spectrum

College of Education and Human Development



Expansion

Dietitians Today and Tomorrow


Professor Zenong Yin, Associate Professor Meizi Hei, in association with Program Manager Kristen Corda, Professor Lesli Biediger and Department Chair Wan Yao were elected to disclose the program’s details with various UTSA advisers. Dieticians Today and Tomorrow / Dietistas Hoy y Mañana was established to identify and to promote the advancement of undergraduate students at UTSA who are interested in the study of nutrition.

Increased awareness of self-health factors, such as diet and exercise, has led to an unprecedented demand for dietitians and nutrition educators who possess the desire to serve communities throughout South Texas and our nation at large.

The mission of the program is to prepare today’s health students for tomorrow’s careers in dietics and nutrition. The program will not only offer students a unique opportunity to follow a degree plan that will help prepare them to enter the highly competitive field of Nutrition and Dietetics, but it will also provide students with a learning community that will serve as a foundation upon which to build their future. Each fall, 20 freshmen majoring in health will be invited to join the UTSA branch of the Nutrition and Health Commons, a learning community of health students who are committed to obtaining a career as dieticians and nutrition professionals. Members of this community will have the advantage of taking part in activities that will prepare them for the admission process into both dietetic and graduate nutrition programs.

$40,000 will be awarded to one UTSA health student who, in the opinion of the Health and Kinesiology Committee, demonstrates a commitment to pursue, and to obtain a career in dietics and nutrition. The funds will then be applied towards tuition, and academic fees for the recipient’s continuing studies in health at UTSA, and/or to attend a dietics or graduate nutritional program at the university of their choice. However, preference will be given to those students who exhibit financial need. While Dietitians Today and Tomorrow remains a supplemental support system, through the collaborative efforts of the aforementioned staff and faculty, the Department of Health and Kinesiology hopes to include dietetics among its degree plans in the future.

For more information on the program visit, http://education.utsa.edu/health_ and_kinesiology/Dietitians_Today_Tomorrow/education