{"id":656,"date":"2015-04-01T18:01:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T18:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=656"},"modified":"2018-02-08T13:36:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:36:05","slug":"constant-guides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/constant-guides\/","title":{"rendered":"Constant Guides"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Visions-website-guides\"<\/a>
\nNearly 30 years ago, Sue Bailey knew the poised, serious student sitting in the front row was destined to be a professor.<\/p>\n

The student spent 15 years working as a registered dietician, and today, Melinda Anderson teaches and directs the program from which she graduated.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe saw something in me that I didn\u2019t see,\u201d said Anderson, who graduated from Tech\u2019s human ecology: food, nutrition and dietetics program in 1989. \u201cI didn\u2019t appreciate at the time how much confidence she had in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The relationships Anderson had with Bailey and her other mentor, Cathy Cunningham, Tech\u2019s now-retired dietetics professor, are not exceptional in the School of Human Ecology. Instead, they are the rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Anderson\u2019s door was always open and that really helped me build trust in her,\u201d said Beth Miller, \u201913 human ecology: food, nutrition and dietetics. \u201cI may be a little biased, but the relationships the professors form with students here are incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller, now in graduate school in Florida, came to Tech for the nutrition program and to play Golden Eagle softball. She discovered her passion for sports nutrition at Tech doing research with Cunningham about the effects of nutrition on her cross-country teammates.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Melinda<\/a>
Melinda Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The School of Human Ecology has prepared students to help improve quality of life for children and families for all of Tech\u2019s 100-year history. The program has changed over the years, but its focus has remained the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remind myself and I remind my faculty, the students are the only reason we\u2019re here,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe are here for them, to help them be successful in whatever they want to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s open door policy extends beyond normal working hours and beyond a student\u2019s time at Tech. She helps prospective students learn about the program and enroll at Tech during weekend conversations. After they graduate, she keeps up with former students\u2019 lives and careers through email and over coffee.<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s motivation is partly due to the example Bailey set when she was her professor and mentor.<\/p>\n

Bailey invited Anderson back twice on temporary appointments to teach and help with research. Since 2001, Anderson has been a fixture at Tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with teaching; I loved being with the students,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI knew when I came back that this was what I needed to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey came to a similar, and similarly unexpected, realization about teaching. She had another job lined up when until her mentor told her about an interview at Northern Michigan University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day before my graduation, a deliveryman knocked on my door with plane tickets to Michigan,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cI never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together, the two women have more than 40 years\u2019 experience working in a program that has been part of Tech for a century. In 1915, what is now human ecology was domestic sciences and, later, home economics.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s name and content of its courses have changed with American lifestyles, habits and workforce needs.<\/p>\n

When people stopped sewing, the fashion program shifted to merchandising and trend prediction, though students still learn some sewing with focus on apparel and accessory design. When Americans stopped cooking at home, Tech created the Friday Caf\u00e9 to teach students to run a commercial kitchen, including health inspections, calorie counts and portion sizes.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sue-Bailey\"<\/a>
Sue Bailey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cEach faculty works above and beyond to help each student. I am very fortunate to work with faculty and staff who value each student,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cOur students come into the school and they say, you treat me like family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have seniors come in and thank me for my help. I wouldn\u2019t be here if not for Dr. Bailey and Dr. Cunningham. It\u2019s easy for me to help these students because they helped me. I tell my students to carry that forward for someone else when they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year since she was hired by Sodexo, the nation\u2019s largest employer of dieticians, Rachel Werkheiser, \u201911 human ecology: food, nutrition and dietetics, has paid it forward by annually supervising a post-bachelor\u2019s student in getting the required 1,200 hours of on-the-job work to become a licensed dietician.<\/p>\n

It is her way of helping her profession and paying forward the help she received as a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything Dr. Anderson does for her students, I feel like this is something I have to do,\u201d said Werkheiser, who earned her a dietetics degree after nearly a decade as an accountant. \u201cSomebody did it for me; it\u2019s our responsibility to continue our profession and help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson says she is ready to help usher in the next century at the School of Human Ecology. An 18-month expansion of South Hall, completed this spring, is helping to set the course for the future, which will include an expansion of human ecology degree options at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel a great responsibility to the previous directors, especially to Dr. Bailey as my mentor, to do whatever I can,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are doing great things in human ecology and looking forward to creating new memories for our students, faculty and staff. We\u2019re moving ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 30 years ago, Sue Bailey knew the poised, serious student sitting in the front row was destined to be a professor. The student spent 15 years working as a registered dietician, and today, Melinda Anderson teaches and directs the program from which she graduated. \u201cShe saw something in me that I didn\u2019t see,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spring15"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1185,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/1185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}