HOW DIETITIANS CAN BE ACTIVISTS: Priscila Camargo Reis’ VRG Intern Experience
Aiming to improve my studies as a dietitian student, learn more about plant-based diets, and be helpful again to vegetarian activism, I applied for an internship position at The Vegetarian Resource Group. I also wanted to be updated on the latest sustainability research and improve my English and my writing skills even more, especially posting on blogs. I was very glad and proud to be selected.
I’ve read many articles about vegan nutrition, sustainability, how to do interviews, asking for ingredient information from companies, organizing my own work schedule, checking information (as responsible journalists do), and how to write reviews, for instance. At the beginning the amount of reading made me anxious, but I handled it quite easily.
I worked on six projects in about three months. The first one was delightful and easy to do: a review of a vegan restaurant. The second one consisted of a piece about tips for teenagers who became vegetarian and how to deal with their parents. I collected personal answers from other interns and volunteers about their own life history and their points of view about some issues. They were very collaborative. That project contributed to my network and allowed me to meet such interesting people. I liked having an experience with investigative reporting and writing in a journaling style.
I asked to cancel the third project, because I failed in creating a new Brazilian recipe. I am a creative person, but this skill didn’t match with my cooking ability. I felt relief to move on to other projects.
The next project I worked on gave me the gratifying opportunity to work with Odette Sanchez, a Mexican Dietitian who did her MSc in Nutrition and Health in The Netherlands. We’ve written an article comparing academic training in Brazil, Mexico, and The Netherlands in regards to vegetarianism and sustainability. It was interesting to see how similar our experiences were and how things changed (for the better) in the last two decades.
After that I faced two challenging projects that I wanted so much to be involved in: A meal plan based on Brazilian food; and a review of a new scientific paper which researched food systems and environmental impacts.
The meal plan was very fun at the beginning, but then I had to improve my patience skills, as it took much more time than I expected. This taught me lessons about scheduling and perspectives as well as team work. I worked more than one month with Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, the VRG Nutrition Advisor. She was always very polite, patient, respectful, and diplomatic. I enjoyed using my creativity in this project. It made me remember how rich and diverse Brazilian food is, but it also me to think about my own diet, which can be much healthier than it’s been. Another good thing this project brought regarded the cultural differences: how it is necessary, sometimes, to explain how our culture works, how important it is to respect other cultures, and to not impose our patterns on others. So it is important to be open-minded and learn about different eating habits, but at the same time to be flexible about our own culture. In other words, balance between being proud and respectful for your culture, and being open to hear other points of view. The meal plan showed how we can balance health and traditional habits, too.
I continued working with Reed to write a scientific review. It was very challenging to understand everything and even more challenging to sum it up. Reed was great in helping me to reduce my text to fit in the word limit (it is still a very hard task for me). It was great to read the most recent data about sustainability and diets. And it was clear how more plant-based a meal is, the less is the impact on the planet and on human health. Such research is very important to show the benefits of vegetarianism/veganism and the urgent importance to reduce global meat intake. They help to create public policies for food businesses. In the end, I was very excited and proud of myself for being able to conclude this duty.
Working as an intern at The VRG helped me to learn more about other scientific methods, blog writing, and to enrich my vocabulary. I learned different ways to name some food (like breads) and differences in American and British English, new names of ingredients, vegetables, greens, and meals, and to broaden cultural differences in eating habits. Of course it was an experience which improved my CV, as well.
During the internship I experienced collab work, and how editing teams work. Sometimes I’ve got a little bit frustrated for a second, because I wanted to add more things in my text, but the last version was already published. That contributed to making me grow up dealing with frustration, and being more simple and pragmatic, and accepting others’ opinions. Of course I have much more to work on. The internship gave me the opportunity to develop a more clear and self-confident communication. At the same time I was gentle and diplomatic. I could say my points of view, and also be more flexible and comprehensive. I accepted the impermanence better, too, balancing some unexpected situations (in personal life) and was more compassionate about my flaws, my results, my efforts, and about how I see the contribution of the work I did. In this internship I also had the opportunity to increase my network.
But what I would like to highlight is how I’ve changed my mind about activism. The VRG internship made me realize that education and information are also an activist practice and a very important one. It can help people get in contact with scientific data, learn from other like minded people’s experiences, and help them to overcome challenges. It informs the reasons for being vegetarian, and spreads information about plant-based nutritious meals and where to find food in your area. It was the actions, life examples, protests, and especially the information that helped veganism spread out and increase so much in the last decades. Blogs, videos, documentary films, conversations, research, meal recipes, books, meal plans… Which means education… All of that was extremely important to the movement. I see, now, that dietitians can have a great importance in the activism scene. My supervisor Charles contributed to remind me of that. I appreciate it!
The midway assessment was a very important part of the process! Charles and Reed were, all the time, very helpful, good teachers/tutors (including about grammar and cultural issues), present during my projects, comprehensive, and patient. It was very easy to communicate with them. Thank you very much!
I am grateful to The VRG, for allowing me to work with them. It was a process with freedom and discipline. I am glad for coming back to be helpful to the vegetarian scene and for having the opportunity to do something that I love: to write. Now, I am more convinced about continuing my studies and the promotion of vegetarian diets. Thank you, The Vegetarian Resource Group!
Priscila Reis is a Brazilian Biologist, who holds an MSc in Environmental Education and is currently a Dietitian student.
See some of her projects at:
https://www.vrg.org/blog/2023/09/07/master-veggie-in-santos-brazil/
https://www.vrg.org/blog/2023/11/20/vegan-brazilian-meal-plan/
For information abouit VRG internships, see https://www.vrg.org/student/index.php
To support VRG education and work with interns, join at https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php
Or donate at www.vrg.org/donate
