In this episode of the Digication Scholars Conversations, host Kelly Driscoll interviews Amy Urbanus, Assistant Professor in the Dietetics and Nutrition Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).
They discuss Amy's journey to teaching at UAA and her experiences in dietetics. They also touch on using ePortfolios in their program and how it helped with their recent accreditation process.
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The acronym ACEND stands for Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear part oneof my conversation with Amy Urbanus,
Assistant Professor in the Dieteticsand Nutrition Program at University
of Alaska Anchorage's School ofPreventative and Therapeutic Services.
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
(00:25):
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication ScholarsConversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelli Driscoll, andtoday I am so pleased to introduce
Amy Urbanus, assistant Professor inthe Dietetics and Nutrition Program at
(00:49):
University of Alaska Anchorage's Schoolof Preventative and Therapeutic Services.
Welcome, Amy!
Thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely.
So, Amy, I just, you know, I always kindof like to ask how people came to the
institutions where they're teaching today.
And I think especially withUniversity of Alaska Anchorage that
(01:13):
there's probably a story there.
So could you tell us about your journey?
Right.
Yes.
How you came to where you are today?
Sure.
Yeah, definitely.
I was not born and raised in Alaska.
So, um, I am originallyfrom Des Moines, Iowa.
Uh, so I am a Midwestern baby and, uh,got my undergraduate degree in Colorado at
(01:38):
Colorado State University a long time ago.
I won't tell you when.
Uh, and you know, I love the mountains.
I kept That's sort of moving west.
Um, I, after graduation with myundergraduate degree, I decided
I did not want to be a dietitian,which is kind of comical that here I
am, uh, teaching future dietitians.
(02:00):
Um, but I moved back to the Midwest.
I always say I gave it the good,honest Midwest try, um, and
lived there and worked with aregistered dietitian for a year.
Um, In a employee wellness program,um, so for your viewers who know the
Midwest, I did employee wellness forHy Vee grocery stores, which covers a
(02:21):
seven state range, uh, in the Midwest.
And it was then that I realized like,Oh, like this lady's got it going on.
Like she's running this program.
She's doing all these amazing things.
Maybe being a registered dietitian.
Would not be so bad.
Um, so I kept working for her and thisis employee wellness kind of when it
was on Like the forefront of employeewellness like this wasn't happening yet
(02:46):
Um, because it was in the 90s right, umAnd this entirely was not talked about not
so much It was very kind of so the factthat we were counseling employees at these
grocery stores Um was was a pretty...
pretty cool thing, actually.
Um, anyway, so, but I was still pluggingalong in Iowa and my roommate from
(03:09):
Colorado State grew up in Kodiak, Alaska,and she had since moved back to Anchorage,
um, and told me I would love it.
And so I packed up my little Subaruand drove, I don't know, five or six
days up the Alcan and came to Alaska.
And my first job, I got a job, Iactually interviewed on the road.
(03:30):
Uh, somewhere in the Yukon, um, for,I worked for RurAL CAP, which is
Rural Alaska Community Action Program.
And so I worked for their early HeadStart and Head Start programs, uh, and
within like three weeks, I was on thislittle, uh, bush plane with duct tape,
kind of scary, but I was flying outinto these rural communities in Western
(03:52):
Alaska, um, totally had, you know, allof my Prior teachings of what I was
supposed to do were just wiped out.
I was just totally fell in love withAlaska, um, and the Alaska Native
population, uh, and worked out there.
And then I decided, hey, I reallyshould do my dietetic internship, get
(04:13):
my graduate certificate and move onto becoming a registered dietitian.
So, uh, the University of Alaska Anchoragehad a dietetic internship program.
Um, so I did my internship here.
I was one of five students that year.
Um, we did not have an undergraduate,uh, didactic program in dietetics at
that time, just the internship component.
(04:34):
Um, and so I, you know, became aregistered dietitian, got a job, met a
guy, uh, you know, and, you know, sworeI was looking for jobs back in Colorado.
But I always say, you know, Three kidslater and a house and some chickens
and dogs and all the rest of it.
(04:55):
I'm still in Alaska.
Um, so this is way morestory than you probably want.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
But so I then spent probably, I think Ispent 18 years, um, Mostly, I did work at,
uh, the Alaska Native Hospital a littlebit with South Central Foundation, uh,
there, but, uh, quickly moved over to,uh, Providence Alaska Medical Center,
(05:18):
uh, and did, uh, about eight years orten years in outpatient counseling, uh,
primarily focused in diabetes education,um, and outpatient nutrition counseling,
um, and then moved into the acute careside and for Eight years was a diabetes
specialist, um, working with glycemiamanagement and diabetes care and, uh, for,
(05:43):
uh, patients admitted to the hospital.
Um, and the didact, the directorof the undergraduate program at the
time, I'd known her for, here at UAA,I'd known her for a very long time.
Um, and, um, Kept asking me, like, whenare you going to come teach with us?
When are you going to come teach with us?
I'd been an adjunct instructor for alot of years, um, and I love teaching.
(06:07):
And so I took a, I took aleap and left my dream job.
I always say my diabetes specialistjob was my dream job, um, and left
that and came to UAA five years ago.
So this is my sixth year, um,as full time faculty, uh, here
at the University, uh, and.
Yeah, it's been, it's been a wild ride,and great, and super fun to dive into a
(06:33):
whole, you know, I felt like I was youngenough that I had another career left in
me, um, so, yeah, so that's how I'm here.
Ah, that's such a great story,and it sounds like you're somebody
who's, uh, quite comfortabletaking, taking leaps, so.
Uh, you mentioned that, uh, I thinkit was your past roommate, um, that
(06:56):
was from Kodiak and thought thatyou would love it in Alaska and
you, you packed up your Subaru.
I think you said, um, I usedto have one of those too.
Fun car.
Um, so had you been to Alaska before,before you packed up and, you know,
So do you remember some of yourfirst impressions when you arrived?
(07:22):
Yes.
So, uh, for any of your viewers that haveever driven the Alcan, um, it's beautiful.
And I came up in the end of August.
So in the Yukon territory, inthe interior, it's beautiful.
It was fall.
So, uh, so the, the first thing reallyis just you're out in the middle of
nowhere or it felt for me at the timethat I was out in the middle of nowhere
(07:43):
and just all of these fall colorsand it was super, super gorgeous.
Um, coming into Anchorage actuallywhen you, uh, you actually drive
through a town called Palmer, whichis one of our, uh, more of our
agriculture Titan communities here.
Um, which is amazing and still some ofmy favorite views of these mountains that
(08:04):
you, that you view when you drive in.
Um, and I was like, Oh mygosh, this is so amazing.
And then I quickly hit, uh,what we would consider to not be
the greatest part of Anchorage.
Um, And, you know, all of a suddenI was like, Oh, this is Anchorage.
(08:25):
And I was petrified.
I had a, yes, I had a total panicattack, you know, as I'm driving
by, like, you know, strip clubs.
I'm just like, Oh my gosh, what did I do?
