NDA Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, April 4
NDA Announcements:
I. Picnic Day – Saturday, April 15
1. Picnic Day Committee is being set up to make food for our table.
- contact Sharon Martin if you’re interested skmartin@ucdavis.edu
2. Opportunity to work for Marriott on Picnic Day to earn $$$ for the
DA! - contact Denise Wietrick ASAP at 752-0134
II. NDA Officer Elections are coming up
- develop your leadership and teamwork skills, build your resume!
- Questions? Talk to the officer with the position you’re interested in.
- Positions of President, Vice President, Publicity Coordinator, Treasurer,
and Secretary are all opening up
III. Lots of Volunteer Opportunities are available through the NDA
- contact Mari Mendoza at mdmendoza@ucdavis.edu
- NDA volunteers served meals and visited with Davis Senior Center
residents on Wednesday night for an international theme dinner
IV. Next NDA Meeting
- Monday, May 15, 6pm
- Dr. Liz Applegate will talk about sports nutrition
Guest Speakers:
Teri Hall Ellison, RD, MPH
Director, Sacramento Country WIC Program
Jennifer Gallagher, RD
Clinical Nutrition Manager
UC Davis Health Systems
Topic: What their careers are like, plus tips for you in applying for a
job/internship with WIC or UCD Med Center (or any nutrition-related job).
WIC Director – Teri:
- WIC is the largest public health nutrition program in the U.S.
- WIC provides food vouchers, individual and group nutrition counseling and
referrals to other services to low-income pregnant women, infants and young
children
- WIC employs paraprofessionals (non-RDs) who often are multilingual, as
well as dietitians
- Dietitians at WIC counsel mostly high-risk clients ex. pregnant women
not gaining enough weight
- There are jobs for RDs at both County and State Level WIC
- State Level WIC: don’t provide direct service, does policy, assists
county offices
- County Level WIC: interact directly with participants, counseling,
voucher dispensing
- County Level WIC can be run by the county health departments or non-profit
organizations
- Experience they are looking for on your resume: nutrition-related,
customer service, leadership skills, ability to handle stress
- For interview, look neat and fairly professional, but what you wear is
nowhere near as important as your qualifications
- Type of interview questions to expect:
1. How would you react to an angry client?
2. How do you react to stressful situations?
- Thank you notes after interview are a nice touch, but won’t sway the
decision
UCDMC Clinical Nutrition Manager – Jennifer:
Two types of clinical nutrition positions:
1. Inpatient: if you like problem-solving and seeing it resolved in a few
days, and interaction with client is not important to you
2. Outpatient: if you like the interaction with the client, and motivating
people for behavior changes
- Find out about the job before applying, and ask yourself if your skills,
abilities and goals fit that job
- Know a little about the organization you are applying to – calling the
place is fine
- Resume should be neat, should show what’s unique about you or what you’ve
done
- Big chunks of time not accounted for in your resume are suspicious
- Letter of intent which can highlight something special about you should
accompany resume
- What did you do that exceeds expectations?
- Leadership qualities are important – holding office in clubs is a good
idea
- UCDMC RDs write articles for Sacramento Bee
Interview Questions:
1. ask you to demonstrate how well you work with other people – need ability
to work with difficult people
2. half of the interview questions are situational
ex. “How do you deal with an employee not performing up to par?”
3. it’s good to talk about the things you learned
4. thank you notes after interviews are a good way to show interest
- NETWORK! The dietetics field is small, people know each other nationally,
so don’t burn any bridges.
- Be persistant but not pushy toward your potential employer: show your
interest
- At UCDMC, look for applicants who can accomplish things where no precedent
is set
- Internship opportunities at UCDMC open to UC Davis Nutrition/Dietetics
students: 2 clinical and 1 foodservice – available through the Internship
and Career Center
- UCDMC will probably have a Dietetic Internship in two years or so
What opportunities are available for graduates in nutrition without RDs?
- paraprofessionals at WIC do not have RDs, however, to get hired, it’s
important to be at least bilingual
- long-term care facilities hire diet techs
- companies will hire nutritionists without RDs ex. Purina
- working right after you graduate can help you figure out what you really
want to do
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