Just Breathe Podcast
In this podcast, you will learn about many different aspects of psychology, nutrition, and neuroscience, such as their interactions with various parts of life and many career options for these fields.
Just Breathe Podcast
Inside The Profession | Registered Dietitian
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In this episode we will dive deep into one possible career option of being a Dietitian! Have a listen to a great and detailed conversation with Leah Wilson, a registered Dietitian who currently works at Kaiser Permanente.
This is the first episode of our new season inside the profession. In this episode, we will look into the career path of a registered dietitian. But before we get into that, let's just take a moment and calm our minds. Hello. Um, can you introduce yourself, please?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my name is Leah Wilson. I am a dietitian and I currently work at Kaiser.
SPEAKER_02Awesome, thank you. Um, could you tell us what you do and what does your job involve?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I currently work just with eating disorder patients. So I see teenagers, adults in one-on-one settings, in group settings. Um, so that's what my current position is, but I've actually worked in many, many other places prior to my current position.
SPEAKER_01Awesome.
SPEAKER_02That's so cool. Um okay, if you were to explain your career to like a high school student in one sentence, like what would you say?
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness. That is a hard question. Oh my gosh. Um, if I had to describe being a dietitian in one sentence, um, dietitians work in a lot of different settings from hospitals to fitness centers to teaching to research, um, and really working on helping people and supporting people and their bodies around proper nutrition and fueling.
SPEAKER_02Awesome, thank you. Um, and then what is like one thing that people usually like get wrong about your profession? Like some misconception.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of misconceptions. Um, there I would say the biggest misconception is people assume that dietitians eat, quote, really healthy. And so there's like a misconception that it would be shocking for me to eat dessert or burgers or fries or soda or whatever. So there is a major misconception that dietitians are very, very intense about their food when really we just love food and we want to ensure we're eating a variety of foods.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's yeah, it's interesting. I usually think about that too. I feel like people are just like really healthy, and I'm just like Yeah, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00People will say, like, like if they go out to eat with me, or like if at work there's donuts in the break room, people will make comments like, Oh, I guess I can have a donut. The dietician's having one, like, yeah, dude, like I'm a normal person. I'm gonna eat donuts like everyone else. I think there's this weird idea that we have some magical different like eating habits than the rest of the public. And I actually uh bake and decorate cakes as a hobby, not professionally, and so like I love baking, like we're gonna eat all the foods in my house, but people are really weird about it. So that's probably one of the biggest preconceptions about dietitians in children.
SPEAKER_02Um, okay, um, okay, like going back, I guess, in time, what did you want to be like growing up when you were younger?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so in high school, I loved math and science. Like, there was no question that was like my realm, and I loved helping and teaching people. Like, it was a joke in high school that I had a tutoring service because people would call my parents' house. This was back before people had cell phones, they'd call my parents' house and ask for help on like math, homework, physics, chem. And so, like, I knew I liked helping people, so I actually went to college assuming I was gonna teach either high school or college math or science. That was I went, I was a biology major actually in college.
SPEAKER_02Oh, interesting, cool. Um, and then when did you first become interested in like the nutrition field? Nutrition.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um around my second or third year of college, um, I was talking to a family friend who's a dietitian actually, as well. And I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. Nutrition is a way of combining my love of like science, because it technically is like a very science-based degree, with working with people and educating them and helping them. And so I decided around my I think sophomore, maybe junior year of college, that I wanted to become a dietitian. Um, but the college I was at did not have a nutrition degree, so I knew I would need to go on to get my master's degree like after completing my bachelor's in biology.
SPEAKER_02Oh, cool. So, like if you want, if you like think of a career path like for later, then you can just like keep, I guess, your undergrad and then like kind of specialize more in grad school basically.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so in my case, um, so to become a dietitian, there's this specific set of courses that you need to take, and they could be part of an undergraduate program or part of a graduate program. And so, in my case, the school I went to for graduate school, um, they actually were not part of the grad program, they're part of the undergrad program. So, I actually did my master's degree in nutrition, and then I ended up taking like an extra like eight or so undergraduate courses at the same time. But because my bachelor's degree was in biology, like I had a lot of the prerequisites because a lot of the nutrition degree is still like biology, biochemistry, chemistry, calculus, like it's a lot of the same courses that I had already done in my undergraduate. So, yeah, in my case, it was great because I as an undergraduate with a biology degree, I was in undergrad, I was able to take all kinds of classes. Like I took psychology classes, I took genetics, I took microbiology, molecules, like all kinds of anthropology, all like a very wide variety, which allowed me to kind of get a better idea of what I might want to do in the future.
