Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:UTTC has a reputation for offering quality nutrition education to Native American students and other minority groups, providing an AAS degree for potential employment at Indian owned Casinos, WIC, Headstart kitchens, IHS Dietary Depts. and Food Distribution Programs, as well as off campus employment. Nutrition and Foodservice (NUT) classes (campus and online) continued to be offered from fall 2010 to fall 2014 at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck with funding from this grant. UTTC is a campus serving 400 college students who bring their families with them. The families are predominantly enrolled Tribal members. The number of people on campus requires the institution to provide and improve cafeteria and foodservice facilities. These facilities may also serve as a training ground for the Nutrition and Foodservice students as well as provide potential employment opportunities. The strategic plan of the college is to continue to increase student numbers. Continuing to offer on-line nutrition classes will strengthen the institution's enrollment as UTTC has limited classroom and housing space which the on-line student does not require. Currently in the state there are only a handful of Native American dieticians, in the future UTTC may be able to offer this degree to increase this number to better provide nutrition education to the Native American population. The Nutrition and Foodservice vocation offers classes under two different majors: Nutrition and Wellness and Foodservice/Culinary Arts. The number of students enrolled for this grant cycle 2010-2014 extended through fall 2015 school year was 83 on campus and 24 online students (this includes students that might have registered, but withdrew early in the semester). Out of these students, one student graduated with a foodservice certificate, 13 students with a Nutrition and Wellness AAS degree and 8 students with a Foodservice/Culinary Arts AAS degree. Campus students are directly involved in the Equity grant objectives and activities, as well as the UTTC Land Grant Director and staff as they work closely with the vocation. Students education consists of classroom lectures and discussion, hands on labs, and 150 hours of practicum (work experience) with additional opportunities to volunteer on and off campus. Upon successful completion of their hours in an unpaid practicum, each on campus student receives a stipend of $300. Student scholarships are also awarded at the end of each fall and spring semester based on their attendance, grades, and participation in the vocation. Students participate in a monthly pre-professional student run club, activities include walking in parades and passing out nutritious snacks, attending food shows to learn what new food options are available, keeping the food court clean during the pow wow, and attending fieldtrips to potential worksites in the area and on the local reservation. Several students attended a Hunger Summit in Fargo which impacts our students and their families on a daily basis. Students promoted Nutrition Month with at booth at the UTTC cafeteria and helped serve several scholarship dinners for the campus. Students also set up and serve a Native American lunch at the state Capitol during First Nation's Day and the legislature. Students receive stipends for assisting with various off campus events. A student presented a poster at the FALCON's Meeting in Denver. Changes/Problems:We are still unsure how best to market the vocation as enrollment has been low. Students generally find their way into the Foodservice/Culinary Arts program, but are unprepared to start college, so need some additional education prior to starting classes. Most of the Nutrition and Wellness students come to UTTC to study nursing and later change into our vocation, so we need to find a way to market to students outside the college that are interested in this field. A problem that we identified is that there are not many Native American dieticians or nutritionists, but everyone knows someone who is in the nursing field as it is a more visual vocation to most students. Our nutrition and wellness degree is geared to allow students to continue their education at a university to pursue a bachelor's degree, however we have not had anyone successfully earn a their bachelor's degree upon completion of the Nutrition and Wellness AAS degree at UTTC. We are looking at offering a public health BS degree at UTTC in which the nutrition and wellness AAS degree will feed into it as some students would prefer to continue their education at UTTC. We have been aligned with Dietary Managers which is now known as the Association of Nutrition and Foodservice Professionals (ANFP) for ten years and have had 1 or 2 students each year take the national exam, however only 3 students have received the certification, but didn't pursue a career to use the certification. Our students require more on the job experience, especially in management to be successful. We have decided that we will not keep up with this certification as it is difficult to find practicum sites where students can get the experience. As a result we will need to adopt new textbooks for a couple of our classes, but it does allow us the freedom to make some changes to the degree plan. We are looking to see what other certifications would be available. Another problem is the facilities we are currently in, are somewhat limited for space. Extension was able to do a remodel last year, but there were not enough funds to enlarge the foodservice classroom which also operates as a dining room for the Quantity Foods meals where we would like to be able to seat 50 people. We were also looking at adding a small baking lab which would have housed a deck oven to use in the culinary baking class. