Here’s something I never thought I’d say: I’m a MAN, and I’m super excited about it.

My name is Maude, and I’m writing today to tell you a bit more about the Master of Applied Nutrition (MAN) program at the University of Guelph. I received my diploma in the mail near the end of October, and that huge envelope stuffed in our tiny apartment-sized mailbox made me literally jump up and down. For me, the experience was so much more than building my toolkit of nutrition knowledge and resources, it was developing the personal skills I needed to succeed as a registered dietitian. 

For many of you, as for many of us, exploring the options available to us after undergrad is an overwhelming and stressful project. It involves deciding where you’re willing to live, what sort of program you’re after, what experiences are make or break for you, and a million other things like distance from SO, family, and finances. These things are all important, and you need good information to make an informed decision.

The overview:

The practicum portion is broken down into three categories, or placements in: nutrition care, foodservices and management, and population and public health. For our cohort, a list of “streams” was created by geographic location and we got to choose our top 3. In the MAN program, each internship placement is attached to a semester and consists of 40 days. Each placement site has different needs in terms of how many weekly hours they require an intern, so some placements are 3 days per week, and some are 4. We went to class every Monday of the fall and winter semesters, from 8:30am to 5:30pm. In addition to the two semesters of classes, there is a research project runs the entire length of the program. It is organized so that each semester, one key phase of the research project is completed. These projects are pre-determined by the research advisor and you get to choose your top 2 or 3, and a topic will be assigned to you, and in my year, a partner. 

The day to day: 

Since all my placements were in the Niagara region, that’s where I decided to move when I began this experience. Because the program is course-based and practicum-based simultaneously, every Monday in the 10 week fall and winter semesters is spent commuting (for me) to Guelph for a 9-hour class day. This isn’t the case for all students in the cohort, in fact almost half of the placement streams made it possible to actually live in Guelph! I don’t need to tell anyone how terrible traffic can be in the GTA, so no need to explain why I was leaving home at 6:00am to be on time! Let’s not even get into driving home in rush hour traffic on a Monday night. Some placements had assignments to complete at home on top of the work day, and some did not. Class work was always on the back of my mind as I balanced group projects, individual assignments, and placement readings. Often, I ended up doing hours of work on the weekends, too. Not all placements are created equally! In my foodservice placement, I had a few weeks of being onsite for 7am, in primary care I was working 9-5, and in my community placement I was working evenings and weekends. There can be a lot of variety, but I hear that’s the spice of life.

The bonuses: 

Do you need a vacation? Even though this is a very rigorous program where weekends become a thing of the past for weeks at a time, because it is semester based and each placement is 40 days, there are times when you can have 1 month to 6 weeks off depending on how many days per week your placements are. This is basically unheard of in any other practicum route!  

The research project in my year was in teams. It is can be very daunting to do an original research project on your own, but this made it so much easier! Not only do you have the support of an advisor, there is also a course, and a peer to back you up and see you through it. 

Flexibility to diversify your experience - I got to tack on an extra placement to spend some time in inpatient and acute care. This was not built into my personal placement stream. 

Three golden nuggets:

1. Accept that this 1 year of your life is going to kick your butt, but it’ll be worth it. Get great at time management, self-motivation, flexibility, and improvisation. 

2. Nothing is worth losing sleep over, get those 7-8 hours and indulge in self-care where you can. A healthy you will make for a much more enjoyable experience.   

3. Not everything you do will be for marks, and you’ll have to get used to the idea of working for the sake of self-development! 

When I think back on those golden tips, it sounds like I had it all figured out when I was going through internship -- definitely not! Those lessons and learnings are the key things I brought with me into my working life, though. Everything you learn about nutrition, coaching, and caring for others won’t serve you well if you aren’t your best self.