It was a dreamy winter day in Central Indiana. The air was brisk, the sky was black, and it was pouring. As I walked through Hamilton Southeastern Junior High School’s parking lot with my umbrella flipped upside down from the wind, I reminded myself that today was going to be a great day. After all, about 10 minutes prior to carrying my tired umbrella, I had managed to avoid turning the adorable possum who had decided to jump in front of my car-into road kill. Surely this was a sign of good things to come.
At this point it was 6:45am and I was on the verge of providing seven nutrition-related presentations to hundreds of middle school students for the day-with the help of two dynamic dietitians from Riverview Health Hospital in Noblesville, Indiana. For the past several days these dietitians had been serving as mentors while I worked towards completing my basic clinical hours at the hospital. This would be our first time to actually provide a presentation together.
Once the first class of thirty-plus students settled into the classroom where the dietitians and I would be working, we began our presentation, Empowering Your Health. The majority of the students seemed to listen fairly intently as we talked about different nutrition-related strategies for promoting wellness for years to come. But the students really came alive when we began asking them to share with us any interesting fruits that they had tried, what they had previously had for breakfast that day, and what snacks they enjoyed consuming before and after a workout. It was clear that the kids loved being engaged in the conversation. The dietitians and I also welcomed the fact that some of the students asked several nutrition-related questions throughout the day. With this in mind, a day full of presentations became a terrific tool for actively engaging a young audience and for becoming more comfortable at answering questions in front of large groups of people. Perhaps one of the nicest moments at the end of the day was when some of the middle school students thanked us for our presentation. I was right. It was a great day.
At this point it was 6:45am and I was on the verge of providing seven nutrition-related presentations to hundreds of middle school students for the day-with the help of two dynamic dietitians from Riverview Health Hospital in Noblesville, Indiana. For the past several days these dietitians had been serving as mentors while I worked towards completing my basic clinical hours at the hospital. This would be our first time to actually provide a presentation together.
Once the first class of thirty-plus students settled into the classroom where the dietitians and I would be working, we began our presentation, Empowering Your Health. The majority of the students seemed to listen fairly intently as we talked about different nutrition-related strategies for promoting wellness for years to come. But the students really came alive when we began asking them to share with us any interesting fruits that they had tried, what they had previously had for breakfast that day, and what snacks they enjoyed consuming before and after a workout. It was clear that the kids loved being engaged in the conversation. The dietitians and I also welcomed the fact that some of the students asked several nutrition-related questions throughout the day. With this in mind, a day full of presentations became a terrific tool for actively engaging a young audience and for becoming more comfortable at answering questions in front of large groups of people. Perhaps one of the nicest moments at the end of the day was when some of the middle school students thanked us for our presentation. I was right. It was a great day.
