IN 2004, Stacey Zawacki, a registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist, worked part-time at Sargent to create and facilitate a six-week lunch-and-learn nutrition series for BU employees. Since then, she has grown the series into what it is today: the Sargent Choice Nutrition Center (SCNC), which offers counseling, education programs, and workshops to the BU community and the public. Now the center’s full-time director and a clinical assistant professor of nutrition, Zawacki (’98, SPH’12) also is the new director of the college’s nutrition program—which includes a Bachelor of Science in nutrition and master’s programs in nutrition offered with and without internships.
Zawacki says the nutrition training programs are designed to accommodate any student’s chosen career through hands-on experience and collaboration so that “they are ready to go out there and deal with the challenges that people face.”
Inside Sargent spoke with Zawacki about how she grew the SCNC and how it remains integral to a nutrition student’s education at Sargent.
Inside Sargent: How did the SCNC expand to what it is today?
Stacey Zawacki: Once word got out, we thought that if we offered these services to the larger community, then we could have a larger team doing more things, which would create additional learning opportunities for our students. I had a role meeting people in Student Health Services, the Department of Athletics, and Dining Services, and we [ultimately] developed what we called at the time the Sargent Choice Healthy Food and Education Program.
It sounds like this work really lends itself to collaboration. Why is that?
Nutrition and food are a universal language, but it’s often an area that people find challenging. If an occupational therapist is doing an adaptive-equipment cooking class, why not collaborate with a nutrition professional and work that element in? I have been involved in so many interprofessional teams—it really makes what we can do so much more effective.
How does the SCNC create experiential opportunities for nutrition students?
When we do something in the classroom, we want to make sure that students have a chance to see it in action and participate. Having SCNC dietitians come into the classroom and mentor them is really valuable, but students may decide to do a practicum with us, or an outpatient rotation, or volunteer in our Terrier Fueling Station. Students can assist with our Healthy Cooking on a Budget classes at FitRec, or answer questions at our Sargent Choice Test Kitchens. Sargent also has a simulation lab for clinical training, where students can get hands-on experience and feedback. Students also can go through HIPAA training and have an opportunity to observe sessions with SCNC dietitians.
It really takes a village, doesn’t it?
That’s right. I just happen to be the face of some of that work, but the ideas and the innovation really come from our whole team and the teams they work with. That’s really core to what we do at Sargent.