And Anchorage is a, you know,it's a, it's a Western city.
It's, it's, it's very mixed and, um,you You know, it's not a huge city.
(08:48):
Um, and so, yeah, so that wasone of my, my initial reactions.
Obviously, you know, there, there's alot of beautiful parts of Anchorage.
The other thing that really got meis when you watch the news, at least
when you used to watch local TV.
Before streaming.
So, um, I remember watching the news.
I'm in this hotel room.
I haven't moved into an apartment yet.
(09:09):
I just got here and when they do theweather up here, they do the lower 48.
So they'll talk about everythingthat's going on, you know, in the
lower 48 and then they take theglobe and they like rotate it.
So you like come up and here at homeand I burst into tears because I
was like, I'm so far away from home.
(09:32):
Like I had, that's whenit actually hit me.
Not the drive, not the week longdrive, but the, Oh my heavens.
Like they had to rotatethe earth to show Alaska.
Um, so that was one of my otherbiggest, you know, kind of, Oh my gosh.
Um, but you know, obviouslyI'm still here in 2023.
(09:54):
So things, things worked out okay.
Yeah, it sounds like it.
Um, and it is remarkable.
I've had the incredibleopportunity to visit Anchorage.
Uh, definitely need to give a shout outto Paul Wasco, the ePortfolio Coordinator
at University of Alaska Anchorage, um,because he has just been such a Wonderful
(10:19):
connector, um, between, uh, Jeff Yan,uh, Digication's co founder and CEO and
myself with the UAA community there.
And we had this incredible, um,opportunity to, you know, now visit
the campus several times and Itwas so striking to me how Anchorage
(10:43):
is, you know, very much a city.
How quickly you can really feelcompletely remote and in, you
know, fully immersed in the city.
And different kinds of experiences,whether you're seeing glaciers or,
you know, we joke about moose spottingon, before you've seen one, you really
(11:08):
don't know how big they really are.
They're very big.
Yeah, and I remember on one of ourearly visits, it was springtime
there and seeing, you know, differentflowers that were growing there
that I'd never seen in the lower 48.
Yeah, I've lived in New England and theSoutheast and in, um, the, you know,
(11:33):
more like Northern California area, andit was just really, um, so fun to see
all of the, uh, Different variety ofplants and animals and scenery there.
And of course, just this likeconstant view of the mountains.
So as someone that loved the mountains,that probably, even when you had that
moment where you felt a little hard torotate, you know, to see the weather.
(11:58):
I hope also is kind of offeringyou a little bit of feeling of.
You know, connection.
Um, so thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
Uh, and you were also mentioninganother leap that you made where, you
know, you described that you'd foundyour, your dream job, um, but then,
(12:19):
uh, did make this, uh, transition intoteaching in Higher Ed and it's, was
it the kind of community that you hadstarted to connect with at UAA that.
You think kind of solidified that decisionor were there elements about some of
(12:39):
your, you know, prior teaching practicethat kind of led you in that direction?
What do you feel like mighthave been that kind of...
you know, I think it, it was kind ofa, Kind of a lot of different things.
I think, you know, so I'm a little bit ofa, even though I've lived in Alaska for
a long time, I always kind of describemyself as a little bit of a change junkie.
(13:00):
Like, I'm kind of alwayslike, what's next?
What's the next challenge?
What's going to be the next, um, youknow, I remember like after I had my third
child, I am like, okay, like got married,had baby one, two, three, like now what?
You know, like I had that feelinglike, okay, let's go to PA
school, you know, or something,whatever I was doing at the time.
(13:21):
Um, And so, you know, I'd beendoing, I'd been in that position
for eight years and, um, I think thething that always kind of, I found
myself in that role teaching a lot.
So one of my main, so Idid patient education.
So I did diabetes education for patients.
(13:42):
Um, Which, it seems to a lotof people, they're like, Oh,
don't you get tired of diabetes?
And I'm like, No, because my role hereis really to be like an investigator
and a problem solver and figure out.
So different for why?
Yeah.
So every person is so different.
No two people are the same.
I always call diabetes a designer disease.
It's very personalized.
(14:03):
And so, built this rapport with thephysicians and nursing staff and pharmacy
and, you know, kind of was really a.
I felt like a, an integral memberof a, an interdisciplinary team
where I would interview my patientsand really try to figure out, you
know, what is it that got you here?
And so let's, let's figure out thebarriers and let's figure out why,
(14:24):
how it is that you have found yourselfin the hospital and then, you know,
see if I can't help coordinatethat care and transition you to the
outpatient world and, and all of that.
So the interdisciplinary aspectwas really important to me.
And another big part of my rolewas to build a glycemia management
program within the hospital, um,and kind of lead that charge.
(14:48):
And what that really means isgetting physicians, nurses, techs,
pharmacists, to all understand eachother and speak the same language.
Um, and I love that.
I mean, pharmacists are different,totally different than nurses.
Like nurses, I mean, they have to likethink on the fly and then pharmacy
(15:09):
would be all upset because they'revery, not all pharmacists, but some
are like very linear and like, youknow, well, but why would they do that?
They can't do that.
And I'm like, well, they didthat because of this, you know?
And then the physicians aredoing something different.
And so I found myself doing a lotof presentations and education,
and I would let physicians ordifferent people, uh, follow with
(15:31):
me and, um, you know, round with me.
And we were, you know, I hadthe, The advantage of really
hyper focusing on one condition.
So I felt like I couldget really good at that.
Um, where other providers and thingsdon't have that advantage, right?
They have to be experts andso many different things.
So I found myself educating a lot and,um, And so not just patient education,
(15:56):
but then also professional education.
So I think I liked that.
I found that really awesome andinteresting, um, and rewarding, I guess.
Um, and so when this became available,you know, this position at UAA, it
kind of married those things for me.
(16:16):
Um, So, it's obviously higher education,so I'm teaching students, you know, at a
higher, obviously, like at a higher level.
Um, I have the fortunate, I'm totallyfortunate to be able to teach in the
undergraduate and the graduate program,so it, it really, You know, I have a
lot of variety in my student population.
(16:37):
I am in charge of advising.
I knew I was going to be in chargeof advising for our program.
And I've been told I spendway too long with my students.
Um, I remember my coworker whose officeis next to me, she came after I'd had
like my, I don't know, like my fifthadvising session in my first year, she
comes around, she's like, you're notgoing to spend an hour with each person.
(16:59):
Are you?
She's like, you're nevergoing to get anything done.
And I was like, Oh, I was like, Iwas like, okay, well, I like this.
Like it felt like counseling.
So, uh, so it, it utilized my counselingskills, um, to where, you know, so
when we talk about, I know we'lltalk about portfolios, but when we
talk about like, You know, studentsuccess and all of that kind of
(17:22):
stuff, like that felt like good to me.
So I really enjoy theadvising aspect of things.
Um, and yeah, and then it was just,you know, it was like, why not?
Um, you know, I, like I said, Ifelt like I had another, You know, I
kind of had like my first 20 years.
