PADA Partners with Guidance Counselor, Teachers, Hospital to Promote Careers
By Lisa Jones, MA, RD, LDN / PADA Media Representative
Janet Little, MPH, RD, LDN / PADA President, Lauren Huminski, MS / Nutrition Educator, EAT.RIGHT.NOW, Nina Deats, RD, LDN, CDE / PDA Immediate Past President
The Philadelphia Dietetic Association took career promotion efforts to the grassroots level at Edison High School in the Philadelphia School District. Jan Little had visited the motivational counselor, Ruth Garcia, after meeting her at the PSCA conference. The counselors that teach the health career classes, Ms. Hyman and Ms. Skari, were eager to bring information about nutrition and dietetics careers to their students. On May 11, we Lisa Jones, Lauren Huminski and Jan Little were joined by Nina Deats and a dietetic intern from Immaculata University. They presented careers in dietetics to one 10th grade and one 11th grade health careers class. A total of 75 students received information about our career, programs in dietetics in our state and New Jersey. Although Edison High School is the largest multiracial school in Philadelphia with roughly 75% Latino, all students could speak English. And, Ruth, who is bilingual, stayed with us for both classes.
Lauren Huminski, who will return to the school as nutrition educator with the EAT.RIGHT.NOW program, began at 8 am by distributing healthy snacks of natural juice and packaged granola bars. (The EAT.RIGHT.NOW program is a partnership between Drexel Univesity and the school district.) Many students admitted they regularly skipped breakfast. Then, Lauren showed a great “icebreaker”, a slide showing drawings of fruits and vegetables for the students to identify. The students that could name each food were excited. Each of the dietetic professionals told about their careers and education pathway. Each student received a folder containing brochures from dietetics programs, materials from ADA and our new PADA brochures. Most of the students intended to attend schools in the Philadelphia area.
In the afternoon, Lauren and Jan gave the same presentation to the 11th graders. Quite a few of these students had taken the SAT exam earlier in the month. Two athletes, a track star and boxer who won the Junior Olympics asked Lauren, an athlete herself, many questions about how nutrition improves athletic performance. A big thank you to all for taking time out of your busy schedules to share this information with these students.
PADA members may download many of the materials used, including our schedule from the Career Information page on our website.
A Letter of Appreciation
Hi Jan,
Thank you so very much for the great presentation. It was very nice of you and your colleagues to take time out of their busy day to speak with my students. My class enjoyed the presentation. You gave them "food for thought". I hope some will now eat breakfast before coming to school.
Please extend my thanks to your colleagues.
Sincerely,
Kathy Skari
A Hospital/High School Partnership
Another career promotion success was provided by Jenni Beary, MA, RD, CSP, LDN, the clinical nutrition manager at St. Christopher’s Children’s Hospital, located right around the corner from this high school. Jenni invited Edison students interested in dietetics to “shadow” her dietitians during the upcoming school year. The health technology teachers at Edison are thrilled and plan to contact the hospital’s volunteer office. Jenni’s staff has long given nutrition education sessions at McClure Middle School, located near the high school. What a great partnership to encourage middle and high school students to learn about our field.
More about Thomas Alva Edison High School* / John C. Fareira Skills Center
The School District of the City of Philadelphia, with 300 schools, is the largest of the 501 public school districts in the state and has a diverse student body speaking 65 languages. . Thomas Alva Edison High School* / John C. Fareira Skills Center is a multicultural school [with roughly 75% Latino, 20% Black, 5% Asian and 1% White] and is the largest multiracial school in Philadelphia. Jan did notice that English and Spanish seem to be the main languages spoken. What better place to begin an approach to increase the diversity of our profession?
It is also the only high school in the district that combines college prep and vo-tech programs. Sudents progress through a system of transitional learning developed by Johns Hopkins University. Most parents of the students at Edison have not attended college. In response, Ruth Garcia, the motivational counselor, developed the Parent Resource Center, enabling parents to actively participate in their children’s education. Access to this resource is shown on the homepage of its website. A section shows two ways to plan for college: Education Planner and Pennsylvania Mentor section as well as links to student and teacher websites.
You can view the website at http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/edison/index.html
Honoring Edison HS Students That Served in Vietnam
“Edison has a sad point of uniqueness,” according to its website. A males-only school until September 1979, drawing students from all over Philadelphia, it had the most former students killed in the Vietnam War of any high school in the nation. Every year it has a memorial service for the Edison students who died for our country. Its website lists names of the 67 Edison students identified as lost in the Vietnam War. In the foyer is a memorial listing their names. In the center of the listing is a mirror; this could be you. It was an honor to present our career, one that promotes health, to those current students interested in careers in the field.
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