I just got a new job! :)

Well, I wanted to share my good news with my DI family.

Despite not yet graduating (I'm finishing my thesis now) I landed a fantastic job at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill! I start Monday!! I will be chef-nerd extraordinaire in their Nutrition Research Institute metabolic kitchen which is one of the leading facilities studying Nutritional genomics in the USA! (What is Nutritional genomics? Nutritional genomics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) I'm working for the lead scientist on an exciting research project. I'll essentially be the food person- if it relates to food- that's me. NRI is a really cool place, and I am WAY out of my comfort zone, but I read something the other day that gave me the courage to apply: "What you want is on the other side of fear" and it turned out to be true! What was that about distance learning not being sufficient? Ignore the haters!

 

That is awesome! Congratulations!

 

Happy for you!

 

That is awesome! I am elated with you! I'm a firm believer in that you create your own opportunities, you did just that and landed an awesome job! Congrats - now go out and enjoy dinner and let someone else take charge of the food for the evening

 

Way to go Jen! I am so happy for you! :smile:

Abner

 

Great, great news!! Congratulations!

 

Congratulations! Break an... egg... :squareeyed:

Okay, that was lame, but I tried

 

THAT's awesome Thanks

 

Awesomeness! Congrats!

-Matt

 

Congratulations!!!!

 

Way to go!!! Totally awesome.

 

Jen, WOOHOO!!!

 

Thanks everyone

 

Congratulations! I have never bought into all the worry about the stigma of distance learning. I also landed a job at a B&M university immediately after earning a Ph.D. from Northcentral. My Master's was also done by distance learning.

It may be just my experience and the circle of people and employers I have dealt with, but nobody has ever questioned my degrees, or where or how I got them. It surprises me that others seem to sometimes have to deal with negative people who look down on distance learning education.

 

Very nice.

 

This is wonderful for you, Jennifer. Congratulations! . . . but less so for me.

From the Wikipedia article you referenced, it would seem that
1. Meat: bad
2. Red meat: worse
3. Well-cooked red meat (barbecue, for instance): worst of all, cancer-wise.

Incidentally, I'd be curious, since my youngest (by 3 minutes) daughter is seriously considering an on-line nutrition program (possibly with Baumann College): was this an advertised job that you applied for, or did they somehow find and approach you?

--John

Wikipedia: "NAT is involved in acetylation of heterocyclic aromatic amines found in heated products especially well cooked red meat. During cooking of muscle meat at high temperature, some amino acids may react with creatine to give heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA). HAA can be activated through acetylation to reactive metabolites which bind DNA and cause cancers. Only NAT2 fast acetylators can perform this acetylation. Studies have shown that the NAT2 fast acetylator genotype had a higher risk of developing colon cancer in people who consumed relatively large quantities of red meat.

 

But buffalo stew? Mmmmmmm....... :smile:

 

My suggestion would be for you to ask your daughter if her passion lies more in culinary arts or nutrition. There are tons of opportunities in which these fields merge, but I'm afraid she may not maximize her resume at Baumann. If she would put culinary to nutrition as 75:25 then I'd suggest a simple community college culinary arts associates. She won't be online, however, she can probably eliminate all her gen eds that way (or CLEP) and the degree will likely require some work component that will get her into a kitchen and start building her culinary chops. Hands on is really the only way to learn cooking. From there she can also take nutrition courses to be sure if the ACADEMICS of nutrition are really what she's interested in. Some programs offer add'l dietary courses and credential (ACEND).

If she is more 25:75 in favor of nutrition, she should get her RD. I don't have my RD, but there are fewer barriers if you have it, and many online programs exist for RDs (like the MS program I'm in). RDs are getting harder to get- internships are competitive. But, in nutrition, you're an RD or your selling snake oil. In addition the regulations that surround the field of nutrition in private practice are intense, similar to the midwifery trade, she'd have limited options. RD programs require little food service experience, but in this case she could still do restaurant (not hospital) work on the side. She will likely be able to take her gen eds online and *may be able to test out of some (not science) along the say. Restaurant work is HARD and pays LOW, not for everyone.

If she is 50:50, then the BEST program out there is Johnson & Wales Culinary Nutrition degree. Funny enough, this is my thesis topic, so I'm intimately involved with the scope of nutrition taught in culinary programs. J&W offer that degree as a full culinary arts degree + full RD credential. It's a win. Offered on 2 campuses- sadly, not online. There are a few (not many) other good culinary + nutrition programs out there, but again, all on the ground. If this is an area of interest, email me for more names.

Something new and perhaps of interest to someone who would be after my job is a degree in Culinology. It's a research chef track, there are a dozen or so at the associate and bachelor levels. As of right now, it's new, so I don't know if it's totally accepted by the chef community OR the nutrition community, it might be the red-headed stepchild of both fields...but time will tell.

The job I applied for isn't listed/saved, so I can't link you to a listing. The job opening was for "Nutrition Assistant" which doesn't tell you much but I believe my situation was a case of being in the right place at the right time, since the scope of my job will differ slightly from the actual title. I found out about the listing through an email from a J&W faculty member. Some of the nuances of my background were a perfect fit; on accident, really. I can talk to you or your daughter more via email if you'd like. [email protected]

 

This doesn't get the press it deserves. Bacon, lunch meats, hot dogs, processed *smoked/cured/nitrates/nitrites/* hams, bologna, charcuterie, etc are really consistently showing significant colon cancer risk- something my mom died from. I'm not the health police (which is why I've never been interested in being an RD) so you can eat what you want around me guilt-free. I answer questions when asked, but I am a firm believer in a beautiful venn diagram with: health/nutrition in one set, and food pleasure in the other. People don't sit down to a good meal of nutrients, they eat for social-personal-pleasurable-cultural reasons. ENJOY your meals. Eat with people.
At the end of the day, maintaining a healthy body weight is significantly more important (huge return on investment if you will) then the million minor nutrition fiction obsessions people have (gluten free, organic, coconut oil, blueberries, fish oil, kale, soy, etc.....). If you're weight is good, that will take you far.