Um, it was like, okay, well, am Igoing to do this for the next 20 or,
(17:46):
or 15 or however long I end up working?
I don't know.
Um, you know, or is there, there'ssomething I had, I felt like I
had enough time to be Good atsomething else, I guess, like
develop and grow professionally.
Um, I will tell people that thatfirst year that I worked full
time as faculty, um, was, I hadn'tworked that hard in a long time.
(18:08):
Uh, and so just everything, youknow, was just so brand new, a whole
different system and everything.
This past summer though,I'm super was super happy.
I took a position as a PRN per diem,Clinical Dietician back at the same
hospital, um, and to kind of makesure my skills were, you know, current
(18:29):
and accurate, and I had so much fun.
I, I really do miss the, um, there is aculture in a hospital, um, and a very,
it's a very social, uh, environment.
Um, and so.
Yeah, so I, there are, there areelements to that that I definitely
miss, but this has been good.
Yeah.
(18:50):
Well, and what an incredible kind ofexperience and, you know, in all of
those different areas for you to be ableto bring to your students now, too, you
know, even the element of the Thingsabout that that you miss because you're
able to kind of pull from that whenyou're communicating with your students
(19:14):
and advocating for them and Um, helpingguide them through the advising, you
know, how lucky those students are tohave somebody that, that committed to the,
the field and also to, to their success.
Um, now I know one of your recentchallenges as someone who said
(19:39):
that they, you know, are kindof looking to, to do new things.
Um, Was the recent kind of accreditation,uh, within dietetics and, uh, could
you share with us a little bit what,what that was like and, um, maybe
at a high level, how Digication mayhave supported some of those efforts?
(20:03):
Oh, for sure.
So, um, so a part of my role hereas assistant professor is I also
this, uh, This other faculty memberthat recruited me, I didn't know
that she was moving up the ladder.
Um, so she was, she's a very goodfriend of mine, uh, but she was the
director of our didactic program indietetics, uh, which is our Bachelor
(20:25):
of Science degree in dietetics.
And, um, So, in my second semester ofteaching, I became the director of our,
of our program, which means that, um, thatin addition to those other things, I'm
really in charge of outside accreditation.
So, we are accredited by anorganization called ACEND.
Um, I couldn't tell you what itstands for, Accreditation Council for
(20:49):
Dietetics Education, I don't know.
Anyway.
That sounds, that's so terrible.
I should have it writtendown here somewhere.
No, we all have.
You know, I'll have to try tomemorize so many different acronyms.
Yeah, they are crediting bodyand our, um, our larger body.
So, uh, so would theyaccredit our program?
(21:13):
So we're accredited as a didactic programin dietetics, um, which essentially is
Just the undergraduate portion, whenthe student completes that, they're
eligible, uh, they receive what we calla verification statement in addition
to their degree, um, and it allowsthem to move into graduate education,
another accredited program where they dosupervise practice or those internship
(21:34):
hours, uh, that a lot of programs have,um, and then are able to sit for the
registered dietitian nutritionist exam.
Um, so we're accredited for seven years.
Um, Or were accredited forseven years now we are again.
Uh, which is great.
Um, and so I sort of found myself inyear four needing to start the process
(21:58):
of, uh, writing a self-study andproving to our accrediting body that we.
Should be reaccredited.
And wow what a process.
I learned a lot about theuniversity as a whole.
And so we, you know you, like manyof your viewers, have programs that
(22:19):
you write these gigantic Um, and thenwe had last fall, so in the fall of
2022, we had some site reviewers,uh, external reviewers come up to
Alaska, um, and do a site review.
And so, a part of that site visit, um,is, you know, they want tons and tons and
(22:40):
tons of evidence, uh, that you're thatyou're doing what you say you're doing.
So you write this big report andthey're like, yeah, that's great.
Okay.
Now we want to see, you know, theproof that you're actually doing this.
Um, so in what I was told, uh, as far as,you know, I, I talked to lots of different
people who had gone through these, Uh,site visits in other professions, uh,
(23:03):
like our dental program had just gonethrough a site visit, um, to other ACEND
accredited programs in the lower 48,you know, what, what do you, how, you
know, what's the best way to do this?
I had, I interviewed our actual sitereviewers to say, Hey, like, how do
you want, All of these documents.
I mean, it's like, I felt likeit was just so overwhelming.
(23:26):
Um, the amount of informationthat they wanted to have on site.
And they said, well, some people willdo a Blackboard shell, like create like
a, a dev shell, like a, um, you know,and, and just plug things in there and
then you give us access to Blackboard.
Um, otherwise they found it to be reallysuccessful to do like a Google drive.
(23:46):
And then just have all of yourfolders and, you know, organized.
And I was just like, that sounds awful.
Like as a reviewer, like how you could.
open up each of those documents.
I mean, I felt like you would want tohave like four screens so you could,
(24:07):
and that tells you, yeah, that tells youI'm probably should not be a reviewer.
Um, but it just seems very, uh, Justlike two dimensional, I guess, maybe,
uh, if that's a good word to use, um,so, you know, I was like, well, how,
like, how would you, like, you wouldclose something and then you would open
(24:29):
another document and, you know, andthen the older days, you know, you had
portfolios, you had binders, right?
So, because we use ePortfolio in ourprogram, um, You know, for our students
to show competence and to have thefact that they've met all of these
competencies as a part of our accreditedprogram, um, I asked if they would be
willing to let me use an ePortfolioto house and to showcase all of our on
(24:54):
site evidence and documents for them.
Uh, they said, I have no idea what you'retalking about, but that sounds great.
I mean, they sort of, they sort of knew.
I think, you know, there areother, you know, kinds of things
that they had maybe, you know,dabbled with in their own programs.
Um, so I reached out to Paul Wasko andhe was wonderful in helping me do this.
(25:16):
And I essentially just built a giganticportfolio, um, which, you know, to have.
You know, so it was super organized underall of, you know, we have, I think, eight
different standards and underneath allof those standards, there are specific,
uh, you know, student examples of workand all of that kind of stuff that had to
(25:37):
be as a part of those on site, you know,documents that needed to be ready, um,
and Paul was, you know, Super gracious towork with the reviewers to make sure that
they had access and knew how to do it.
We knew it was goingto be FERPA compliant.
There were, you know,some things like that.
It's, it was great because I knew itwas locked down, you know, so it didn't
(25:59):
have to have, it wasn't public facing.
Um, they knew that theyjust had access to it.
And one of the beautiful things was thatthey didn't have to be present and in our
Uh, you know, in our drive, like, right?
So, like, I mean, I guess a GoogleDrive, I could, you know, give
them access to that ahead of time.
Um, but the, the feedback thatI got from our reviewers was
(26:23):
really like, ah, this is so great.
We were able to, you know, we satat the hotel and we could just
look at stuff and listen to things.
And.
You know, all of that kind of stuff.
So, um, so yeah, it worked out reallyswimmingly and all of the things, you
know, the, um, one of the nice thingsfor me because I use Portfolio in my
(26:47):
classes, um, is that it forced me to kindof become You know, like a super user.
