Fueling Futures: How DDIP Helped Arielle & Asha Launch Their RD Careers
We recently caught up with Arielle Buckley and Asha McElroy, two newly minted registered dietitians from the very first class of our Diversify Dietetics Internship Program! They’re off to an amazing start in their careers, and their journeys are proof of the difference your support makes.
Q: We’re so grateful to have you as part of the DD community, can you share what Diversify Dietetics Programs you participated in/ how you’ve engaged with DD?
Asha: Before DDIP, I found the Feed Me the Facts podcast, which was helpful because it was directed towards RD2BEs and dietitians, exploring different career paths. Once finished you finish your didactics coursework, at times, you feel like you’re on your own. Also, I participated in the Dietetic Internship Application Support program before submitting my application for DDIP. Finally, the Mentor program was pivotal, for me because I met Samaria Granberry. She was amazing because she connected me to Eat Well Exchange, which connected me to recipe development and learning my loves as RD2BE and now as a dietitian, working on authoring a collaborative cookbook. So DD has been foundational to my journey in becoming a dietitian, and what I look forward to doing as a dietitian as well.
Arielle: So like Asha said, we did our master's program at the University of Michigan, and we focused heavily on public health, and I wasn't too familiar with Diversify Dietetics (DD). Initially, I was familiar with NOBIDAN, and I was able to connect with their mentorship program, I was matched with Nijya Noble as my mentor. She helped me when it came to applying for different programs and learning how to start a private practice, and I didn't realize she was already, like, connected with DD too. That's a little bit of how I got connected into that space and learned more about how NOBIDAN and DD help individuals of color seeking a career in dietetics.
Q: Why did (or why do) you want to become a nutrition professional (registered dietitian, registered dietetic technician, etc)?
Arielle: I went to Michigan State University and got a bachelor's in neuroscience. I was really interested in understanding the brain and learning more about stroke research because my mom had a stroke when I was younger. As I was learning more about neuroscience, I thought I wanted to become a doctor and maybe do neurosurgery or things along that line, and then I realized pretty quickly that I don't like the hospital environment. I don't like blood, so I transitioned into research. I later realized that a lot of the research was focused on creating different medicines and different drugs to kind of help improve brain functioning after someone has a stroke, or even prevent before if someone has, like, hypertension, etc. Like prescribing someone a drug, would it be the only answer? So I wanted to do my own personal research to learn more about like, what are some preventative mechanisms to help out with strokes; and I started to read, I learned a lot about the gut-brain connection and how diet ties into our brain functioning, how diet ties into preventing certain diseases, especially chronic diseases. And I was able to kind of pivot in my career and switch from studying neuroscience and doing more research-focused work to public health nutrition specifically. I decided to be a registered dietitian because I felt like it opened a lot more doors than just learning about nutrition in general. I would be able to help individuals specifically, if they had a chronic disease, but also help someone on a more, larger-scale level through nutrition education and writing, and that's something that I really hope to focus on as I continue my job in public health. I'm just doing more nutrition education presentations and sessions, but also writing as well, because those are some of the forms of public health communication that can reach a lot of individuals.
Asha: I would say I've always had a love for food and a love for wanting to help people as well. And I know a lot of people say, “That sounds generic,” but that's ultimately, what I wanted to do. And when I was in,, my senior year of high school, I took a career test, and the top of the list was cardiologists and some other careers. And I thought I wanted to go into the medical field to help people. But my mom sat down with me, and she said, “you need to pursue something that is going to make you wake up every single day and you feel like you're not working”. I knew I loved food, and wanted to look into more careers that aligned with that love. So I found dietetics and knew I wanted to go to an HBCU down south. I found North Carolina A&T and that’s where my journey started. I wanted to use my experience growing up in Detroit, seeing the difference in living in Southfield and going to church in Detroit, to living the difference in grocery store access, and seeing more availability of fast food versus fresh food when comparing the city to the suburbs. As a dietitian, I wanted to study at North Carolina A&T and the University of Michigan to understand how we can use foods of the African diaspora to treat ourselves in the prevention of chronic disease and that's how I developed my love for nutrition and dietetics.
Q: Is there a person or group or activity/event you’ve been able to get connected to thanks to DD - what has that looked like and how has it impacted your personal or professional growth?
