Nutrition Science & Dietetics News
Your chance to have an impact: What a graduate degree means at Falk College
When students think graduate school, they think curriculum, campus, community, but most of all, what the degree will mean for their lives. It’s not until after completing their degree that Falk College graduate students realize the profound difference it made not just for themselves, but for the lives of those around them as they discover new and exciting opportunities to have a positive impact. That’s what a graduate degree from Falk College means: it means our graduates can do more—more for the community, for society, and for the world. And they do!
Join prospective Falk College graduate students interested in child and family studies, food studies, public health, marriage and family therapy, nutrition science, social work and sport management at Falk’s Graduate Program Information Session on Friday, November 4, 2016 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Grant Auditorium in White Hall, part of the Falk College Complex.
The presentation will provide detailed information on Falk College graduate programs in:
- Child and Family Studies M.A., M.S., Ph.D.
- Marriage and Family Therapy M.A., Ph.D.
- Addiction Studies M.A.
- Food Studies M.S.
- Global Health M.S.
- Nutrition Science M.A., M.S.
- Public Health M.S.
- Social Work M.S.W.
- Sport Venue and Event Management M.S.
- Dual Degree Social Work and Marriage and Family Therapy M.A./M.S.W.
Information and advising will be available regarding Falk’s Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) programs including child therapy, trauma-informed practice, addiction studies, food studies, global health, and intercollegiate athletic advising and support.
Alumna takes her passion for nutrition to Syracuse City Schools
It was a series of unexpected events when on a whim, Rachel Murphy, RD ’04 came to visit the fashion program at Syracuse University. Alone among groups of tours, Murphy was directed to the Dean’s Office. Suddenly, she found herself talking about her interests with then interim Dean, Lois Schroeder, RD, Ph.D.
“I had very a strong conviction about body image and how the fashion industry is not conducive to healthy eating,” says Murphy, whose friends had suffered from eating disorders. Fashion and nutrition were in the same college at the time, and after listening to Murphy, Schrader challenged her, asking, “Rachel, how would you like to help people eat healthier?”
Kay Stearns Bruening, RDN, Ph.D., associate professor and undergraduate program director of the Nutrition Science and Dietetics Program, worked with Murphy during her undergraduate years. “Rachel sought and gained opportunities to expand her expertise in various sub-disciplines of nutrition. She seemed to gravitate towards community and public health nutrition and towards promoting the health and well-being of children,” says Bruening
One of Rachel’s earliest roles was in Onondaga County’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program. “My perspective on life changed dramatically having that experience. It was something that I used as a launching pad to gain insight into the depth of poverty in Syracuse, New York.”
It’s a reality that Murphy recognizes as the current director of Food and Nutrition Services for the Syracuse City School District (SCSD). She considers challenges and opportunities that many school meal plans don’t need to think about—poverty, food access, and childhood hunger. “We have a huge number of children and a responsibility to take care of them.”
More than 21,000 children are enrolled in SCSD schools. Every day, they are served breakfast, lunch, and snack, as well as supper for some afterschool programs, and 83 percent qualify for free/reduced meal plans.
The weekend is particularly troubling. “I have a very difficult time being OK with my children in the school district leaving on Friday and not getting fed again until Monday,” she notes.
Though there are community programs, young children are unlikely to find these resources. “Unfortunately, a lot of the opportunities in our environment are not healthy opportunities. Many children end up in corner stores where the big ticket items are beer, lottery tickets and tobacco.” Murphy is currently fundraising for Blessings in a Backpack, a program that provides backpacks filled with fresh food for the weekend to children in need.
Children are familiar with their school environments, making it the perfect place for them to access wholesome food. What’s more, the approach can lead to countless benefits. “If we offer [food] through the school system, we see increased participation in programs and lower absenteeism,” she says.
Bruening notes that approximately two-thirds of registered dietitians/nutritionists work outside of hospitals, citing a 2016 Commission on Dietetic Registration survey which indicates 32 percent of registered dietitians/nutritionists work in acute care or hospital inpatient.
Murphy believes that there is great need for nutrition experts in roles outside the hospital setting. For aspiring nutritionists who want to change a culture, “this path is for you,” she says. “Take the torch and run with it.”