Uh, so, you know, I, because I wasuploading all different types of files.
So, we run an online program.
So, it was a wonderful way forme to upload videos that students
had developed and created.
I could share, um, you know, audiorecordings that they had done.
(27:12):
I could share, you know, a lot ofdifferent Types of media, um, as
far as what I thought in an onlineprogram, you know, really highlights,
you know, what we're doing here andthe quality of online education that
we're providing for our students.
Um, so, but it did, you know, it, soI always have my students build these
(27:32):
portfolios, so it was really good for me.
It was very humbling to be like,Okay, like I'm gonna build something
from scratch and kind of do that.
So it worked out really well.
Wonderful.
I'm so glad to hear that.
And I would love to hear a littlebit about how You know, you were
able to, um, craft this incrediblekind of presentation of your program.
(27:56):
How are you using these kinds of toolswith the students in your courses?
I think Dietetics has had a prettylong history with Digication.
I believe it may have started in2014, because it was one of the
first programs, I think, to jumpon board because of this program.
We'll need to be able to record whatthe students were doing and see their
(28:21):
growth towards particular standardsthat they were working towards.
Yeah, I, my predecessor,uh, Kendra Sticca, Dr.
Sticca, so she's the onewho recruited me, moved out.
Um, but she's the one that reallybrought, you know, she was on board
with, portfolio Um, and so I inheritedher courses that she had started.
(28:41):
So I came in 2018.
So she had really just started kindof building that in our curriculum.
Um, and, you know, and, and even to thisday, I was actually kind of surprised
because this is what I came into.
So I just sort of made the assumptionthat this is what programs do.
This is the kind of stuff that they usebecause it made a lot of sense to me.
(29:02):
Um, I think like prior to when I was goingthrough this site visit self study stuff,
we also had to adopt, uh, 2022 standards.
Um, so within the ACEND communityof, um, directors, we had lots of
meetings kind of going through, youknow, with um, you know, just like
(29:23):
Zoom meetings, whatever, um, goingthrough the different standards, what
had changed, all of that kind of stuff.
And one of the major things thathad changed was that now our ACEND,
our accrediting body is reallyrequiring us to better document,
um, achievement of competence.
So, you know, have they actually,have your students actually met
(29:44):
the competency and how do you.
How do you show that?
And so I was like, Oh, you know, weuse this ePortfolio in our program
and all of our students build anePortfolio and I was blown away by how
many people were like, you do what?
Um, and, and so it was actuallyreally, really helpful.
And I hope, you know, and I think thereare some other programs and program
directors that are starting to thinkabout how, um, you know, other than just
(30:08):
saying, yes, check, I did an assignment,yes, check, I got a C or better, check,
you know, that kind of stuff that there'sa way that you can actually have students
demonstrate their level of competence.
Um, so what we do throughout ourprogram is in our, uh, DN 100.
It's a 100 level, it's calledthe Profession of Dietetics.
(30:28):
It's a one credit class.
Um, it's for our pre nagers.
Um, I teach that class and they learnhow to build a portfolio, an e portfolio.
And we have a templatethat we use, obviously.
We're big on templates.
I think everybody starts somethingfrom scratch is not a good idea.
Um.
(30:49):
And so, students really get theopportunity to use our dietetic templates.
I tell my students, it'sreally like the bucket.
It's the main bucket.
Um, and they, you know, they just,they learn how to use it, for one,
so they're not intimidated when theyare taking some 400, 300 level class.
(31:11):
And now not only do they have to use it.
Do this big project that canbe intimidating, but they
have to do it in ePortfolio.
So I like to use that 100 level entrypoint as, Hey, this is the purpose,
you know, over the course of theprogram, you're going to be doing
all these different assignments.
You're going to, you know, that, youknow, we utilize specific projects
(31:31):
and assignments to Measure, you know,a competency in our program, um,
and you know, they use, they use theportfolio to, um, to demonstrate that.
And so they'll, you know,they do a personal statement.
They learn how to do this, you know, thebeaut, the pretty stuff if they want,
um, and just, and then start kind of alittle introduced into using reflection.
(31:55):
Uh, as a tool of, you know, making sure,like, do I really know what that means?
What does that mean to me?
Like, what does thatmean to somebody else?
What does that mean for my profession?
Um, and so we introduce it thereand then throughout the program,
they can kind of slowly work on it.
But the primary hub is, uh, I teach adietetic, a senior seminar in dietetics.
(32:18):
It's a year long coursein their senior year.
And it's at that point that we reallydive deep into all the competencies.
We have group discussions and such.
Um, my students do a self assessment.
They go through, um, and rank themselvesand whether or not they feel like they've
already met a specific competency.
Usually there's two things.
(32:38):
four or five that they saythey still need some work.
They identify outside opportunities,webinars, working with another
organization, um, some other way thatthey work with me on figuring out how
they can better meet a competency.
And then they have, we have a one page,um, for each, you know, designated to each
(33:00):
competency in their ePortfolio where theyupload any evidence that they might have.
that shows that they've metthat competency, whether
that's a project or assignment.
Sometimes it's pictures of themvolunteering somewhere, um,
you know, whatever it may be.
They write a description as far aslike what that all, you know, you know,
(33:21):
what that's, their evidence entails,but then the bigger piece is that they
have to write a reflection on why theyfeel like they've met that competency.
So we have, I think thereare, 26 or 30 competencies.
So it takes a while.
Um, and you know, they kind of take thatwhole year and I use the portfolio as
(33:43):
my means of not awarding a bachelor'sdegree, but of awarding that verification
statement from our accreditor.
That says, yes, you can moveon into supervised practice.
Um, I've had students that thengo on to utilize their portfolio.
They might tweak it a little bit,um, and they've used it to apply
to graduate school internships,if they're out of Alaska.
(34:08):
Um, so we try to, I don't want to saysell it, but, you know, try to say
like, hey, this isn't just, you know,it's just not a program assignment.
Maybe you never look at it again.
Who knows?
Um, but, you know, youcan utilize it after.
So for us here at UAA,it is very important.
Very much kind of the, you know, it's,it's a thread throughout our entire
(34:31):
program, um, which is why it felt sonormal, I guess, for us to utilize
it for our, to demonstrate that ourprogram has met the accreditation
competencies that we have, you know,or standards that we had to meet.
Here's a preview of what's coming upnext in part two of my conversation
(34:51):
with Amy Urbanus, assistant professorin the dietetics and nutrition program
at University of Alaska, Anchorage.
I always try to tell students that likeyou really can utilize, you know, portions
of or all of or whatever you can utilize.
A portfolio in providing you know, insharing like your depth and breadth of
(35:13):
experience, even though in a resume,it may not jump out at, uh, um, you
know, at somebody, at somebody who'slooking to hire somebody, um, you know,
in a resume may not jump out as like,you you know, you look at their work
experience, you're like, oh, okay, well.