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Funding continues to be used for professional development of instructors, which covers registration and travel to related training, state conventions, and Career and Technical Education Conference as well as necessary licensure. Instructors and Land Grant Staff have presented nutrition education sessions at the UTTC professional development in the fall and spring, teaching other staff and students healthy food preparation and life skills through the kitchen. Several students have switched into our vocation after attending the sessions. Faculty members have attended various FALCONS meetings which included visiting the Culinary Arts program at SIPI while at the Albuquerque, New Mexico meeting. The foodservice instructor has attended three culinary trainings for educators at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island and Colorado. By attending workshops at Johnson and Wales University, the instructor learned skills to incorporate into the classes, how to use state of the art equipment and identify effective facility design. This helps in keeping the curriculum and facilities up to date as well as help advice students who may be interested in continuing their education at a culinary school after their associate's degree at UTTC. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Marketing efforts include news articles written for the UTTC newsletter about student activities in the kitchen lab, on campus, fieldtrips, and faculty attending culinary training and other professional development. The Nutrition and Foodservice vocation invites visitors and guests to tour their vocation, and serve and/or prepare food for a variety of events during the year to promote their vocation. The UTTC college catalog and website have been updated to reflect the current majors in Nutrition and Foodservice. Display booths are used during events on and off campus, including AIHEC. Other marketing materials have been purchased, such as brochures listing careers in the food industry, food samples and UTTC promotional materials. Instructors traveled to Washington DC in July to promote Land Grant Colleges at the Folklife Festival, as well as discussing the Nutrition and Foodservice vocation at a tribal college. An advisory meets twice a year, once face to face once through correspondence to discuss the accomplishments of the vocation. The advisory board meets twice a school year (one on campus and one by correspondence) to ensure cultural education pertinent to Native American students is included in every course, to approve the objectives written for funding, and to offer input and guidance on the future goals for the vocation. The board consists of Tribal elders, casino foodservice manager, Indian Health Service Dietitian, elderly care dietary manager, hospital chef, Extension, 4 year university faculty, UTTC vice president of academics, UTTC Land Grant Director, and UTTC cafeteria director. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The first objective is to strengthen the vocation by focusing on curricula design, student experiential learning, student recruitment and retention, and faculty. Nutrition and Foodservice instructors were concerned with student attendance and retention, as well as getting students to bond. Starting fall 2012 three classes in the Nutrition and Foodservice were blocked to help build rapport and student retention in classes and better prepare students to meet the demands of working in the foodservice industry. Instead of taking three classes throughout the semester from the same instructor, students took one class at a time, ranging from 10 to 15 days, based on the number of credits, with each class running three hours a day. The first class, Introduction to Nutrition and Foodservice Employee Success, students learned about the different job opportunities within the vocation and met people working in various nutrition or food related careers. Students also started putting together a career portfolio, became a student member of a professional organization (Association for Nutrition and Foodservice Professionals - ANAP) and participated in amock job interview. The second class, Managing Food Safety, is aligned with the National ServSafe Association. The class teaches food safety and sanitation practices, and food labs are incorporated to reinforce the course materials. At the end of the course, students take the National ServSafe Exam which they must score 75% or better in order to receive the certification. Starting in 2011 we require all students in our vocation to become ServSafe certified prior to earning their AAS degree. We recognized the foodservice industry is starting to look for this in their new employees and is a perk for students looking for employement. Prior to this semester, students traditionally had a 50% pass rate for this exam. For fall 2012, the class had 100% pass rate, which we believe was a result of the new format of the class. Fall 2013 and fall 2014 required some students to take the test a second time after participating in the one day workshop taught by UTTC Extension. Twenty students have earned this certification during this grant cycle. The third class is Food Science and Cooking Skills which covers beginning cooking. Running this class three consecutive days allowed for better retention of materials and made food labs easier to plan. The new format also helped students bond with their classmates, so there were fewer absences and drop outs in the class compared to previous semesters. Blocking the classes in this manor also allowed the instructor to move the Food Science class to the students first semester getting them involved in the kitchen teaching lab much earlier in their degree plan. Classes were evaluated by students after the completion of each and most students indicated that the blocked format worked well for them so we continued to offer the blocked classes for fall 2013 and 2014. In the spring, Culinary Fundamentals was blocked with the new Culinary Baking class, for four hours for half of a semester, to allow for lecture, lab and evaluation time. UTTC received a research grant entitled "Life Skills at a Tribal College", which focused on new