Read more in a WSYR-TV article
Falk College hosts author, nutritionist Jill Castle October 6
Falk College and its Nutrition program will host the Second Annual Ann Selkowitz Litt Distinguished Speaker Series featuring childhood nutrition expert and author, Jill Castle, MS, RDN, CDN, on Thursday, October 6, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. in Grant Auditorium. Her presentation, “Fueling the Growing Athlete: What’s In, What’s Out, & What’s Essential,” is free and open to the public. It will cover:
Appropriate sports nutrition advice for young athletes.
How to understand and avoid the food and feeding pitfalls that commonly plague growing athletes, such as back-loading food intake and unhealthy food environments.
The hierarchy of food and nutrients when it comes to growing strong, healthy, performance-enhanced young athletes.
Castle has practiced as a registered dietitian/nutritionist in pediatric nutrition for over 25 years. She is a national and international speaker, addressing the topic of childhood nutrition and feeding to a wide variety of groups, including medical professionals, allied health professionals, parent, school, and other interest groups.
Castle is the author of Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete, co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School, and creator of Just the Right Byte, a childhood nutrition blog. In addition, Castle has been published in peer-reviewed journals, textbooks, consumer books, and other blogs. She is the nutrition expert at Bundoo.com, and has been a regular contributor to USA Swimming, U.S. Rowing, and About.com.
Ann Selkowitz Litt ’75 (1953-2007) was a nationally known nutritionist who helped children and adolescents with eating disorders and assisted developing athletes in reaching their full potential. The nutrition consultant to CosmoGirl magazine, Litt was the author of The College Students’ Guide to Eating Well on Campus, Fuel for Young Athletes, and the American Dietetic Association Guide to Private Practice. She was the nutritionist for the NFL’s Washington Redskins and served as spokesperson for several media campaigns during her career, including the Got Milk campaign. After her death, the Ann S. Litt Foundation, Inc. was created to support nutrition education. Through a generous gift from this foundation to Falk College, the Ann Selkowitz Litt Distinguished Speaker Series was created at Syracuse University in 2015.
This event is approved for 1.5 CEU credits for Registered Dietitians.
Falk College highlights graduate programs at November 4 information session
Syracuse University faculty, staff and current students will welcome potential graduate students interested in Falk College graduate studies in child and family studies, food studies, public health, marriage and family therapy, nutrition science, social work and sport management during its Graduate Program Information Session on Friday, November 4, 2016 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Grant Auditorium in White Hall, part of the Falk College Complex.
The presentation will provide detailed information on Falk College graduate programs in:
In addition, information and advising will be available regarding Falk’s Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) programs including child therapy, trauma-informed practice, addiction studies, food studies and global health.
There will be time for a question-and-answer session, as well as a time to meet with faculty, staff and current students. Light refreshments will be served.
Dedication ceremony for Susan R. Klenk Learning Café, Kitchens September 16
Falk College today announced the opening of the Susan R. Klenk Learning Café and kitchens, a new hands-on learning laboratory to prepare students with traditional and emerging professional competencies for careers in food, nutrition, dietetics, and public health. A dedication ceremony, reception and tours will take place Friday, September 16 at 9:30 a.m., on the fifth floor of White Hall in the Falk Complex. The campus community is invited to attend.
The new facility includes an experimental food lab kitchen, commercial kitchen, baking nook and café. A video camera system allows faculty and chef instructors to broadcast classes, food demonstrations and seminars from Falk College to anywhere on campus and across the country.
A generous and visionary gift from Falk College alumna, Susan R. Klenk, made the new facilities possible. A dual major in the School of Education, Klenk pursued a teaching career with the Syracuse City School District. Because her career always revolved around supporting students to help them be successful, she created the Susan R. Klenk Learning Assistantship in September 2009 that allows them to take a leadership role, provide support for classmates and gain valuable management experience.
“Susan Klenk is a true advocate for student learning and a generous visionary whose on-going support makes Syracuse University an extraordinary place to study food. With the opening of the Klenk Learning Café and kitchens thanks to Susan’s commitment and support, Falk College, which began offering courses in food and nutrition in 1917, is leading the way in preparing students for expanding career opportunities in food,” says Diane Lyden Murphy, dean, Falk College.