You're pretty green, you know, it'slike there's not a whole lot, but in
(35:34):
any portfolio, they might have done someamazing project that gives them an example
of what they're capable of, um, and howthey might fit within their organizations.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear part oneof my conversation with Amy Urbanus,
Assistant Professor in the Dieteticsand Nutrition Program at University
of Alaska Anchorage's School ofPreventative and Therapeutic Services.
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
(00:25):
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication ScholarsConversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelli Driscoll, andtoday I am so pleased to introduce
Amy Urbanus, assistant Professor inthe Dietetics and Nutrition Program at
(00:49):
University of Alaska Anchorage's Schoolof Preventative and Therapeutic Services.
Welcome, Amy!
Thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely.
So, Amy, I just, you know, I always kindof like to ask how people came to the
institutions where they're teaching today.
And I think especially withUniversity of Alaska Anchorage that
(01:13):
there's probably a story there.
So could you tell us about your journey?
Right.
Yes.
How you came to where you are today?
Sure.
Yeah, definitely.
I was not born and raised in Alaska.
So, um, I am originallyfrom Des Moines, Iowa.
Uh, so I am a Midwestern baby and, uh,got my undergraduate degree in Colorado at
(01:38):
Colorado State University a long time ago.
I won't tell you when.
Uh, and you know, I love the mountains.
I kept That's sort of moving west.
Um, I, after graduation with myundergraduate degree, I decided
I did not want to be a dietitian,which is kind of comical that here I
am, uh, teaching future dietitians.
(02:00):
Um, but I moved back to the Midwest.
I always say I gave it the good,honest Midwest try, um, and
lived there and worked with aregistered dietitian for a year.
Um, In a employee wellness program,um, so for your viewers who know the
Midwest, I did employee wellness forHy Vee grocery stores, which covers a
(02:21):
seven state range, uh, in the Midwest.
And it was then that I realized like,Oh, like this lady's got it going on.
Like she's running this program.
She's doing all these amazing things.
Maybe being a registered dietitian.
Would not be so bad.
Um, so I kept working for her and thisis employee wellness kind of when it
was on Like the forefront of employeewellness like this wasn't happening yet
(02:46):
Um, because it was in the 90s right, umAnd this entirely was not talked about not
so much It was very kind of so the factthat we were counseling employees at these
grocery stores Um was was a pretty...
pretty cool thing, actually.
Um, anyway, so, but I was still pluggingalong in Iowa and my roommate from
(03:09):
Colorado State grew up in Kodiak, Alaska,and she had since moved back to Anchorage,
um, and told me I would love it.
And so I packed up my little Subaruand drove, I don't know, five or six
days up the Alcan and came to Alaska.
And my first job, I got a job, Iactually interviewed on the road.
(03:30):
Uh, somewhere in the Yukon, um, for,I worked for RurAL CAP, which is
Rural Alaska Community Action Program.
And so I worked for their early HeadStart and Head Start programs, uh, and
within like three weeks, I was on thislittle, uh, bush plane with duct tape,
kind of scary, but I was flying outinto these rural communities in Western
(03:52):
Alaska, um, totally had, you know, allof my Prior teachings of what I was
supposed to do were just wiped out.
I was just totally fell in love withAlaska, um, and the Alaska Native
population, uh, and worked out there.
And then I decided, hey, I reallyshould do my dietetic internship, get
(04:13):
my graduate certificate and move onto becoming a registered dietitian.
So, uh, the University of Alaska Anchoragehad a dietetic internship program.
Um, so I did my internship here.
I was one of five students that year.
Um, we did not have an undergraduate,uh, didactic program in dietetics at
that time, just the internship component.
(04:34):
Um, and so I, you know, became aregistered dietitian, got a job, met a
guy, uh, you know, and, you know, sworeI was looking for jobs back in Colorado.
But I always say, you know, Three kidslater and a house and some chickens
and dogs and all the rest of it.
(04:55):
I'm still in Alaska.
Um, so this is way morestory than you probably want.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
But so I then spent probably, I think Ispent 18 years, um, Mostly, I did work at,
uh, the Alaska Native Hospital a littlebit with South Central Foundation, uh,
there, but, uh, quickly moved over to,uh, Providence Alaska Medical Center,
(05:18):
uh, and did, uh, about eight years orten years in outpatient counseling, uh,
primarily focused in diabetes education,um, and outpatient nutrition counseling,
um, and then moved into the acute careside and for Eight years was a diabetes
specialist, um, working with glycemiamanagement and diabetes care and, uh, for,
(05:43):
uh, patients admitted to the hospital.
Um, and the didact, the directorof the undergraduate program at the
time, I'd known her for, here at UAA,I'd known her for a very long time.
Um, and, um, Kept asking me, like, whenare you going to come teach with us?
When are you going to come teach with us?
I'd been an adjunct instructor for alot of years, um, and I love teaching.
(06:07):
And so I took a, I took aleap and left my dream job.
I always say my diabetes specialistjob was my dream job, um, and left
that and came to UAA five years ago.
So this is my sixth year, um,as full time faculty, uh, here
at the University, uh, and.
Yeah, it's been, it's been a wild ride,and great, and super fun to dive into a
(06:33):
whole, you know, I felt like I was youngenough that I had another career left in
me, um, so, yeah, so that's how I'm here.
Ah, that's such a great story,and it sounds like you're somebody
who's, uh, quite comfortabletaking, taking leaps, so.
Uh, you mentioned that, uh, I thinkit was your past roommate, um, that
(06:56):
was from Kodiak and thought thatyou would love it in Alaska and
you, you packed up your Subaru.
I think you said, um, I usedto have one of those too.
Fun car.
Um, so had you been to Alaska before,before you packed up and, you know,
So do you remember some of yourfirst impressions when you arrived?
(07:22):
Yes.
So, uh, for any of your viewers that haveever driven the Alcan, um, it's beautiful.
And I came up in the end of August.
So in the Yukon territory, inthe interior, it's beautiful.
It was fall.
So, uh, so the, the first thing reallyis just you're out in the middle of
nowhere or it felt for me at the timethat I was out in the middle of nowhere
(07:43):
and just all of these fall colorsand it was super, super gorgeous.
Um, coming into Anchorage actuallywhen you, uh, you actually drive
through a town called Palmer, whichis one of our, uh, more of our
agriculture Titan communities here.
Um, which is amazing and still some ofmy favorite views of these mountains that
(08:04):
you, that you view when you drive in.
Um, and I was like, Oh mygosh, this is so amazing.
And then I quickly hit, uh,what we would consider to not be
the greatest part of Anchorage.
Um, And, you know, all of a suddenI was like, Oh, this is Anchorage.
(08:25):
And I was petrified.
I had a, yes, I had a total panicattack, you know, as I'm driving
by, like, you know, strip clubs.
I'm just like, Oh my gosh, what did I do?
And Anchorage is a, you know,it's a, it's a Western city.
It's, it's, it's very mixed and, um,you You know, it's not a huge city.