SPEAKER_02Cool, yeah. Um, do you think nutrition and psychology like have some things in common? Like, do they do you use a lot of psychology, like tactics or like things like that in your nutrition path? I guess.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a great question. I think that there's quite a bit of overlap in the two. Um, and actually, in my current role, I work hand in hand with all of the psychologists on our team. Um, and so the patients that I see are seeing both a dietitian and a psychologist, but there is actually a lot of overlap because like when we think about habits around food, there's a lot psychologically that impacts it. Like, it's not just me saying, Oh, you should eat broccoli. It's like, well, why are we not eating broccoli and what's going on? So I do think that there is quite a bit of psychology that goes into it. I would say I didn't get a lot of formal training in that. We had some training in my like grad school on diet counseling and motivational interviewing, which kind of goes into that realm, but not like um my coworkers who are psychologists.
SPEAKER_01Cool.
SPEAKER_02Um, was there like one experience that kind of changed your direction into nutrition, I guess?
SPEAKER_00Um, I guess I can't remember when it was. I did take a nutrition course in undergraduate school, and then talking to my mom's friend. I think it was more I always knew science was interesting. I knew I wanted to work with people, and then it was just figuring out what are the jobs out there, and like what does a diet, like I guess the first question, what does a dietitian do? And I think the thing that was cool to me was as a dietitian and in the millions of places I've worked, I can work in so many different settings and environments. Like it's it's not having a degree in nutrition or becoming a dietitian doesn't put me in a box of like I can only do this one thing. Like, there's many ways that I can utilize my degree.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, cool. Um, do you like during your career path? Like, did it go as planned, or like do you think there were like any unexpected like twists along the way?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, I guess so to become a dietitian after schooling, we have to do an internship, which is kind of similar to a doctor doing residency. It actually has a very similar match program where you apply to programs, they rank you. Anyways, it's a one-year program typically that's not paid, where you basically work 40 hours a week. Um, and probably 70% of my internship was in a hospital. Um, maybe 15% was in the community, and then the final percent was in like food service, which are kind of some of the general areas dietitians work in. So because so much of it was in the hospital, I think that that was kind of my assumption as to that's what I'm gonna do, and that was my first job after school. Eventually, I ended up at one point with like eight or ten part-time jobs. Um, and it was really helpful because it allowed me to learn what types of environments I like to work in. So at one point I was working. Do you want to hear all the places I was working?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00So at one point I was working um inpatient at a hospital. So meaning, like, if somebody had a heart attack, I would help them with like what are foods that are good for your heart health, or like how to manage your diabetes, or how to feed somebody who's on a ventilator. Um, so I was working in a hospital. I was working for the University of Phoenix as a faculty member. I taught both online and locally. I worked at a local fitness center, so I would see people one-on-one for nutrition counseling. So that could be anything. Somebody's like, help me make meal plans, or like, I want to lose weight, or I want to train for an endurance event, like so one-on-one counseling. I also worked in corporate wellness, so I was the dietitian at Yahoo and their fitness center as well. I would work at these like random corporate wellness events where I would go speak at like major, because we're in Silicon Valley, major places in the area. Um, and then I started to work at Kaiser, and it actually for nine years at Kaiser, I worked at a call center for high-risk pregnancies. So I worked at like a lot of places. I feel like I'm missing something, but lots of places, and part of what was helpful was me learning the things that I like or don't like in a work environment. In terms of like, who do I like to work with? Do I like to have a really flexible day? Do I want my day kind of set in stone? Like, what does that all look like? And so it was actually really helpful in me figuring out what area I like, which I don't want to say it's different than what I predicted, but I don't think I really knew what all of the options were until I experienced them all. So it was actually really a helpful experience for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, did you work at them all at the same time, or was it like yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's not uncommon for dietitians to be like on call or part-time, and so I would work like at one hospital like for like six hours on a Tuesday, and then I'd go to the fitness center for a few hours, and I would teach online, and then I would teach at night sometimes. So I was at one point working, and it would vary. Some weeks I'd work like 25 hours, and some weeks I'd work 60 hours, but it's not uncommon for some dietitians to have kind of these like multiple little places that they're working at.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay, um what was I gonna say? Um, oh yeah, so like doing all of these different jobs, like how did you I guess handle like your mental health and like how did you like I guess like balance everything because in the Just Breathe Pod podcast, like we're kind of talking about a bunch of different things like mental health and like psychology and everything. So, how did you how did you like balance everything?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so actually that's a great question. Um, so I think this is gonna sound like weird, I guess, but it was before I had kids or anything, and so I think I was kind of had more time for myself, and um after having kids and like not wanting some of those things kind of narrowed in on what was important. But one of the things I actually learned related to your question is that personally I do really well in a work environment where I cannot take my work home. So, my current job, I am an hourly employee. I clock out, I clock in, and so I am not legally allowed to be on the computer like one minute after I clock out. So, one of the things that was important, like you said, in like yeah, my mental health was learning me being at a fitness center, or I briefly worked in a nutrition sales role, like, and people are emailing me at 10 p.m. or calling me at all these weird times was really not helpful for my mental health. The idea of me coming into my current role, I walk in, I have a schedule of people to see, I clock out, and I don't take home my work personally is in very important for my mental health. So actually, yes, I have an answer to your question. That's why I'm in my current role. And that's where like me having all of those jobs was so helpful. You know, I learned that's what I learned for myself was I would much rather come in and just have a list of things to do, and at time I have to be out and I can't check my email, I'm on vacation, I'm not allowed to check it, I don't have access to it, right? Is much healthier for my mental health personally.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, also. Um, was there anyone like you looked up to or like who inspired you or encouraged you like along the way?
