Peer Nutrition Advisors Help the Baylor Community Flourish Through Hands-On Advice and Expertise

Currently, six students majoring in Nutrition Sciences with a Pre-Dietetics concentration are serving as Peer Nutrition Advisors, providing the Baylor University community with nutrition education, guidance, and personalized plans through one-on-one partnerships. The Peer Nutrition Advisement Program, assisted by the Department of Human Sciences and Design (HSD) in Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, is a free resource open to all Baylor students, staff, and faculty. 

Senior Grace Bons, Peer Nutrition Advisor and Team Lead, has served since her junior year. She said the program benefits the Baylor community, particularly first-year students, by giving them a resource for successfully adapting to college. 

“It can be intimidating to tackle your nutrition—and it can appear complicated—but we break it down and give our clients simple, easy ways to refine their nutrition habits,” Bons said. “College is a time when a lot is changing, and you begin to make more decisions for yourself regarding lifestyle and nutrition habits. I think people want to take their health into their own hands, and this program gives them that opportunity.”

Upon registering for the program, an advisor will connect with the client for three sessions, analyzing their dietary goals and providing healthy eating habits backed by evidence-based nutrition principles. The advisors are mentored weekly by Stanley Wilfong, MS, RD, LD, FAND, Senior Lecturer and Program Coordinator for Nutrition Sciences.

Bons said the program can be tailored to fit a multitude of client needs. Generally, the first session involves information intake so advisors can understand their client’s current eating habits, nutrition goals, dietary restrictions, and exercise. 

“Asking for help in anything is vulnerable, but especially in regard to your nutrition,” Bons said. 

Bons likes to focus not just on the physical aspects of nutrition, but also the emotional ones as well, often shifting her advice based on a client’s relationship to food. As one solution, she educates clients about intuitive eating, which involves becoming in tune with your body’s hunger cues and eating based on those natural signals.  

After assessing a client's goals and current situation, advisors then develop specific plans in the following sessions, often starting with basic nutrition education. This can include discussing MyPlate, which Bons explained is a “new and improved version of the food pyramid.” They take time to educate on each food group and its value, working alongside a client to discover how to best implement that aspect of nutrition into their lifestyle.

Peer Nutrition Advisors use hands-on tools with clients as well, such as looking over Baylor’s dining hall websites and curating a nutrition plan that parallels those options. In addition, they also lead dining hall or grocery store tours with clients, helping to point out healthy options in those environments. For clients interested in gaining cooking knowledge, Peer Nutrition Advisors can use the food lab at HSD’s Mary Gibbs Jones Family and Consumer Sciences Building for cooking demonstrations. 

Regarding more specific nutrition needs, Bons said the team has that covered, too. Built on the foundations of HSD’s Nutrition Sciences classes, Bons has seen her knowledge continue to grow and impact her role, providing her with greater expertise to serve her clients.

“Every Nutrition Sciences class I have taken has positively affected how I do my job and has given me a well-rounded perspective on my clients’ nutrition goals,” Bons said. “For example, I took the Nutrition for Sports and Fitness course, which taught me how to advise athletes. We have several clients who ask for nutrition plans when training for events like the Bearathon, and I can apply exactly what I learned in my classes to help them.”

With her ultimate professional aspirations of becoming a registered dietitian, Bons said the experience as a Peer Nutrition Advisor has been “one of the best things” she has ever done. She said she has been able to build her confidence and ability to share knowledge in one-on-one client settings, and she believes it will give her a leg up when applying for grad schools.

“This opportunity has sparked my passion for the career. It comes up in every graduate school interview I have done because of the uniqueness of the program,” Bons said. “This job involves a lot of problem solving and collaboration with my fellow Peer Nutrition Advisors—that is fun, and it also nurtures the kind of skills that post-graduate institutions look for.”

The current Peer Nutrition Advisors invite the Baylor community to learn about the program and utilize the free resource. Bons suggests it can be considered a commitment to one’s personal growth.

“Nutrition builds a great foundation for every aspect of daily flourishing, and we work on making sure each of our clients meet their goals, no matter what they are,” Bons said. “If you’re thinking about it, just sign up to participate! We want to work with everyone—we will always tailor our advice to your personal needs—and it is fun for us as advisors because we absolutely love nutrition.”

More information about the Peer Nutrition Advisement Program or to sign up for a session can be found here.