(08:48):
Um, and so, yeah, so that wasone of my, my initial reactions.
Obviously, you know, there, there's alot of beautiful parts of Anchorage.
The other thing that really got meis when you watch the news, at least
when you used to watch local TV.
Before streaming.
So, um, I remember watching the news.
I'm in this hotel room.
I haven't moved into an apartment yet.
(09:09):
I just got here and when they do theweather up here, they do the lower 48.
So they'll talk about everythingthat's going on, you know, in the
lower 48 and then they take theglobe and they like rotate it.
So you like come up and here at homeand I burst into tears because I
was like, I'm so far away from home.
(09:32):
Like I had, that's whenit actually hit me.
Not the drive, not the week longdrive, but the, Oh my heavens.
Like they had to rotatethe earth to show Alaska.
Um, so that was one of my otherbiggest, you know, kind of, Oh my gosh.
Um, but you know, obviouslyI'm still here in 2023.
(09:54):
So things, things worked out okay.
Yeah, it sounds like it.
Um, and it is remarkable.
I've had the incredibleopportunity to visit Anchorage.
Uh, definitely need to give a shout outto Paul Wasco, the ePortfolio Coordinator
at University of Alaska Anchorage, um,because he has just been such a Wonderful
(10:19):
connector, um, between, uh, Jeff Yan,uh, Digication's co founder and CEO and
myself with the UAA community there.
And we had this incredible, um,opportunity to, you know, now visit
the campus several times and Itwas so striking to me how Anchorage
(10:43):
is, you know, very much a city.
How quickly you can really feelcompletely remote and in, you
know, fully immersed in the city.
And different kinds of experiences,whether you're seeing glaciers or,
you know, we joke about moose spottingon, before you've seen one, you really
(11:08):
don't know how big they really are.
They're very big.
Yeah, and I remember on one of ourearly visits, it was springtime
there and seeing, you know, differentflowers that were growing there
that I'd never seen in the lower 48.
Yeah, I've lived in New England and theSoutheast and in, um, the, you know,
(11:33):
more like Northern California area, andit was just really, um, so fun to see
all of the, uh, Different variety ofplants and animals and scenery there.
And of course, just this likeconstant view of the mountains.
So as someone that loved the mountains,that probably, even when you had that
moment where you felt a little hard torotate, you know, to see the weather.
(11:58):
I hope also is kind of offeringyou a little bit of feeling of.
You know, connection.
Um, so thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
Uh, and you were also mentioninganother leap that you made where, you
know, you described that you'd foundyour, your dream job, um, but then,
(12:19):
uh, did make this, uh, transition intoteaching in Higher Ed and it's, was
it the kind of community that you hadstarted to connect with at UAA that.
You think kind of solidified that decisionor were there elements about some of
(12:39):
your, you know, prior teaching practicethat kind of led you in that direction?
What do you feel like mighthave been that kind of...
you know, I think it, it was kind ofa, Kind of a lot of different things.
I think, you know, so I'm a little bit ofa, even though I've lived in Alaska for
a long time, I always kind of describemyself as a little bit of a change junkie.
(13:00):
Like, I'm kind of alwayslike, what's next?
What's the next challenge?
What's going to be the next, um, youknow, I remember like after I had my third
child, I am like, okay, like got married,had baby one, two, three, like now what?
You know, like I had that feelinglike, okay, let's go to PA
school, you know, or something,whatever I was doing at the time.
(13:21):
Um, And so, you know, I'd beendoing, I'd been in that position
for eight years and, um, I think thething that always kind of, I found
myself in that role teaching a lot.
So one of my main, so Idid patient education.
So I did diabetes education for patients.
(13:42):
Um, Which, it seems to a lotof people, they're like, Oh,
don't you get tired of diabetes?
And I'm like, No, because my role hereis really to be like an investigator
and a problem solver and figure out.
So different for why?
Yeah.
So every person is so different.
No two people are the same.
I always call diabetes a designer disease.
It's very personalized.
(14:03):
And so, built this rapport with thephysicians and nursing staff and pharmacy
and, you know, kind of was really a.
I felt like a, an integral memberof a, an interdisciplinary team
where I would interview my patientsand really try to figure out, you
know, what is it that got you here?
And so let's, let's figure out thebarriers and let's figure out why,
(14:24):
how it is that you have found yourselfin the hospital and then, you know,
see if I can't help coordinatethat care and transition you to the
outpatient world and, and all of that.
So the interdisciplinary aspectwas really important to me.
And another big part of my rolewas to build a glycemia management
program within the hospital, um,and kind of lead that charge.
(14:48):
And what that really means isgetting physicians, nurses, techs,
pharmacists, to all understand eachother and speak the same language.
Um, and I love that.
I mean, pharmacists are different,totally different than nurses.
Like nurses, I mean, they have to likethink on the fly and then pharmacy
(15:09):
would be all upset because they'revery, not all pharmacists, but some
are like very linear and like, youknow, well, but why would they do that?
They can't do that.
And I'm like, well, they didthat because of this, you know?
And then the physicians aredoing something different.
And so I found myself doing a lotof presentations and education,
and I would let physicians ordifferent people, uh, follow with
(15:31):
me and, um, you know, round with me.
And we were, you know, I hadthe, The advantage of really
hyper focusing on one condition.
So I felt like I couldget really good at that.
Um, where other providers and thingsdon't have that advantage, right?
They have to be experts andso many different things.
So I found myself educating a lot and,um, And so not just patient education,
(15:56):
but then also professional education.
So I think I liked that.
I found that really awesome andinteresting, um, and rewarding, I guess.
Um, and so when this became available,you know, this position at UAA, it
kind of married those things for me.
(16:16):
Um, So, it's obviously higher education,so I'm teaching students, you know, at a
higher, obviously, like at a higher level.
Um, I have the fortunate, I'm totallyfortunate to be able to teach in the
undergraduate and the graduate program,so it, it really, You know, I have a
lot of variety in my student population.
(16:37):
I am in charge of advising.
I knew I was going to be in chargeof advising for our program.
And I've been told I spendway too long with my students.
Um, I remember my coworker whose officeis next to me, she came after I'd had
like my, I don't know, like my fifthadvising session in my first year, she
comes around, she's like, you're notgoing to spend an hour with each person.
(16:59):
Are you?
She's like, you're nevergoing to get anything done.
And I was like, Oh, I was like, Iwas like, okay, well, I like this.
Like it felt like counseling.
So, uh, so it, it utilized my counselingskills, um, to where, you know, so
when we talk about, I know we'lltalk about portfolios, but when we
talk about like, You know, studentsuccess and all of that kind of
(17:22):
stuff, like that felt like good to me.
So I really enjoy theadvising aspect of things.
Um, and yeah, and then it was just,you know, it was like, why not?
Um, you know, I, like I said, Ifelt like I had another, You know, I
kind of had like my first 20 years.
Um, it was like, okay, well, am Igoing to do this for the next 20 or,
(17:46):
or 15 or however long I end up working?
I don't know.