SPEAKER_00Hmm. That's a good question. I'm gonna say, unfortunately, I don't think so. Maybe just myself. I think I was just at the beginning so interested in like trying all these different things and roles that I kind of figured out what worked best, but I don't know that I had a specific mentor or somebody that was doing something different that I was like, oh my goodness, I want to do what they're doing. So unfortunately, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no worries. Like, that's like still good that like you had like the confidence, I guess, like keep going, like with what you wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, was there like ever a point where you like questioned whether this was like the right path for you?
SPEAKER_00Hmm. Um, I don't think so, in that I knew that there are so many like different places that I could work with my nutrition degree. I think it was more figuring, and even today, if I think looking ahead, like figuring out, yeah, what's the environment that works for like work-life balance that's not exhausting mentally for my my mental health? Like, what is it that feels best for me? And so I think um, yeah, I I don't think I was too concerned because I knew there was like many options, it was just figuring out where the best path is for me.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Um, okay, this is more of like I guess education and preparation. Like, what was like the training or like education that was like required for your degree?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um when I got my degree, we you needed a bachelor's degree or a master's degree from a specific program that had the approved courses to be a dietitian. My knowledge now, but please fact-check me, is that you need a master's degree in nutrition and have taken those approved courses. And then, and the courses previously, I don't know what they're still called. Granted, I like was in college like 20 years ago, so I'm not sure, things might be a little different, but they were called DPD courses, didactic prep something. And so there were some nutrition programs that were approved and some that weren't. And after that, I mentioned you needed a year internship program, which is like a um a match system, and then you can sit for the exam. And then every five years, we need to submit a certain number of continuing education units, um, which can be anything from in-person webinars to like reading books and taking a test or all types of things, um, to just kind of stay up to date as a dietitian.
SPEAKER_02Cool. Um, okay, so like I guess looking back, like what classes in high school were do you think like were actually like useful for I guess your job now?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um I guess probably primarily biology and chemistry. Um, a nutrition degree is this is gonna sound odd, maybe is basically a degree in biochemistry as applied to food. We are learning like what happens when you eat this food, and the food is a chemical and it breaks down into all the biological systems in your body, and so it's kind of a combination of like biochemistry with like a focus on how we apply that to real life eating food. So I would say it's very science-y, so bio and chem, and then we do use a bit of math, but not like nothing above like algebra. I mean, it's not like crazy calculus.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Um, were there like extracurriculars or like volunteer experiences that you did, like I guess in high school or even like in college that were important, you think?
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, so I did shadow my family friend who is a dietitian, which was really helpful just to see her environment, what she did, like what her day is like, because everyone has very different professional experiences. And then I don't, I apologize, I'm trying to remember, I don't think in college I did much because there wasn't many opportunities. But in grad school, part of my me completing my master's degree was I was a teaching assistant, so I helped teach undergraduate courses, and I also had to work in a research lab. Um, so those experiences were really helpful. Like research was really boring for me. So again, I had to do it, it was fine for a couple years, but it helped me understand like standing up in front of a class of 5200 students, whatever it is, like I'm comfortable, I enjoy that. Sitting in a lab all day, not my cup of tea.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, okay. Um, if someone like doesn't know exactly what they want to do yet, like what would you recommend in that situation?
