My Life Story *The Short Version*

Hello world! This is Cassandra speaking (or I guess technically writing) on my first EVER blog. So please bear with me as I work and stumble my way through my first post. I'll try to sum up my life story to date into a few sentences so you know a bit about me. I was born and raised on a farm outside of a small town in Alberta.  At 18 years of age, with high school behind me, I loaded up my car and came up to Edmonton to attend the University of Alberta in the Nutrition and Food Science Program. I am currently in my second year of university and am aspiring to become a registered dietitian. Once I become a resisted dietitian I plan to return to rural Alberta to pursue my career. I also play hockey on a Junior Female hockey team and I really believe that good nutrition and physical activity are vital to living a long and healthy life. Figure 1 is a photo of me playing some shinny on a slough over the Christmas break.

Figure 1.  Skating on the slough.
From C.Holte (personal collection. Janurary 16, 2012)

As a student communication is key to being successful in my academic career. Knowing how to use the university email and manoeuvre different class websites is vital for staying informed in classes. Most of my professors are very busy people so email and other social media sites are a much more convenient way to ask questions and get hold of them. There are also professors who have very few scheduled office hours. However, with the advancement of social media, this is not a big hurdle to overcome and getting in touch with a professor, academic adviser, or lab TA is an easy task. Now that I have signed up for Twitter I am learning how helpful it can be to be in contact with other students. Social media makes it easy to further discuss topics brought up in class. A good point that elycheng brings up on her blog is how important social media and networking can be for finding volunteer opportunities to that are related to your program of interest.

Communication plays a big role in the work of a dietitian. Many dietitians work with individuals, families and communities to help them apply good nutrition principles. They are also responsible for developing nutrition education programs. You can find more information about the different roles registered dietitians in Alberta here. Dietitians need to have good communication skills to get across facts and information effectively and efficiently. Dietitians also need to have resources available for clients. That could mean anything from paper handouts to reliable websites they can go to for dietary information. Some nutritionists work with different media to promote good nutrition and healthy eating. This could include television commercials, you tube videos, magazine and newspaper articles, and using social media sites like facebook and twitter to spread information. The world is increasingly using social media sites and other online tools to spread information; dietitians can take advantage of these tools to spread information quickly and increase the knowledge of many people at the same time.