Um, you know, or is there, there'ssomething I had, I felt like I
had enough time to be Good atsomething else, I guess, like
develop and grow professionally.
Um, I will tell people that thatfirst year that I worked full
time as faculty, um, was, I hadn'tworked that hard in a long time.
(18:08):
Uh, and so just everything, youknow, was just so brand new, a whole
different system and everything.
This past summer though,I'm super was super happy.
I took a position as a PRN per diem,Clinical Dietician back at the same
hospital, um, and to kind of makesure my skills were, you know, current
(18:29):
and accurate, and I had so much fun.
I, I really do miss the, um, there is aculture in a hospital, um, and a very,
it's a very social, uh, environment.
Um, and so.
Yeah, so I, there are, there areelements to that that I definitely
miss, but this has been good.
Yeah.
(18:50):
Well, and what an incredible kind ofexperience and, you know, in all of
those different areas for you to be ableto bring to your students now, too, you
know, even the element of the Thingsabout that that you miss because you're
able to kind of pull from that whenyou're communicating with your students
(19:14):
and advocating for them and Um, helpingguide them through the advising, you
know, how lucky those students are tohave somebody that, that committed to the,
the field and also to, to their success.
Um, now I know one of your recentchallenges as someone who said
(19:39):
that they, you know, are kindof looking to, to do new things.
Um, Was the recent kind of accreditation,uh, within dietetics and, uh, could
you share with us a little bit what,what that was like and, um, maybe
at a high level, how Digication mayhave supported some of those efforts?
(20:03):
Oh, for sure.
So, um, so a part of my role hereas assistant professor is I also
this, uh, This other faculty memberthat recruited me, I didn't know
that she was moving up the ladder.
Um, so she was, she's a very goodfriend of mine, uh, but she was the
director of our didactic program indietetics, uh, which is our Bachelor
(20:25):
of Science degree in dietetics.
And, um, So, in my second semester ofteaching, I became the director of our,
of our program, which means that, um, thatin addition to those other things, I'm
really in charge of outside accreditation.
So, we are accredited by anorganization called ACEND.
Um, I couldn't tell you what itstands for, Accreditation Council for
(20:49):
Dietetics Education, I don't know.
Anyway.
That sounds, that's so terrible.
I should have it writtendown here somewhere.
No, we all have.
You know, I'll have to try tomemorize so many different acronyms.
Yeah, they are crediting bodyand our, um, our larger body.
So, uh, so would theyaccredit our program?
(21:13):
So we're accredited as a didactic programin dietetics, um, which essentially is
Just the undergraduate portion, whenthe student completes that, they're
eligible, uh, they receive what we calla verification statement in addition
to their degree, um, and it allowsthem to move into graduate education,
another accredited program where they dosupervise practice or those internship
(21:34):
hours, uh, that a lot of programs have,um, and then are able to sit for the
registered dietitian nutritionist exam.
Um, so we're accredited for seven years.
Um, Or were accredited forseven years now we are again.
Uh, which is great.
Um, and so I sort of found myself inyear four needing to start the process
(21:58):
of, uh, writing a self-study andproving to our accrediting body that we.
Should be reaccredited.
And wow what a process.
I learned a lot about theuniversity as a whole.
And so we, you know you, like manyof your viewers, have programs that
(22:19):
you write these gigantic Um, and thenwe had last fall, so in the fall of
2022, we had some site reviewers,uh, external reviewers come up to
Alaska, um, and do a site review.
And so, a part of that site visit, um,is, you know, they want tons and tons and
(22:40):
tons of evidence, uh, that you're thatyou're doing what you say you're doing.
So you write this big report andthey're like, yeah, that's great.
Okay.
Now we want to see, you know, theproof that you're actually doing this.
Um, so in what I was told, uh, as far as,you know, I, I talked to lots of different
people who had gone through these, Uh,site visits in other professions, uh,
(23:03):
like our dental program had just gonethrough a site visit, um, to other ACEND
accredited programs in the lower 48,you know, what, what do you, how, you
know, what's the best way to do this?
I had, I interviewed our actual sitereviewers to say, Hey, like, how do
you want, All of these documents.
I mean, it's like, I felt likeit was just so overwhelming.
(23:26):
Um, the amount of informationthat they wanted to have on site.
And they said, well, some people willdo a Blackboard shell, like create like
a, a dev shell, like a, um, you know,and, and just plug things in there and
then you give us access to Blackboard.
Um, otherwise they found it to be reallysuccessful to do like a Google drive.
(23:46):
And then just have all of yourfolders and, you know, organized.
And I was just like, that sounds awful.
Like as a reviewer, like how you could.
open up each of those documents.
I mean, I felt like you would want tohave like four screens so you could,
(24:07):
and that tells you, yeah, that tells youI'm probably should not be a reviewer.
Um, but it just seems very, uh, Justlike two dimensional, I guess, maybe,
uh, if that's a good word to use, um,so, you know, I was like, well, how,
like, how would you, like, you wouldclose something and then you would open
(24:29):
another document and, you know, andthen the older days, you know, you had
portfolios, you had binders, right?
So, because we use ePortfolio in ourprogram, um, You know, for our students
to show competence and to have thefact that they've met all of these
competencies as a part of our accreditedprogram, um, I asked if they would be
willing to let me use an ePortfolioto house and to showcase all of our on
(24:54):
site evidence and documents for them.
Uh, they said, I have no idea what you'retalking about, but that sounds great.
I mean, they sort of, they sort of knew.
I think, you know, there areother, you know, kinds of things
that they had maybe, you know,dabbled with in their own programs.
Um, so I reached out to Paul Wasko andhe was wonderful in helping me do this.
(25:16):
And I essentially just built a giganticportfolio, um, which, you know, to have.
You know, so it was super organized underall of, you know, we have, I think, eight
different standards and underneath allof those standards, there are specific,
uh, you know, student examples of workand all of that kind of stuff that had to
(25:37):
be as a part of those on site, you know,documents that needed to be ready, um,
and Paul was, you know, Super gracious towork with the reviewers to make sure that
they had access and knew how to do it.
We knew it was goingto be FERPA compliant.
There were, you know,some things like that.
It's, it was great because I knew itwas locked down, you know, so it didn't
(25:59):
have to have, it wasn't public facing.
Um, they knew that theyjust had access to it.
And one of the beautiful things was thatthey didn't have to be present and in our
Uh, you know, in our drive, like, right?
So, like, I mean, I guess a GoogleDrive, I could, you know, give
them access to that ahead of time.
Um, but the, the feedback thatI got from our reviewers was
(26:23):
really like, ah, this is so great.
We were able to, you know, we satat the hotel and we could just
look at stuff and listen to things.
And.
You know, all of that kind of stuff.
So, um, so yeah, it worked out reallyswimmingly and all of the things, you
know, the, um, one of the nice thingsfor me because I use Portfolio in my
(26:47):
classes, um, is that it forced me to kindof become You know, like a super user.
Uh, so, you know, I, because I wasuploading all different types of files.
