JP Slovack Portfolio Self-Reflection

My writing skills are one of my areas of greatest strength. As can be seen by my Intro to Food Science lab report and my Advanced Food Science research paper I am very adept at professional writing. The writing samples I provided demonstrate a good use of nutrition, medical and science vocabulary, as well as demonstrating my ability to write thoroughly, yet concisely and reference material properly. My Advanced Food Science Research paper does an excellent job at demonstrating my ability to interpret scientific research, organize a paper and culminate a large set of data into a cohesive and easy to follow narrative. Another of my strengths involves presenting material in a very easy to understand style. Examples from my portfolio include my adult education material on Potassium and my Advanced Food Science research topic powerpoint. Both demonstrate my ability to summarize key points and disseminate that information in a complete fashion to target audiences. While in the nutrition program at Sage, I worked as a Graduate Assistant in the Residence Life office on the Sage College of Albany campus. My role in this position helped me expand my leadership skills by allowing me to oversee a staff of paraprofessionals (Resident Assistants) and improve my communication skills, presentation skills, and time management skills by running weekly staff meetings, campus programs and bi-weekly meetings with the administrative staff. I was also able to display and improve upon my decision-making skills while working on a rotating on-duty schedule. During this duty rotation, each member were responsible for responding to any disturbances on staff including policy violations, health and wellness, mental health, violence, etc. During these rotations I was the point person to help each student as well as report the situations to administrators and proper college personnel as well as document and submit an electronic report of each case for the colleges records.

JP Slovack Portfolio Self-Reflection There are multiple areas of nutrition that I enjoy. My two favorite areas are medical nutrition therapy and food science. I really enjoy how these two particular areas overlap. For example, the lab report in my portfolio from food science discusses the role of flour, eggs and sugar on the taste and appearance of cake. If you are counseling and/or educating a person who has celiac disease, is allergic to eggs or is trying to reduce their sugar intake, it helps to understand the role these ingredients play in particular foods to better educate the patient on alternatives. The medical nutrition therapy side of nutrition really intrigues me. The Parkinsons Disease case study and pediatric obesity case study in my portfolio, as well as the nutrition care assessment plan demonstrate my ability to critically think through medical diagnosis, and make recommendations based upon both the evidence based research and the patients own preferences. While I have not committed myself to pursuing the registered dietician track, I definitely hope to be able to work in a hospital setting in some capacity in the future. My short-term goals (1-3 years) entail finishing up my schooling. I would like to obtain at least my Masters degree, although I am interested in pursuing a PhD in hopes of being able to do research and teach future nutrition students. I want to gain some more nutrition-based experience though before I commit myself to any additional program or internship. Over the next year I hope to do additional shadowing and volunteering to gain a better perspective on what population I would want to work with and whether I see myself working in a hospital or a private practice setting performing nutritional counseling and education. Long term (3-5 years) I hope to have my education complete, although continuous education is key in any medical profession, while hopefully entering the clinical field and gaining necessary experience.

JP Slovack Portfolio Self-Reflection One area I see room for improvement is further understanding the food service side of nutrition. With dietitians being more and more involved in the food service and food management process, I would like to become more familiar with the skills necessary to supervise a food service department and better skilled at performing assessments, HACCP evaluations, competitor analysis, purchasing/receiving and employee scheduling. The business plan developed for Quantity Food Production is an assignment I am quite proud of, but it was also one of the most difficult assignments I have completed and one where I see room to grow and improve upon. In terms of medical nutrition therapy and clinical improvement, I would like to improve upon goal setting. Right now my knowledge is very textbook oriented, and obviously each patient will not be able to reach official goals. This can be seen in my case study submissions and nutrition care assessment assignment; the goals I chose for the patients were straight from MNT guidelines. Becoming more comfortable with goals that patients can better follow-through with will be a large part of my education in the future.