SPEAKER_00I think and again, kind of fact-checking like all these things, but I think the idea of having like I had a more general nutrition or sorry, a more general science degree as an undergraduate degree, if a master's degree or graduate school is required, can be super helpful. I mean, as a biology major and undergraduate, my friends who are biology went from anything to medical school, vet school, dental, physical therapy, like there's so many like different things that you can do. And I think it just allows you more time to learn. But I think, yeah, shadowing or volunteering types of experiences can be really helpful to actually see what that job looks like day to day.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. Um, I think you might have mentioned mentioned this already, but is graduate school necessary for your field?
SPEAKER_00To my knowledge, it changed since I got my degree, and it is think necessary to hold a master's degree. So that was the fact-checking part. I'm not I'm almost positive that it changed and it's required, but when I was in school, it was not required.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah. Um, okay, do you think internships or networking um are more important than grades? Hmm.
SPEAKER_00That is a good question. Um, like you're saying in terms of like getting into a program or just for like work experience or life experience?
SPEAKER_02Um, I guess in general, like, do you think like I guess like having connections and all that is more important than like I guess having good grades in college or whatever, I guess?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess it's an interesting question because I think that my grades in college and my extracurricular like experience in grad school, so like the teaching assistant in the lab, and I had to write a master's thesis, like that allowed me to get into my first choice for my internship. And my internship was from like a program that looked good that made it easier to get a job. So I think that it's kind of a little bit of both, yeah. Yeah, like there's probably parts of the process where like you need your grades and or your experience to get where you want to be, but then if you're in that spot, then connections can be helpful.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, yeah, awesome, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, so I guess for your I guess day-to-day job, like could you walk us through like a typical day in life?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um I work 8 30 to 5 now. Yay! With an hour lunch break. Um, I have a patient, I have patients scheduled throughout the day for either 30-minute or 60-minute appointments, either over phone, video, or in-person appointments. And I would say about 80% of my day is seeing patients. The other 20% is set aside for um like emailing them or rescheduling appointments or like preparing for appointments, which might be reviewing their chart to see what's going on medically since I last saw them or writing notes afterwards. So most of my appointment is most of my day is meeting with people one-on-one. Um, and I see people in my current role regularly, so either every week or every other week. And so a lot of it is just checking in what's been going on in terms of food and eating since we chatted last time, and kind of getting an idea of what their concerns are. Are we working towards our goals? What are our goals? Kind of helping check in with um yeah, how they're doing in terms of their eating, and are we in the right track for what we're hoping to do? Awesome.
SPEAKER_02Um, what is like something that surprises people about your work?
SPEAKER_00I think people assume I'm gonna just sit down and tell them, here's what you need to eat. Like just give them a plan. Um, but I actually really want to work with people to understand what their concerns are, and this is where the psychological part comes in. Like, what are your concerns? Like, what doesn't feel good about eating and how can we fix that? Versus me just telling you, here's what breakfast should be. Like that sounds miserable, but I think many people assume that and they actually sometimes are frustrated that that's not that's not an answer, that's like a weird band-aid that's not gonna actually help or fix anything.
SPEAKER_02What are some skills that you use like every day, you think?
SPEAKER_00Um motivational interviewing, which is an idea around how we communicate with somebody to instead of me telling them what to do, but trying to get their internal motivation to make those changes, um, is a huge skill that I use every day. Um I think, yeah, in general, like communicating with people in a way that feels comfortable for both sides. Like, I don't want to just be talking off people, I want to be communicating with them back and forth. So I think that the communication aspect of my job is is huge. Um being a comfortable, friendly, open place, non-judgmental place for somebody to be, kind of similar to like a psychologist or therapist would be in that manner.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Awesome.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um, what is like the most rewarding part and like the hardest part about your job?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a great question. So um my work right now with eating disorder patients is I'm gonna say probably some of the hardest work that I've done in all of the many places I've worked. In that with an eating disorder, the patients are struggling and so scared of eating. I have to convince them that food is not scary, it's not the enemy, like we need to eat, and so it is hard. That's not easy. That's like I sometimes compare it to if somebody had a phobia and I was trying to help them not be afraid of spiders. Like maybe they want to overcome it, but the steps to overcome it by being around spiders is really miserable and scary. So I would say my job right now is probably one of the hardest jobs I've had, but seeing the success or the things or the improvement, and even sometimes it's me pointing out all of the improvements are very, very rewarding.
SPEAKER_02Um, what do you think are like some personality traits that would like help someone succeed just like I guess in life or like in your career, I guess?