students entering college and how they can learn life skills at the kitchen table. Nutrition faculty and Land Grant staff spearheaded this grant and are hoping to retain students and better prepare them for college and life in general. Some of the components of this project are being used in other classes on campus to help retain students. Twenty three students completed 150 hour practicums at the following places during this grant cycle: Mandan Care Center, Minerva's Restaurant, St. Alexius Medical Center, St. Vincent's Nursing Home, Baptist Home, a senior care center, Karen Ehrens Consulting and the University of Mary and UTTC cafeteria and coffee shop in Bismarck/Mandan. Six of these students completed their practicums in their local community, including in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. One of the online students was unable to find a site in Alaska, so received funding from her tribe to come to Bismarck for a couple of months to complete her practicum between two sites. The student from Georgia ran into issues locating a site and got started late, but excelled once she started and was offered several different jobs due to the practicum. As a result of her UTTC on-line education, she was planning to pursue a degree in dietetics. The student in Oklahoma had cystic fibrosis and dealt with health issues and hospitalization during the course of her practicum. She stated that graduating college was one of her life goals, since most Cystic Fibrosis patients don't have that option and that UTTC's online program had given her the opportunity to do something with her life that she normally would not have gotten to do. On-line students do face challenges finding practicum sites, but all of them express the importance of how valuable the practicum was to their education. Another six students were mentored and took the National Dietary Managers Exam, one student passed the exam. Other experiential learning opportunities included serving food at the Ruth Myers Stone Soup Kitchen for the homeless, serving at the Capitol and First Nations Day and various events on campus. Students are taught and trained in the kitchen how to use and clean the gas oven, burners and griddle and other commercial foodservice equipment which has been purchased with Equity funding. New equipment for the kitchen teaching lab and updated media for the classroom (including DVDs, brochures, and educational handouts) provide an enhanced learning environment for students. Another accomplishment is hiring an instructor who is a dietitian with a Ph.D. who could investigate a bachelor degree in Public Health with an emphasis on food sovereignty. We did hire a couple of different chefs to teach one of the culinary classes, but found that it conflicted with their jobs and they called in at the last minute to say they were unable to teach that day. An instructor has attended culinary trainings in order to teach the new culinary classes. We still have our online instructor who was a former teacher on campus and helped develop the online courses, she has attended strategic planning meetings for Land Grant and has helped update the course curriculum for the vocation. The faculty continue to update curriculum and instruction methods to meet the needs of students and provide classroom instruction and advisement especially in the areas of diabetes education and food sustainability. With new gardens on campus and a new UTTC Extension Horticulture staff member, we are incorporating information regarding sustainable food resources, organic foods, and gardening/horticulture into existing curriculum. The second objective for the vocation is to research and develop upper level Nutrition and Foodservice classes to meet the job market needs for potential employers both on and off the reservation. Spring 2012, through the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, UTTC received re-accreditation to offer two year degrees and online degrees and accreditation to begin to offer some four year degree programs. Key personnel have started to research upper level degree programs in public health with an emphasis in food sovereignty. UTTC is networking with NDSU and other agencies to work on the degree plan and curriculum, while trying to locate additional funding to offer a Bachelor's degree at UTTC.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The overall goal of UTTC Nutrition and Foodservice Program is to sustain and build on the existing two year degrees in Nutrition and Foodservice (NUT) to align with the college's goal of providing two and four year degrees. The faculty provides classroom instruction and advisement to students, and updates curriculum and instruction methods to meet the needs of students. The NUT curriculum was examined and changes were made to both majors starting fall 2012. The Foodservice/Culinary Arts major (61 credits) will include a new class, Culinary Baking. Foodservice classes for fall and spring will be blocked to help with student retention in classes and better prepare students to meet the demands of working in the foodservice industry The Nutrition and Wellness major added upper level chemistry courses, Chemistry 121 and 122 for campus and will offer the chemistry classes online for the first time. Spring 2012, through the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, UTTC received re-accreditation to offer two year degrees and online degrees and accreditation to begin to offer some four year degree programs. Key personnel have started to research upper level degree programs in public health with an emphasis in food sovereignty, as well as enhancing the culinary aspect of the vocation by aligning the curriculum with other institutions offering culinary degrees. The NUT department purchased commercial equipment: a vitamix machine, steam jacketed kettle, electric stove for compliance with ADA regulations and an induction stove and induction burners, to teach new cooking techniques to students. This equipment is used in the industry as it helps to reduce