The learning café and teaching kitchens set the stage for industry-leading, forward-thinking approaches to food and culture, nutrition, research, and food studies development. Its design fosters creativity and collaboration across a variety of departments, schools and colleges, creating interdisciplinary partnerships that support teaching innovation, student learning, research and scholarship.
In addition to unlimited faculty-supervised hands-on experiences, this dedicated space will provide an ideal environment for student-faculty research projects and educational community partnerships that set the SU programs apart.
Falk College hosts food systems consultant and speaker, Dr. Kate Clancy, September 22
The Falk College Department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition will host food systems consultant and speaker Kate Clancy, Ph. D., Thursday, September 22, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. in Falk Room 100 for her lecture, “Looking at Food Security in the Northeast Region Through Different Lenses.”
Dr. Clancy is currently a food systems consultant, visiting scholar at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, adjunct professor at Tufts University, and senior fellow in the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, University of Minnesota. She worked as a nutrition and policy advisor at the Federal Trade Commission, and at the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Dr. Clancy developed a graduate course on food systems in 1982 and since then has published, taught, spoken, and consulted widely on sustainable agriculture, food systems, and food policy with government agencies, universities, and nonprofits around the country. She has promoted the idea of sustainable diets since 1983.
She has served on many boards including the Society for Nutrition Education, Bread for the World, and the Food and Drug Administration Food Advisory Council. She is the deputy director of the USDA-funded five-year EFSNE food systems project in the Northeast United States, and engaged with many initiatives including Agriculture of the Middle and It Takes a Region. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine committee that published a framework to assess the health, environmental, social, and economic effects of the U.S. food system.
A nutritionist goes to the NY State Fair
Public health, food studies and nutrition instructor Jane Burrell Uzcategui took a trip to the New York State Fair to try many of the fair’s most famous foods and offer insight on how to indulge without going overboard. “The fair is fun, people are having a good time and that includes eating,” Uzcategui says. “But remember these foods are not meant to be your regular diet.”
Food, family, culture focus of new study abroad offering in India
A new SU Abroad summer offering brought Falk College students to points of significance in northern and western India, including New Delhi, Agra—home of the Taj Mahal—and Baroda to immerse themselves in the culture, food and healthcare systems of South Asia.
Created by associate professor of nutrition, Sudha Raj, and associate professor of child and family studies, Kamala Ramadoss, the course incorporated online instruction on community-based projects and traditional food and healthcare systems prior to the group’s May 31 departure.
Upon arrival to India, students visited schools, community program sites, such as a school for children with special needs and a senior citizens’ center, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, and traditional and modern healthcare facilities. Other highlights included visits to an ayurvedic center, a working dairy farm, and homeopathy hospital.
It was when they were working together on a project a few years ago that professors Raj and Ramadoss realized they graduated from Madras University in India, both with bachelor of science degrees in nutrition and dietetics seven years apart. Raj went on to complete her Ph.D. in nutrition science at Syracuse University and Ramadoss pursued degrees in child development and family studies at the University of Madres, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, and Purdue University before coming to Syracuse University. The combination of their expertise in food, nutrition, and family development presented a winwin situation for Falk students with this new offering in India. “Understanding food in a family context was something our students in nutrition and child and studies could benefit from,” says Raj. And so the new course started to take shape.
The course will help students understand the diversity of families in a multilingual, multi-faith Indian society given the wider global forces influencing Indian society. They will get an up-close view of the food and health systems in India given the impact of globalization on Indian socio-political, cultural and commercial life. Their exploration will have them analyze and evaluate the interrelationships among families (including food systems and health care), governmental policies and community programs.
Falk College senior Robert Swanda named 2016 Syracuse University Scholar
Robert Swanda, a double major in nutrition science in Falk College and biology in The College of Arts and Sciences was named a 2016 Syracuse University Scholar, the highest undergraduate academic honor that the university bestows. University Scholars represent the Class of 2016 at the May 15 Commencement ceremony and are selected through a competitive process that evaluates course work and academic achievement, creative work, and how a student has taken his or her knowledge and experience out of the classroom and engaged the world.