SPEAKER_00That's a good question. Um I think I I mentioned before that like the work that I do is like counseling, right, in in some way, and that it's not just me spewing information at somebody. And so I think the ability to be a comfortable place for people to talk to, to share their problems, to not think they're gonna be judged, um, is really important. And on the flip side of that, when I am providing nutrition education or information to people, to provide it in a way that it's not that is I don't want to say not mean, but that it's it's gentle and encouraging and understanding. I think again, if I were to to make somebody feel ashamed or guilted for choices they've made, that's not helpful, that's not gonna build a relationship with them, versus me trying to make this like kind of meet people where they're at. I think is a huge part of the work that I've done in my current role and even previous roles. Um, and I've seen other dietitians in my profession who come in with a very different mentality. I know we started earlier talking about that idea that dietitians are like super, super healthy or something, and I've seen dietitians come in and tell somebody who you know maybe can only afford to feed their family fast food all the time, and they're telling them to go to Whole Foods and buy all these crazy foods. This is not realistic. Like, let's meet somebody with where they're at of like, oh, we're eating McDonald's. Okay, what should we order at McDonald's? It's gonna feel good, versus telling somebody who can't afford it to go eat, buy food at Whole Foods.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um what what do you think what kind of person would probably like not enjoy this career?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a great question too. I would say most, but not all, uh, dietitian positions work not all, probably 70 to 80 percent work with people in individual or group settings. If that is something that is exhausting and not enjoyable for you, like you hate people, you just want to sit in like a cave, there are nutrition positions that that actually are not with like seeing people. Um, there's like menu planning things, there's plenty of roles that are that aren't like that, but I would say the bulk of the positions are meeting people. And so if meeting people is not enjoyable for you, probably not. There are roles, just less of them, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um what advice would you give to students about taking care of themselves while pursuing ambitious goals?
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness, that's a really good question and an important one. Um, from somebody who worked way too hard their second year of college. Yeah, that is that is an important one. I think recognizing the importance of work-life balance, even when we are in college, when we are professionally, is so important. Personally, I experienced that where I hit a breaking point. I worked way too hard my second year of college, and it was not healthy. I wasn't sleeping enough, I was drinking too much caffeine to stay up late and study. I ended up with two A pluses that quarter. You don't need A pluses, and A is fine, and so I really bent over backwards in a way that wasn't healthy, and I think I learned from that experience to have balance, whether that is scheduling in times to go outside and go on a walk or meet with a friend or whatever it is that feels like a break. We don't need to overextend ourselves. It it's not yeah, it's not worth it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay, if you were graduating high school today, would you still choose this profession?
SPEAKER_00I think so. Um, I have overall enjoyed the various opportunities and places that I've worked with it. I think there's still many opportunities and a lot of flexibility in terms of work environments. So I think I would still choose it today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, awesome.
SPEAKER_02And what are like some opportunities that like excite you about the future?
SPEAKER_00I think that um that that's actually an interesting question. When I first became a dietitian, most dietitians' jobs were um in a hospital or in an outpatient setting were to help people after the fact. And so it would be like after you have a heart attack, go see a dietitian. And there wasn't a lot of focus on preventative health, which would be hey, like we know we have a family history, things are kind of creeping up, like let's start seeing somebody to get some help. And interestingly, not that I'm trying to overly promote Kaiser, but interestingly, Kaiser as an HMO was one of the first companies because they're both the insurance and the provider, that saw a benefit in utilizing dietitians to help people before they get very sick. And it's taken time, but at this point, most many PPO insurances, like many insurance providers, now allow you to meet with a dietitian where it used to be you could only see a dietitian after the fact. You had to wait until you have diabetes or you have kidney disease or whatever it was. Whereas now there's a lot more focus on preventative care because they realized, hey, if you see a dietitian before things get bad, we can save a lot of money because then you're not gonna have a heart attack and be in the hospital and need all this extra care that's really expensive. And so that's actually been a huge switch in the like 20 years that I've been a dietitian, is that it really went from us helping somebody after to a lot more focus on like what can we do before enduring so we don't get you know these bad outcomes, I guess. Awesome.
SPEAKER_02Um what is what do you think is like one mistake that students make when like choosing a career?
