IMU Discover the Future Workshop: Introducing to Nutrition and Dietetics to Pre-University and High School Students

On 20 May 2023, IMU‘s Division of Nutrition and Dietetics (N&D) hosted its pioneer extension of the Student Exploratory Workshop (SEW) in collaboration with the university’s Marketing Department. This one-day workshop aims to provide an in-depth experience to pre-university students, inclusive of high school students who have yet or have completed their pre-university/SPM/O-Level studies and are keen to explore N&D as a degree option. We had a total of 55 participants from public and private high schools together with pre-university students.

This one-day workshop was filled with various fun and hands-on activities with each activity catering to the various aspects of skills acquired as dietitians and nutritionists. The workshop began with ‘Know Your Body Status – Muscle or Fat’ activity whereby participants were exposed to body composition assessments and its interpretation. Participants had the opportunity to assess and evaluate their body composition with the assistance of expert faculty members and our dietetic graduands who had completed their final year training.

Next, the ‘Build a Healthy Snack’ and ‘Lunch-Know Your Calories’ were activities that tested the nutritional intake of the participants. They had to assemble and calculate the calories of their chosen snack and lunch meal, which were then evaluated based on the appropriateness of food choices and adequacy towards energy requirement by the faculty members.

The skills of our participants in nutrition counselling were cultivated during the ‘My Role as a Dietitian and Nutritionist’ activity, in which participants were divided into groups and were required to suggest dietary and lifestyle recommendations for the targeted health issue based on a given case scenario. Faculty members also shared their experience in managing similar cases.

The last agenda for the day was the ‘Be A Master Chef’ cooking session. We had the pleasure of having Chef Razali (Subang Jaya Medical Centre) together with N&D senior lecturers to educate the participants on basic food preparation skills through the chef’s cooking demonstration. This was followed by a cooking competition which required participants to demonstrate their cooking skills and dietary modification required by preparing a low salt dish. The event ended with a closing ceremony to appreciate the winners of each activity with prizes.

The workshop received an overwhelming number of positive feedbacks from all participants. Participants found the content of the workshop to be useful and meet their expectations in  addition to being educational yet fun.

‘I was eager to learn how food impacts our life. Additionally, I also wanted to know how I can help the community to raise awareness on a healthy lifestyle as a dietitian or nutritionist, ‘’ says an anonymous participant when enquired on his/her interest to join this workshop.

‘I found the activities offered in this workshop to be very good as I got to know my body better and understand the lifestyle changes required to improve my body. The cooking demonstration was amazing, and I wish there was more time for this activity. The whole workshop was very creative and I’m glad to be able to meet other students. I like how the lecturers were very friendly and I find the N&D programmes offered in IMU to be quite interesting,’’ says another anonymous participant about the workshop.

‘Overall, the IMU-Intro to Nutrition and Dietetic: Discover the Future Workshop was successful with the commitment, hard work and effort from all committee members, IMU Dietetics with Nutrition final year student volunteers, and N&D Faculty members. The objective of this workshop was to create awareness to pre-university students on the N&D programmes offered in IMU. We believe that this objective was achieved and are looking forward to hosting this workshop as an annual event with a different direction. On behalf of N&D department, we are thankful for all the support and the opportunity provided by IMU to host such a meaningful event for the community,” says Dr Chong Pei Nee, N&D faculty member and head of the event.

Written by Dr Sharmela Sahathevan