food preparation time and labor costs. The NUT instructors have focused on increasing awareness and marketing of the vocation. During the holiday open house in December two local television channels and UTTC news came to interview Nutrition and Foodservice students and instructors about the vocation and three televised news stories were aired. Other marketing efforts include news articles written for the UTTC newsletter about student activities in the kitchen lab, on campus, fieldtrips, and faculty attending culinary training and other professional development. The Nutrition and Foodservice vocation invites visitors and guests to tour their vocation, and serve and/or prepare food for a variety of events during the year to promote their vocation. The UTTC college catalog and website have been updated to reflect the current majors in Nutrition and Foodservice. Display booths are used during events on and off campus, including AIHEC. Equity funding was used to produce and purchase a large vocational display board and vocational brochures, which were used at FALCONS and other events. Other marketing materials have been purchased, such as brochures listing careers in the food industry, food samples and UTTC promotional materials. Instructors traveled to Washington DC this July to promote Land Grant Colleges at the Folklife Festival, as well as discussing the Nutrition and Foodservice vocation at a tribal college. PARTICIPANTS: Key personnel include on campus a department chair/instructor, dietician/instructor, and part time chef instructor, as well as an on-line instructor who formerly taught classes on campus. The faculty continue to update curriculum and instruction methods to meet the needs of students and provide classroom instruction and advisement especially in the areas of diabetes education and food sustainability. With new gardens on campus and a new UTTC Extension Horticulture staff member, we are incorporating information regarding sustainable food resources, organic foods, and gardening/horticulture into existing curriculum. Course curriculum changes were submitted for review to UTTC's Curriculum Committee. Training for faculty, such as attending local food shows, national foodservice or nutrition conferences, and culinary arts summer educator's program at a culinary school, will be investigated to enhance the nutrition/wellness and the foodservice (culinary arts) major. We also are increasing student opportunities for experiential learning on campus, and in the surrounding communities, and are researching an upper level degree in public health with an emphasis in food sovereignty as well as the job opportunities. UTTC has aligned with NDSU to help recruit students in the AAS Nutrition and Wellness program to continue their education by pursuing a BS degree in Food Science at NDSU upon graduation from UTTC. Faculty research and purchase equipment and supplies needed in order to continue the program in the expanded area in the old facility as well as in the new facilities on campus. Funding was used for professional development of instructors, which covers registration and travel to culinary trainings, state conventions, and Career and Technical Education Conference, and necessary licensure. Instructors and students, along with Land Grant Staff presented a nutrition education session at the UTTC professional development in the fall, teaching staff and students healthy food preparation. Stakeholder input into Nutrition and Foodservice activities is provided by the NUT Advisory Board. The board consists of Tribal elders, casino foodservice manager, Indian Health Service Dietitian, elderly care dietary manager, hospital chef, Extension, 4 year university faculty, UTTC vice president of academics, UTTC Land Grant Director, and UTTC cafeteria director. The purpose of the board is to ensure cultural education pertinent to Native American students is included in every course, to approve the objectives written for funding, and to offer input and guidance on the future goals for the vocation. The Board meets twice during each academic year. Consultants, offering a cultural perspective, were utilized during the tree planting on campus to honor the NUT graduates this year. TARGET AUDIENCES: UTTC has a reputation for offering quality nutrition education to Native American students and other minority groups, and would like to increase the number of graduates each year. UTTC provides nutrition training for potential employment in Indian owned Casinos, WIC, Headstart kitchens, IHS Dietary Depts. and Food Distribution Programs. Nutrition and Foodservice (NUT) classes on campus and online continued to be offered both spring and fall, with a practicum offered during the summer. Every NUT student is required to do a hundred and fifty hour practicum to complete their degree plan. Upon successful completion of their hours in an unpaid practicum, each on campus student receives a stipend of $300. Three students completed a practicum during the 2011-2012 SY and one of the students made a positive impression and was asked to apply for a job after completing the practicum. Six students graduated (3 campus and 3 online), one is working in foodservice and the other has been received a scholarship to pursue a BS degree in Food Science at the North Dakota State University. Four students received $500 scholarships for their attendance, grades and participation in the vocation during the year. Five out of six students took and passed the national ServSafe exam. It is now mandatory to pass the exam prior to graduating from the vocation. Four students completed the courses necessary to take the national exam to become a Certified Dietary Manager, but the exam isn't offered until October 2012 or March 2013. In addition to attending classes, students participate in a monthly pre-professional club, which includes activities such as participating in parades and passing out nutritious snacks, attending food shows to learn what new food options are available, keeping the food court clean during the pow wow, and attending fieldtrips to potential worksites in the area and on the local reservation. In September students attended a Hunger Summit in Fargo which impacts our students and their families on a daily basis. Students promoted Nutrition Month with at booth at the UTTC cafeteria and helped serve a scholarship dinner for the campus. In October, two students and faculty helped set up and serve 300 people a Native American lunch at the state Capitol during First Nation's Day. Students receive stipends for assisting with various off campus events. A student presented a poster at the FALCON's Meeting in Denver. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: UTTC is currently building new campus facilities south of the existing buildings on campus. New facilities for the NUT vocation could potentially be available within the next five years. However as vocations are moving out of the existing facility we are looking at the possibility of expanding our current facilities in order to identify the actual space and design that would be desired in the brand new buildings. Some of the Equity funding will be needed to modify rooms in the current facility as we are hoping to gain access to two former classrooms and a storage room. These will be modified to contain an additional teaching kitchen for a small baking lab/home kitchen (including a shared dishroom with commercial teaching lab), classroom, and instructor office. Some of the present Nutrition and Foodservice facility will be remodeled to better use the existing space as offices, and a clean storage area. We are waiting on approval from the UTTC facilities committee to whether we can make these changes. It is projected that the additional spaces will be vacated in January 2013. We are still unsure how best to market the vocation as students generally find their way into the Foodservice/Culinary Arts program, but are unprepared to start college, so need some additional education prior to starting classes. Most of the Nutrition and Wellness students come to UTTC to study nursing and later change into our vocation, so we need to find a way to market to students outside the college that are interested in this field. A problem that we identified is that there are not many Native American dieticians or nutritionists, but everyone knows someone who is in the nursing field as it is a more visual vocation to most students. UTTC has received a research grant entitled "Life Skills at a Tribal College", which will focus on new students entering college and how they can learn life skills at the kitchen table. Nutrition faculty and Land Grant staff will be spearheading this grant and we are hoping to retain students and better prepare them for college and life in general. There may be a need for additional materials, resources, and equipment to provide support for this as well as the courses in the Nutrition and Foodservice degree plan.
Impacts
The Nutrition and Foodservice vocation offers classes under two different majors: Nutrition and Wellness and Foodservice/Culinary Arts. Enrollment for 2011-2012 SY was up from the previous year, with 28 campus students and 11 online students, six students graduated. However, due to increased enrollment we found the retention rates were lower. Students are directly involved in the Equity grant objectives and activities, as well as the UTTC Land Grant Director and staff as they work closely with the vocation. Experiential learning outcomes for students include continuing existing field trip experiences. We added the Hunger Summit in Fargo, which made an impact on students as they realized they are not alone and they can make a difference in their communities through their education. This year seven students completed a 150 hour practicum to complete their degree plan. Three completed the nutrition practicum at nursing homes, two in Bismarck and one in Georgia. One of the online students was unable to find a site in Alaska, so received funding from her tribe to come to Bismarck for a couple of months to complete her practicum between two sites. The student from Georgia ran into issues locating a site and got started late, but excelled once she started and was offered several different jobs due to the practicum. As a result of her UTTC on-line education, she is planning to pursue more education to become a dietician. Four students completed the foodservice practicum, one at the University of Mary cafeteria in Bismarck (they wanted to hire her) and one at the UTTC coffee shop, an on-line student worked at the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska Headstart Kitchen and another in Oklahoma school cafeteria. The student in Oklahoma has cystic fibrosis and dealt with health issues and hospitalization during the course of her practicum. She stated that graduating college was one of her life goals, since most Cystic Fibrosis patients don't have that option and that UTTC had given her the opportunity to do something with her life that she normally would not have gotten to do. On-line students do face challenges finding practicum sites, but all of them express the importance of how valuable the practicum was to their education. Students are taught and trained in the kitchen how to use and clean the gas oven, burners and griddle and other commercial foodservice equipment which has been purchased with Equity funding. New equipment for the kitchen teaching lab and updated media for the classroom (including DVDs, brochures, and educational handouts) provide an enhanced learning environment for students. Another outcome is hiring an instructor with a Ph.D. this year who is investigating a bachelor degree in Public Health with an emphasis on food sovereignty. For now, when students inquire about transferring to a four year university the articulation agreement is in place to make advising the students more realistic and the transition for the student smoother. We also have partnered with NDSU and students may receive a scholarship to get a bachelors degree in Food Science.