“Robert is a curious and dedicated learner, an effective leader with a caring attitude and strong work ethic committed to making Syracuse University and the surrounding community a better place to live,” says Falk College Dean Diane Lyden Murphy. Upon graduation in May, he will move into a Ph.D. program at Cornell University in biomedical science and physiology. As an undergraduate, he has been immersed in several very different and rigorous research projects, with the goal of continuing an aspect of this research at the graduate level. In the Renee Crown Honors Program, he has completed three separate honors thesis projects investigating biochemical enzyme temperature regulation, obesity prevention, and the disruption of endocrine and neurobiological mechanisms.
“My three research projects throughout my time as an undergraduate have allowed me to explore scientific questions by using proteomic techniques to understand enzyme kinetics, auditing tools to understand obesity related to environmental influence, and gas chromatography mass spectrophotometry and blood sampling to examine environmental influence over rapid evolutionary changes in metabolism. During my time at Syracuse University, my independent research experiences have solidified my ambition to run a research lab of my own at an academic institution or in industry to bring scientific breakthroughs to my community,” says Swanda.
Falk College has a reputation for having the academic programs that specifically prepare students for making the world a better place. While service learning is embedded in all Falk undergraduate programs, many students embrace these opportunities outside of the classroom. Robert saw the need in the Syracuse community for instilling skills and values beyond critical thinking when he got involved with the Smart Mentoring Program through the Office of Engagement Programs his freshman year.
“As I worked with students ages 10-14, I began to notice a large gap in their understanding around critical issues such as race, religion, and interpersonal conflict. To help them, Fareya Zubair (ESF ’16) and I took a scientific approach, and read psychology journals on the development of empathy. This work later evolved into Empathy Matters, an eight-week mentoring program Fareya and I cofounded for students ages 7-8 to develop their compassion, leadership, and confidence skills, while tying all lessons back to empathy,” says Swanda. Robert’s vision includes expanding the Empathy Matters program beyond Syracuse.
“Rob has a unique vision for his future: to use his background in ecology, physiology, and nutrition to work on large-scale social and ecosystem-based health problems. His transdisciplinary training at SU and his aspirations have put him at the forefront of an emerging field that seeks to integrate public and ecosystem health,” says Margaret Voss, professor of practice, nutrition, who is Swanda’s academic advisor and research project supervisor. “I am truly honored to have been part of his professional journey and I look forward to seeing where his talent takes him in the future.”
Falk College sponsors purposeful plant-based eating for cancer survivors cooking demonstration
The benefits of plant-based eating for cancer survivors, and easy steps patients and their families can take to eat healthy, is the focus of a special cooking demonstration offered by nutrition science and dietetics students at Syracuse University. Falk College, in collaboration with the Upstate University Cancer Center’s certified specialist in oncology nutrition, presents “Purposeful Plant-based Eating for Cancer Survivors and Cancer Risk Reduction: A Recipe Demonstration and Tasting,” Wednesday, March 9, 6:00 p.m., Nutrition ACE Center, 204 Falk College. The program was developed in Falk College’s Food Demonstrations: A-Z course, taught by Professor Tanya Horacek, that helps students develop nutrition education skills for working with a variety of audiences. The event, which is intended for cancer survivors, patients and their family members and those who are interested in cancer prevention, is free and open to the public.
Attendees will watch recipes being made and taste four to five different plant-based recipes. Research indicates that maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active throughout life, and consuming a healthy diet can substantially reduce a person’s lifetime risk of developing cancer. Says Horacek, “whether you are trying to prevent cancer or you are a survivor, food can be medicine. By combining various plant-based foods you can extract the beneficial effects of the nutrients and phytonutrients.” For cancer survivors, the recipes are tailored for the typical side effects that might be experienced.
In September 2015, Falk College opened its Nutrition Assessment, Consultation and Education (ACE) Center, a new hands-on learning laboratory to prepare students with traditional and emerging professional competencies critical to effective nutrition practice. The purposefully outfitted demonstration kitchen supports Falk College’s new integrative nutrition curriculum, which uses food as medicine to support disease treatment.
“Syracuse University, thanks to support from our generous donor, Rhoda Dearman Morrisroe, has created a center that both simulates the types of professional settings where its graduates will work while providing on-going, unique learning opportunities that give students a competitive advantage. This dedicated space provides an ideal environment for educational community partnerships that benefit students and our local neighbors,” says Falk College dean, Diane Lyden Murphy.
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