Featured Student: Networking!

By Janet Zimmerman

 A little about me, as a Freshmen and first semester Sophomore, I knew I wanted to be a dietitian who worked with people with eating disorders or struggled with disordered eating and discomfort around food.  However, I had no clue how I would ever go about doing this and had no plan. 

Then, as a second semester Sophomore, I decided to try and get some experience.  So, I got an internship with a RD in my area who does nutrition counseling for people with eating disorders.  This RD (like a mentor to me) then introduced me to the SCAN and BH DPG Symposium for Sports Nutiriton and Eating Disorders.  I went to the symposium that spring and got to meet many wonderful RDs who have private practices for clients with disordered eating including two of my heroes Reba Sloan and Evelyn Tribole (author of Intuitive Eating).

As a Junior, I have been using twitter to connect with many fantastic RDs who I hope to meet one day.  I have also started attending the Memphis District Dietetic Association meetings and events to meet RDs who live in my city.  By doing this, I have found more internship and job opportunities that I can do during the summer.

            I told you my story so you could see:

1)   The importance of starting to get EXPERIENCE.  If I had never branched out and looked for experience, I would not have gotten to know so many inspiring RDs or my RD mentor.  All these experiences have helped be more confident as a dietetic student and understand more what I am working toward as a student.

2)   The importance of starting to NETWORK.  Networking is wonderful because like experience it encourages and excites us students about what we will one day get to do as RDs.  I have also learned that many RDs want to help us as students because they remember what it was like as students and new RDs and because we can also help them as well. 

3)   Be patient with the process.  Experience and networking do not happen overnight, but they are a continual process. My timeline for where I am now was about a year.  So, it is important to start now, but do not get discouraged if you don’t have great experiences or meet a lot of people at first!

Networking advantages:

* It gives you more drive and enthusiasm for your school work because you get to see what you will get to do one day as an RD.

*It allows you to soak up advice from established RDs, from many different dietetic fields, who have lots of wisdom.

 * It creates more opportunities for you as a student, which ultimately makes you more competitive for internships.

So what are you waiting for? Go attend a meeting for your local district dietetic association, communicate with RDs on twitter, attend American Dietetic Association Conferences, or even start by learning from your professors.  The Networking opportunities are endless…