History
The Estudiante de Dietética, also known as the ED program was developed with the purpose of training undergraduate dietetic students to better serve the Hispanic/Latino community. The Department of Nutrition and Food Science received a three-year grant from the United States Department (USDA) that expanded the dietetic curriculum and develop Spanish-language skills and focus on Latino culture as well as food and health issues.
The program objectives were:
- Create and evaluate a novel curricular approach to training dietetic students, which produces dietetic students who are better able to serve the Hispanic community
- To produce dietetic students who are more culturally competent an comfortable working with the Hispanic community.
- To develop three dietetic training modules focused on major nutrition issues affecting the Hispanic population and integrate and evaluate them within the curriculum.
- To increase recruitment and retention of Hispanic students into the dietetic major.
Up to date, the program has graduated five cohorts composed of a diverse group of individuals.