SPEAKER_01Oh that's a good question.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I guess not even necessarily choosing a career, but even choosing a major sometimes too. Um I think sometimes thinking about like the long-term implications in terms of yeah, for me, choosing nutrition meant there was still a number of different places I could work. It wasn't putting me into one hole. I think personally I wouldn't feel comfortable at 16 or 18 choosing like this is gonna be my job for the rest of my life, and there's like one place or one environment or one situation where I can utilize my degree or my career. So personally, the idea of having that flexibility is is really important. Um maybe some people are really confident in what they want to do, but I think until you are doing it and actually noticing what you like or don't like and the work-life balance and all those things, it's kind of hard to really feel confident.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, and then, like, what's something that you wish someone had told you at 16?
SPEAKER_00You don't have to have the decision totally made at 16. We can have a general idea of what area we might be interested in, and utilizing some of that time, even in the first year or two of college, to decide what it is we really want to do. I probably changed my undergrad major four times. It was all in the science realm because I knew that's what I was interested in. But I went in as biochem, changed to microbiomolecular, and ended up just as a general biology major. And if you had told me in high school I would be a biology major, I would have totally laughed because in high school, personally, biology was dissecting frogs and like animal biology, which is not my interest. So if I'm 16 when I was taking bio in high school, I had to think that that's what I would do in college. Like, no way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What are the differences like between like the four that you switched between?
SPEAKER_00Oh, good question. Um, so there was a lot of overlap in um kind of the first two years of classes for all of those majors, which was really helpful, and that I had that ability to change and I didn't need to like add more time in college or make things up. So um, biochemistry is really kind of understanding um pathways of what happens in your body with not just food, but um, when we're, for example, consuming food and what happens, it gets broken down into this, and then it goes into our liver and does that. Um, a lot of memorization of that. Molecular biology is understanding like what is happening on like a cellular level, and microbiology was a little bit more focused on thinking it might have also been related to my degree or to my schooling, was like immunology, so like immune function and like viruses and things like that. I ended up as a biology major because of my college. A biology major had the most flexibility, so I basically could choose my upper division classes from these very, very long lists of lectures. So I could take microbiology, molecular, I took some genetics classes, some all kinds like some plant classes, marine biology. I could just pick and choose things that sounded interesting. So at my college, biology was a much broader major, which actually for me worked better. The other ones, it was very specific. You had to take these exact classes. And I I don't know how that works at each school. I would imagine it's kind of different depending where you go.
SPEAKER_02Where did you go? UCLA. Oh, awesome. Yeah. What's one piece of advice you'd give someone interested in your field?
SPEAKER_00Um I guess I guess maybe spending a little time understanding kind of like we're doing today, like what a dietitian actually is or actually does. Um because I again I think there's like assumptions that we just like walk around being like ultra healthy people or walk around just like creating meal plans for people. Um, and there are a lot of different environments people work in, but I think really understanding what a dietitian actually does, and I think that's probably relevant for any profession, right? Like, you know, even small kids know, like, oh, that's a firefighter, a lawyer, a doctor, like, but what do they actually do? What does their day-to-day look like, right? And so I think that that's something that I would maybe recommend. It's just yeah, kind of exploring what the different jobs actually are or look like.
SPEAKER_02And then, like, how do you think like high school students can like start exploring this career now?
SPEAKER_00That is a good question. I try to think of places that potentially they could shadow or volunteer at, and I'm not a hundred percent sure. I apologize for like where exactly some of those places might be. Um it is possible that potentially shadowing or working as a virtual assistant actually is something I see posted quite often online. Um, dietitians who have private practices are managing their own like social media or appointments or things like that, and sometimes are looking for somebody to come in and like help with some of those things. So if you are a savvy teen with social media skills or something, or whatever those like administrative, just that opportunity to kind of be near somebody's practice and seeing what they're doing. Um, I'm gonna imagine that some areas of community nutrition, which includes potentially things like the school systems or um head start or maybe even boys and girls, like some of those things might have nutrition components in them as well as like hospitals, but again, in terms of where to volunteer, I wish I had better answers for you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no worries. Probably just like I guess maybe like hospitals, I guess, or like or I guess you said um like private practices, probably then, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Private practice is probably an easy one, and then some of them, there's also um there's I don't remember the degree requirements, but and again it wouldn't be in high school, it'd be older, but there's like a diet tech position which is similar to a dietitian in a hospital, but like significantly less schooling and responsibility, so they kind of get to work close to the dietitian, but not. But again, I think that might be still some sort of degree associated with it.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, that's all the questions I have. Thank you so much. Of course. Thanks for listening to the Just Breathe Podcast. I hope today's conversation gave you something to think about and maybe even inspired your next step. Until next time, remember sometimes the best thing you can do is just breathe.
