Details
Dietetic Technician, Overlook Hospital
Summit, NJ
Age: 24
Education: B.S. in nutrition from the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, N.J.; working on master’s in nutrition
Years at organization: 1
Why Selected?
Michael Atanasio, manager of food and nutrition services, says: The first attribute of Samantha’s that really stood out to me was not just that she picked things up very quickly, it was that she subtly enhanced our processes as opposed to just following the status quo. In my experience with employees of her generation, she presents herself heads above the rest with integrity and ambition. The greatest testament to her potential was when my patient services manager resigned. We had many large projects underway, one of which was the new patient menu and rebuilding of our diet office system. Samantha hit the ground running. She had a high level of engagement and took control of the process, hit deadlines and did all of this while learning the intricacies of our diet office system. She exhibited behaviors of those with much more life and professional experiences.
Get to know
When I first started the diet tech position I took over a large project that included the implementation of new menus and the diet office program. I was proud of that because when I first started I didn’t have any knowledge about the program, but my superiors had the confidence that I could do it.
Q. What would you say you excel at over more seasoned colleagues?I have the ability to understand people, listen to their needs and ideas and put them into action.
Q. What's the best career advice you've been given?My parents told me, don’t sell yourself short.
Q. What's been the biggest challenge you've had to overcome?When I first applied for my undergraduate in food and nutrition I was going over my schedule and I was crying, because when I looked at all of the science and nutrition courses it was so foreign to me and I didn’t think I was smart enough. I had never taken a science course. The day that I received my bachelor’s I felt really self confident and content and knew that my career was starting from there.
Q. What's been your most rewarding moment?I had the opportunity to work at Columbia University Medical to work on DNA sequencing in an effort to find genetic defects. Even though it was out of my realm of knowledge I learned a lot.
Q. What would you like to accomplish in your career in the next two years?I want to finish my master’s. I want to apply for an internship to be a registered dietitian.
Q. What's been your funniest on-the-job disaster?One time I handed in the patient orders for the seventh floor I accidently gave the patient menus and the meal tickets, so the kitchen made two trays for each patient. The kitchen supervisor was yelling, “Why are there double trays?” I had to go through all of the trays to remove all the double trays.