Arielle: I just want to emphasize how Diversify Dietetics connected me to a lot of diverse individuals within the nutrition field. For context, for me and Asha, at the [University of Michigan’s] School of Public Health Nutrition Program, about 97% of our professors were white individuals. And then when we went to the internship, I would say over 50% of my preceptors were persons of color, and I think that played a huge role for me to just see myself in people who were in positions that I wanted to ultimately be in. One person that I do want to highlight is me and Asha’s preceptor Kelli Cortez. She helped us during our clinical rotation, where she is an outpatient dietitian within Detroit Community Health Connection, I got to see up close the black dietitian who was doing some of the work that I eventually wanted to do, and that was done through our connection with Diversify Dietetics. I don't know if I would have ever met Kelli without being connected through DD. In addition to that, after we graduated from our program and received our RD credentials, Kelli reached out to us for a speaking presentation for a community baby shower in the Detroit community. So it was like a full circle moment of how she was our preceptor, she connected us to registered dietitian speaking opportunities afterward, and it was one of my first paid speaking opportunities. It was really special!. And I owe a lot of thanks to DD for initiating that connection. And I'm grateful to Kelli and Asha for presenting with me.
Asha: I remember going to FNCE for the first time last year. It was pivotal, especially, as an intern. I recommend that RD2BE attend the DDFNCE meetup, because, if I didn't attend my FNCE experience would have been very different. It felt like I was attending with DD, with that community, and I really appreciated that, because going to a conference can be overwhelming, but attending it with people that look like you and that you maybe even know or have met online, and you're now meeting them in person, that's an amazing experience to have. And again, I'm going back to my encounter with Eat Well, because it just made such an impact on my personal and professional growth. The power of networking was so key. That connection came from my mentor, which developed into an overall, career goal that I'm aspiring to now. I was talking to Jasmine and Ashley at the 2023 FNCE meetup in Denver, and thanking them for writing a recommendation that they wrote for my academy scholarship that I ended up winning. And I know, though those applications are super long, it's hard to get through, like it was just an honor to even be awarded. And the ideas that flowed from that conversation flowed into me submitting a proposal for the DD summit and presenting there. I just feel like that power of the network and that power of staying connected is really key, and that FNCE Meetup is really a great space to just get connected, get re-energized, and celebrate the work that has been done and the work to be done.
Q: Do you have any advice to share for others who may be struggling on this journey?
Arielle: One thing I would share with someone who's struggling on their journey is to reach out to your mentors, reach out to professors, reach out to individuals who've done the same thing before, and they'll probably give you more contacts and just show that they were probably struggling once on their journey as well because no one gets to where they need to be without a couple of hurdles.. And I think that's ultimately what helped me through some of my lower moments. And just like being around individuals who will kind of speak life into you and encourage you and motivate you. And finding those individuals early on in your career is extremely important. I know it's very hard to look on LinkedIn and pinpoint like, who is a good person to be in my circle, but you'll find those people with just like reaching out, connecting, talking to them, and the ones who continue to like, follow up over time, like, just keep them in your circle and as close as possible, because they'll be here to help you on your journey.
Asha: I think that we created our own community amongst each other. Just checking in during our program, during the internship, we pushed each other to be better. So, lean on the people around you and those who have been in your corner in the past, and update them on what you're doing. They want you to reach back out because that's relationship-building and networking. I would say, lean into the DD community as well. I utilized the discussion board several times on the Circle platform. Take it day by day as much as you can. This field can feel overwhelming, most of the time, but day by day, task by task, like workout by workout, whatever you are into, just take your time. There’s time to accomplish all of your goals. And I think what really helped to center myself in studying was understanding my why. For example,e when studying for my exam, understand why this answer is correct. What is the mechanism behind that? Like, if you don't understand the why, then you can't explain why you're selecting that answer, why you're doing this volunteer program, or why you're interacting with this community. So understanding your “why” is really key to moving forward in your journey and understanding that you can't eat an elephant all in one bite. Take things day by day!
Q: What would the field of nutrition & dietetics look like if we were to reshape it?
Arielle: if I were to do that, I would just ensure that there's a seat for everyone at the table. And it brings me back to like my experience at work, services for individuals with aging, aim to make sure everyone who's making those decisions is an older adult, or maybe at least one person who's an African American, or at least one person from the Latino community, etc. I think that should be the same thing for a lot of organizations, a lot of teams that are working to improve public health, nutrition, or help others eat healthier. Being sure that you get advice and counsel from a variety of people, a variety of cultures, individuals from all abilities, in all ages because it's important and it will help improve health outcomes. Also, to make sure that some of the educational materials that are created are inclusive of everyone. And right now we're kind of siloed, like we have organizations specifically for or just organizations that don't include everyone and there should be room for different opinions, for sure, all across the board.
Asha: The field of nutrition and dietetics would look like a celebration of culture and not a removal of cultural foods. When looking at one's plate or seasonings, and thinking about, all of those components that encapsulate one's culture and how they practice it and what they believe in. It would look like more resources for dietitians of color, because, as we know, less than 3% of dietitians are black. So if we were to reshape it, these current realities would not be so.