Student Nutritionist

Name: Joy Gemelli

Age: 28

Major: As soon as I finish my thesis, I’ll have a MS in Nutrition Dietetics

Occupation: Nutritionist

Years with Univesity Health Service: One and one-half

What does your job entail?

I counsel students for the most part. They come to me if they’re over weight and unhappy about it. They come to me if they have high cholesterol, or if they’re a vegetarian and want to learn how to eat well.

Ive spoken to a number of sports teams and to sororities. I’ve spoken to a Christian organization on campus.

What do you like best about your job?

I like talking to the students. I enjoy, it sounds corny, but I enjoy helping them because some of them really don’t know some things that I take for granted. They really do appreciate it.

It’s meeting a ton of different people all the time … I never get bored with it.

What do you like least about your job?

I don’t dislike anything about the job at all. It’s pretty normal. I go to work and deal with the day’s appointments.

Do you have a favorite on-the-job anecdote?

It’s nice for me when I have people who return every week. It’s nice when I get a lot of success in a week. When everyone loses weight, everyone sticks to a diet or something like that.

I’ve had a number of those (rewarding cases), truthfully. These are the people who are motivated. They come in here knowing what they want, and I just tell them how to obtain it. If I could package motivation, that would be the greatest thing.

Why did you choose this job?

I want to do corporate consulting. I want to combine my nutrition and my exercise phys (degrees) and do consulting in the future. I really like that a lot, so it’s kind of what I want to do in the future.

How does your job benefit NIU students?

It gives them knowledge on something they don’t know anything about. It just gives them information. Everything I tell them is for their benefit, basically, or their health. Basically, it’s all health-related.