me with my master’s hood, said, “Sounds like you’ve got a fan!” I don’t if that’s how I would put it, but I was definitely feeling the love!

When all the Master’s grads had made it onto the stage, Dr. Church officially conferred us with our degrees and reminded us to “master” ourselves, rather than others.


Five days later, I’m still feeling a little choked up and am suddenly aware of the friends who have already moved away for their dietetic internships in far-flung states. Luckily, several friends remain here in the Seattle area, some who will be interns at Bastyr with me. This next year is the proving ground for us in our chosen field of dietetics, and I’m very excited and a little fearful, but mostly looking forward to this next challenge.

And now begins the rest of our lives. Congratulations everyone!

Getting An Early Start

It’s only June, and I haven’t even graduated yet, but I’m already beginning my internship!

The Bastyr interns have been offered the opportunity to complete 32 hours of a diabetes rotation by working at a summer camp on Vashon Island for 4 days. This camp will be slightly unusual as these summer camps go because it will be a mix of “normal” kids (what kid is normal, anyway?), kids with T1DM and kids with celiac disease. Out of about 300 children, only 70 will be diabetic. This will also be the first year that the camp integrates gluten-intolerant kids (they’re expecting about 30). Since 5-10% of T1DM kids have celiac disease, there will be some overlap between the two groups.

Today I attended an orientation of sorts. The orientation took place at the GIG conference in Seattle and our small meeting was led by Cynthia Kupper, RD and executive director of GIG, the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America, and Jennifer Okemah, the lead RD and diabetes expert for the camp. Cynthia is a dynamic personality (so is Jennifer) and has been instrumental in new legislation and policy-making related to gluten-intolerance. She is the person to watch in all things gluten-free, especially in terms of gluten-free certification for food producers.

We talked briefly about the structure of the camp and how the GIG contingent and the diabetes contingent will interface. The main goal will be to monitor the children with celiac and diabetes while keeping out of their way as much as possible as they do kid-at-summer-camp things. I’ll get to practice doing finger sticks and reading blood sugar levels and, of course, counting carbs.

I’m really looking forward to this! I'll post more about the camp as it happens.

In a Mediterranean Mood

Tonight my soon-to-be-graduating class of Masters of Nutrition Science students put on a shindig for, get this, the preceptors for this year’s outgoing dietetic interns. It was a thank you dinner for the preceptors, put on by the interns, but the meal was planned and executed start-to-finish by my class as a project for Food Service Management.

It was gorgeous. I wish I had pictures of the venue and the food – I’ll try to get a hold of some from our FSM instructor. The theme was “Savoring the Mediterranean,” and in order to avoid having to make special meals for those with food intolerances we planned a gluten-free, dairy-free menu.

Let me just recount it for you here so that you can salivate over it:

Apps: Roasted red pepper and walnut pesto, hummus with preserved lemon, and olive tapenade, served with homemade sourdough bread and chickpea-rosemary GF crackers
Salad: Mixed greens with fig-shallot vinaigrette and edible flowers
Dinner: Quinoa cakes with basil and sun-dried tomatoes, served over braised greens and cannellini beans, all topped with sautéed oyster mushrooms
Dessert: Almond cream tartlet topped with fresh strawberries

If I’ve left anything off the list, I’ll certainly hear about it from my classmates.

We had a pretty great leadership team. They were bossy and got the job done! Theresa, who completed culinary school before she came to Bastyr and is a masterful vegetarian cook, was running the kitchen and the cooking crew, and Laine was in the “front of the house,” making the most of her natural leadership ability and vast experience working in restaurants.

Exuberant Wendy was in charge of us all, acting as mother hen and cheerleader. She also kept in touch with the interns and the internship director to make sure everything went smoothly. And Cheryl and her donations team raised $2000 in cash and in-kind donations to put the cherries on top of this dining experience.

And finally, let me put in a few good words for the grunts: the prep cooks, line cooks, fry cooks, pastry chefs, waitstaff, bartenders, and the decoration team. Oh, and the dishwashers! We did a great job!

The glitches were few, like when we ran out of beans-and-greens and had to whip up another batch, or when some of our tartlets collapsed into puddles of almondy deliciousness. No matter… the dinner guests knew nothing of our setbacks and had a fantastic time.

So congratulations to everyone for a job well done. If our exit exam was based on our performance tonight we would all graduate with honors!

The Road to Here

So, a little about myself. I have a BA in literature and writing that led me into 18 years of doing things like: writing copy and directing photo shoots for a mail-order catalog; editing, publishing and writing for a monthly arts and culture paper; designing and programming websites; then, very incongruently, providing clerical support and doing billing for a home health agency.

Somewhere in there I began to notice my food. I noticed that what I ate affected the way I felt and looked. I noticed how so many modern diseases were connected with poor diet. I also noticed that there were bigger issues with food than what to have for dinner. Thanks to several people who happened to be right where I needed them with a timely bit of advice or information, my interest in food and health was nurtured, and I ended up here at Bastyr University, getting my Masters degree in nutrition.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Bastyr is a university of health sciences that offers a “multidisciplinary curriculum in science-based natural medicine.” The university trains naturopathic physicians, and also has programs in nutrition, exercise science, acupuncture and Oriental medicine.

Bastyr has a fantastic nutrition program with faculty who are very dedicated to training their students in “whole foods-based” nutrition, while still giving them the down-and-dirty biochemistry of nutrition and preparing them for work in acute clinical settings. Bastyr also has a dietetic internship with a focus on… you guessed it, natural medicine!

I was very fortunate to have been selected for the 2009-10 internship at Bastyr, and now here I am, between my Masters degree and my RD license, just itching to get started.