Undergraduate Research Prepares Rising Professionals for Applied Experiences
As part of their development in becoming rising professionals contributing to society’s health and well-being, spring graduates of the nutrition program in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s School of Education, Health and Human Behavior (SEHHB) Department of Applied Health finished their undergraduate journey by successfully completing research investigating novel topics on dietetics and nutrition. The nine students, comprising two groups, presented their findings at an independently organized symposium.
“These were model students in their ability and desire to support and learn with one another,” said Cindi Inman, nutrition instructor and undergraduate program director. “The project they were assigned was to create a symposium-type presentation on a nutrition topic of their choice. Both groups did an excellent job of finding the evidence-based research and disseminating the information to an audience of all levels of nutrition knowledge. They exceeded expectations for an undergraduate level symposium.”
One group discussed Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), a topic not heavily-researched. Their work centered on the myths and theories surrounding diet and its role in the development and the treatment of SIBO.
“This project supported our learning by allowing us to understand what it’s like to work with newer conditions,” shared Abbey Roberts, of Belleville. “In preparing for our symposium presentation we had to put in the effort to fully understand the condition with the small amount of information available. We realize that’s how it could be in the future as registered dietitians, where we’ll need to consider the information at hand and put our critical thinking skills to use.”
Roberts will attend SIUE in the fall for graduate school in the coordinated master's program for nutrition and dietetics.
“Medical nutrition therapy was the class that locked in a career as a registered dietitian for me because I enjoyed learning about applications to real scenarios,” shared Roberts. “SIUE’s nutrition program fueled my passion for learning and provided me with an amazing environment to do so. The nutrition professors truly want their students to succeed, and they’ll go the extra mile to help.”
The second research group considered nutrition’s role in autoimmune disease. Their project, “Nutrition and Autoimmune Disease: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Celiac Disease (CD),” investigated public interest in diet and its role in inflammation.
According to Sarah McConnell, of Edwardsville, the group initially planned to look at the effect of nutrition on autoimmune disease as a whole but narrowed it down to celiac disease because it has a direct relationship with diet. However, upon researching, they noticed a possible link to RA which they found interesting and decided to research both diseases and their nutritional interventions.
McConnell attributed the success of the project to their ability “to read, analyze and understand a scientific journal article.”
“Our professors stressed the importance of being able to think critically about any new information we receive since the field of nutrition and dietetics is constantly changing,” McConnell explained. “This project enabled us to utilize the knowledge and skills we learned throughout the nutrition undergraduate program.”
Like Roberts, McConnell will pursue SIUE’s nutrition and dietetics coordinated master’s program in fall 2022.
Learn more about SIUE’s undergraduate and graduate nutrition programs at siue.edu/education/applied-health.
Photo: (L-R) Dr. Jen Zuercher, Kevin Jackson, Taylor Swank, Dr. Sepideh Kaviani (on the screen), Sarah McConnell, Johanna Hartig, Britney Herron, Cindi Inman, Abbey Roberts, Alyssa Real, Madison Rodotz, Dr. Kathy Mora and Andrew Youck.
