Opportunities at USJ

The Center for Student Research and Creative Activity is a resource for students to aid them in learning about the opportunities for research and experiential learning that exist at the University of Saint Joseph. This support is provided in multiple ways:

An innovative collaboration between USJ’s department of Nutrition and the O’Connell Athletic Center has created a mutually beneficial opportunity for Nutrition and Dietetics students and student athletes.

The Athlete Nutrition Advising Program, created by Melissa Brown, Ph.D., R.D., assistant professor of Nutrition and Public Health, helps student athletes enhance their performance through optimal fuel and hydration. The program contains both full-length and miniature presentations on topics ranging from general sports nutrition to eating for injury recovery. For many of the student athletes, these presentations mark their first exposure to proper sports nutrition information.

“It’s helpful to know what I can do, what I can’t do, and just get knowledge that you don’t have on a normal, daily basis,” said soccer player Abigail Horner ’21. “This is definitely – especially at the college level – essential to athletes, sports teams, and success.”

The presentations prove beneficial for the USJ Nutrition students who present the information as well. Students from both the undergraduate program and the graduate Dietetic Internship program can participate and gain hands-on experience assessing, monitoring, and educating athletes.

For students like Kaneen Gomez-Hixson ’17, a dietetic intern, the Athlete Nutrition Advising Program helps her develop the skills integral to her future career. As a two-time Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Runner of the Year while earning her bachelor’s degree at USJ, Gomez-Hixson is no stranger to the importance of performance nutrition.

“Getting to implement my passion for performance nutrition during my dietetic internship has been a rare and wonderful opportunity – especially since I get to work within an athletic department that was a huge part of my undergraduate life,” she stated. “Having this type of program is almost unheard of during most dietetic internships and, since I see performance nutrition in my future career as a registered dietitian, it has helped me gain the experience I need to be successful.”

Never has there been such great anticipation for the return of students to the University of Saint Joseph as there was at the end of last summer. On the first Saturday morning of the semester I was one of several administrators going from classroom to classroom, checking that the technology required for our new HyFlex model of instruction was working. I was assigned to the Bruyette Athenaeum where Drawing I would meet– one of the very first classes to bring students and faculty face-to-face (with additional students “remoting in” via Microsoft Teams) after the COVID-19 campus closure in March.

It was a tremendous joy to see students and a new faculty colleague, Yulia Tikhonova, meeting each other for the first time and then moving outside to work on drawings. Drawing I, along with a watercolor class taught by Allie Elia, gave students an opportunity to express their feelings about the stark contrasts between the realities posed by the pandemic and their visions of places and times beyond COVID. The realities are evident, with depictions of masks and a $600 check signed by President Trump, presumably a CARES relief check. The insecurities are there—sitting alone on a bench, and eyes looking out almost from behind masks. And yet many pictures convey the reassuring optimism and confidence of college students as they envision life after COVID with careers, travel to new places, and enjoying the blessings of nature.

I welcome you to share in the perspectives, insights, and emotions of these University of Saint Joseph students, none of them art majors, but all of them learning how art can and should be part of our lives no matter our careers. Many thanks to Professors Tikhonova and Elia for setting an example of how to teach, learn, and make art safely even in the time of COVID and to the students for sharing their work.