Publications
- Keith, J.F. (2011) UTTC Nutrition Program Emphasizes Healthy Food. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education. Spring 2011
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
The overall goal of UTTC Nutrition and Foodservice Program is to sustain and build on the existing two year degrees in Nutrition and Foodservice (NUT) to align with the college's goal of providing two and four year degrees. The first objective is to strengthen the vocation by focusing on curricula design, student experiential learning, student recruitment and retention, and faculty. Faculty is updating the curriculum and will seek approval from the UTTC curriculum committee in the fall. Activities to strengthen the vocation were to improve upon student experiential learning activities and to build networks between students and potential employers on and off the reservation. This year funds were used to support students who: completed an unpaid practicum, worked at serving UTTC special catered events, attended the Rural and Public Health Conference, and took the Dietary Managers National exam, We did not identify or visit any new practicum sites this year, an existing site had new preceptors and another hadn't been utilized for over five years. Student scholarships were awarded to four students based on grades, attendance and participation in the vocation, Consultants, offering a cultural perspective, were utilized during the tree planting on campus to honor the NUT graduates this year. Funds were used to maintain the current faculty, a dietician to teach full time on campus and one to teach the online courses, as well as summer pay for the Equity project director, instructor and department chair. No additional personnel was hired due to low student enrollment. Funds were used for professional development activities such as: attending conferences (Rural and public Health, and Career and Technical Education Conference), participating in an online Food Safety Workshop, and maintaining ND and National dietetic licenses for existing faculty members. Since this year's funding was received late and the college had a no cost extension for the previous Equity Grant, funds were spent out of it to purchase the majority of the supplies and pay for travel during this year. However, two electric ranges have been ordered with this supply funding in order to update equipment, be in compliance with the American Disability Act, and teach new technology. The unused travel funds will be used to send faculty to national conferences and the FALCON meeting in Denver in October. The second objective is to research and develop upper level Nutrition and Foodservice classes to meet the job market needs for potential employers both on and off the reservation. This spring, through the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, UTTC received re-accreditation to offer the two year degrees and online degrees and accreditation to begin to offer a couple of four year degree programs to students. Key personnel has started to research upper level degree programs in community nutrition and dietetics, as well as attempting to enhance the culinary aspect of the vocation by aligning the curriculum with other institutions offering culinary degrees. PRODUCTS: Nutrition and Foodservice curriculum is being reviewed to include updated textbooks and objectives that will reflect sustainable food resources, organic foods, and gardening/horticulture. A new culinary class will be added to the Foodservice/Culinary Arts major within the next year. Faculty has requested that extension Land Grant staff plant specific foods in the small garden plot located outside of the kitchen door. Faculty and students will be able to utilize these foods in the classroom labs in the fall. Equity funding was used to maintain the current faculty, a dietician to teach full time on campus and a dietician to teach the online courses, as well as summer pay for the Equity project director, who is also an instructor and department chair. New equipment is being ordered for the kitchen, including an electric range, an induction range and a Vita mix master, which will be used to show how to utilize garden produce into healthy drinks, dips, soups, etc. The NUT vocation currently has articulation agreements in place with four year institutions in North Dakota that offer nutrition and dietetics education. However, currently students wishing to pursue their four year degrees at these universities have been requested to take additional chemistry courses at another college prior to enrolling in the larger universities. After initiating a discussion on higher level chemistry courses needed, UTTC will now be offering Chemistry 121 and 122 with labs, which will transfer into four year programs. These courses will be valuable when a bachelor degree is offered at UTTC. OUTCOMES: Currently two former UTTC Nutrition and Foodservice graduates are taking courses at Bismarck State College in order to transfer to continue their education and earn a bachelor degree. One of these students is using the skills learned in college to also work as a cook in an upscale restaurant in Bismarck, while attending college. When students inquire about transferring