So, we run an online program.
So, it was a wonderful way forme to upload videos that students
had developed and created.
I could share, um, you know, audiorecordings that they had done.
(27:12):
I could share, you know, a lot ofdifferent Types of media, um, as
far as what I thought in an onlineprogram, you know, really highlights,
you know, what we're doing here andthe quality of online education that
we're providing for our students.
Um, so, but it did, you know, it, soI always have my students build these
(27:32):
portfolios, so it was really good for me.
It was very humbling to be like,Okay, like I'm gonna build something
from scratch and kind of do that.
So it worked out really well.
Wonderful.
I'm so glad to hear that.
And I would love to hear a littlebit about how You know, you were
able to, um, craft this incrediblekind of presentation of your program.
(27:56):
How are you using these kinds of toolswith the students in your courses?
I think Dietetics has had a prettylong history with Digication.
I believe it may have started in2014, because it was one of the
first programs, I think, to jumpon board because of this program.
We'll need to be able to record whatthe students were doing and see their
(28:21):
growth towards particular standardsthat they were working towards.
Yeah, I, my predecessor,uh, Kendra Sticca, Dr.
Sticca, so she's the onewho recruited me, moved out.
Um, but she's the one that reallybrought, you know, she was on board
with, portfolio Um, and so I inheritedher courses that she had started.
(28:41):
So I came in 2018.
So she had really just started kindof building that in our curriculum.
Um, and, you know, and, and even to thisday, I was actually kind of surprised
because this is what I came into.
So I just sort of made the assumptionthat this is what programs do.
This is the kind of stuff that they usebecause it made a lot of sense to me.
(29:02):
Um, I think like prior to when I was goingthrough this site visit self study stuff,
we also had to adopt, uh, 2022 standards.
Um, so within the ACEND communityof, um, directors, we had lots of
meetings kind of going through, youknow, with um, you know, just like
(29:23):
Zoom meetings, whatever, um, goingthrough the different standards, what
had changed, all of that kind of stuff.
And one of the major things thathad changed was that now our ACEND,
our accrediting body is reallyrequiring us to better document,
um, achievement of competence.
So, you know, have they actually,have your students actually met
(29:44):
the competency and how do you.
How do you show that?
And so I was like, Oh, you know, weuse this ePortfolio in our program
and all of our students build anePortfolio and I was blown away by how
many people were like, you do what?
Um, and, and so it was actuallyreally, really helpful.
And I hope, you know, and I think thereare some other programs and program
directors that are starting to thinkabout how, um, you know, other than just
(30:08):
saying, yes, check, I did an assignment,yes, check, I got a C or better, check,
you know, that kind of stuff that there'sa way that you can actually have students
demonstrate their level of competence.
Um, so what we do throughout ourprogram is in our, uh, DN 100.
It's a 100 level, it's calledthe Profession of Dietetics.
(30:28):
It's a one credit class.
Um, it's for our pre nagers.
Um, I teach that class and they learnhow to build a portfolio, an e portfolio.
And we have a templatethat we use, obviously.
We're big on templates.
I think everybody starts somethingfrom scratch is not a good idea.
Um.
(30:49):
And so, students really get theopportunity to use our dietetic templates.
I tell my students, it'sreally like the bucket.
It's the main bucket.
Um, and they, you know, they just,they learn how to use it, for one,
so they're not intimidated when theyare taking some 400, 300 level class.
(31:11):
And now not only do they have to use it.
Do this big project that canbe intimidating, but they
have to do it in ePortfolio.
So I like to use that 100 level entrypoint as, Hey, this is the purpose,
you know, over the course of theprogram, you're going to be doing
all these different assignments.
You're going to, you know, that, youknow, we utilize specific projects
(31:31):
and assignments to Measure, you know,a competency in our program, um,
and you know, they use, they use theportfolio to, um, to demonstrate that.
And so they'll, you know,they do a personal statement.
They learn how to do this, you know, thebeaut, the pretty stuff if they want,
um, and just, and then start kind of alittle introduced into using reflection.
(31:55):
Uh, as a tool of, you know, making sure,like, do I really know what that means?
What does that mean to me?
Like, what does thatmean to somebody else?
What does that mean for my profession?
Um, and so we introduce it thereand then throughout the program,
they can kind of slowly work on it.
But the primary hub is, uh, I teach adietetic, a senior seminar in dietetics.
(32:18):
It's a year long coursein their senior year.
And it's at that point that we reallydive deep into all the competencies.
We have group discussions and such.
Um, my students do a self assessment.
They go through, um, and rank themselvesand whether or not they feel like they've
already met a specific competency.
Usually there's two things.
(32:38):
four or five that they saythey still need some work.
They identify outside opportunities,webinars, working with another
organization, um, some other way thatthey work with me on figuring out how
they can better meet a competency.
And then they have, we have a one page,um, for each, you know, designated to each
(33:00):
competency in their ePortfolio where theyupload any evidence that they might have.
that shows that they've metthat competency, whether
that's a project or assignment.
Sometimes it's pictures of themvolunteering somewhere, um,
you know, whatever it may be.
They write a description as far aslike what that all, you know, you know,
(33:21):
what that's, their evidence entails,but then the bigger piece is that they
have to write a reflection on why theyfeel like they've met that competency.
So we have, I think thereare, 26 or 30 competencies.
So it takes a while.
Um, and you know, they kind of take thatwhole year and I use the portfolio as
(33:43):
my means of not awarding a bachelor'sdegree, but of awarding that verification
statement from our accreditor.
That says, yes, you can moveon into supervised practice.
Um, I've had students that thengo on to utilize their portfolio.
They might tweak it a little bit,um, and they've used it to apply
to graduate school internships,if they're out of Alaska.
(34:08):
Um, so we try to, I don't want to saysell it, but, you know, try to say
like, hey, this isn't just, you know,it's just not a program assignment.
Maybe you never look at it again.
Who knows?
Um, but, you know, youcan utilize it after.
So for us here at UAA,it is very important.
Very much kind of the, you know, it's,it's a thread throughout our entire
(34:31):
program, um, which is why it felt sonormal, I guess, for us to utilize
it for our, to demonstrate that ourprogram has met the accreditation
competencies that we have, you know,or standards that we had to meet.
Here's a preview of what's coming upnext in part two of my conversation
(34:51):
with Amy Urbanus, assistant professorin the dietetics and nutrition program
at University of Alaska, Anchorage.
I always try to tell students that likeyou really can utilize, you know, portions
of or all of or whatever you can utilize.
A portfolio in providing you know, insharing like your depth and breadth of
(35:13):
experience, even though in a resume,it may not jump out at, uh, um, you
know, at somebody, at somebody who'slooking to hire somebody, um, you know,
in a resume may not jump out as like,you you know, you look at their work
experience, you're like, oh, okay, well.
You're pretty green, you know, it'slike there's not a whole lot, but in
(35:34):
any portfolio, they might have done someamazing project that gives them an example
of what they're capable of, um, and howthey might fit within their organizations.
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