to a four year university the articulation agreement is in place to make advising the students more realistic and the transition for the student smoother. UTTC is looking at adding a 4 year degree in Nutrition and Foodservice in the future, so aligning with the four year universities is a start to deciding the feasibility of offering our own 4 year degree. Another student, who was involved in the vocation and helped with many experiential learning activities, was offered a job at the University of Mary Cafeteria after graduating in December as he had completed his unpaid practicum at their site. He gained valuable knowledge and skills in the kitchen and has now returned to his wife's reservation to manage the Head Start kitchen in the fall. Students are taught in a kitchen that is comparable to commercial foodservice kitchens and have been trained how to use and clean the gas oven, burners and griddle and other foodservice equipment which has been purchased with Equity funding. By attending workshops at Johnson and Wales University, the instructor learned skills to incorporate into the classes, how to use state of the art equipment and identify effective facility design. This will help in keeping the curriculum and facilities up to date as well as help advice students who may be interested in continuing their education at a culinary school after their associate's degree at UTTC. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: News articles including student activities in the kitchen lab, on campus, fieldtrips, and faculty attending culinary training and other professional development were written and published in UTTC college newsletter. The Nutrition and Foodservice vocation often invites visitors and guests to tour their vocation, and serve and/or prepare food for a variety of events during the year to promote their vocation. An advisory board made up people from across the state who work in a variety of food or nutrition related fields, meet twice a year to discuss, review, and approve what is happening in the vocation. The UTTC college catalog, and the website have been updated to reflect the current majors in Nutrition and Foodservice. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The nine month and on-line nutrition and foodservice faculty will continue to update curriculum and instruction methods to meet the needs of students. The faculty provides classroom instruction and advisement to students. UTTC has a reputation for offering quality nutrition education, and would like to increase the number of graduates each year. UTTC provides nutrition training for potential employment in Indian owned Casinos, WIC, Headstart kitchens, IHS Dietary Depts. and Food Distribution Programs. The faculty will continue to design curriculum and develop materials to strengthen the program through the addition of diabetes education throughout the existing Nutrition and Foodservice curriculum. Training for the existing faculty will be investigated to enhance the nutrition/wellness and the foodservice (culinary arts) major. There are plans to add a chef as an adjunct instructor for one three credit culinary class. Training opportunities such as attending local food shows, national foodservice or nutrition conferences, and culinary arts summer educator's program at a culinary school, may be potential activities. The course curriculum changes will be submitted for review to UTTC's Curriculum Committee. Another activity is to continue to increase student opportunities for experiential learning on campus, and in the surrounding communities. UTTC is currently building new campus facilities south of the existing buildings on campus. New facilities for the NUT vocation could potentially be available within the next five years. Key personnel will research and purchase equipment and supplies needed in order to continue the program in new facilities on campus.
Impacts
The objectives of this proposal can strengthen what UTTC already offers and add necessary education regarding diabetes and workforce relevant information to Native American students, without increasing the existing full-time faculty or kitchen lab space. By strengthening the program, students are prepared for jobs after graduation. UTTC is a campus serving 400 college students who bring their families with them. The families are predominantly enrolled Tribal members. The number of people on campus requires the institution to provide and improve cafeteria and foodservice facilities. These facilities may also serve as a training ground for the Nutrition and Foodservice students as well as provide potential employment opportunities. The strategic plan of the college is to continue to increase student numbers. Continuing to offer on-line nutrition classes will strengthen the institution's enrollment as UTTC has limited classroom and housing space which the on-line student does not require. Currently in the state there are only a handful of Native American dieticians, in the future UTTC may be able to offer this degree to increase this number to better provide nutrition education to the Native American population.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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