Details
Child Nutrition Analyst, Polk County Schools
Bartow, FL
Age: 30
Education: B.S. in food and nutrition and exercise science from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and a master of science in public health from the University of South Florida, in Tampa
Years at organization: 6
Why Selected?
Marcia Smith, food service director, says: Jenna has chaired the local wellness policy committee and served on the Florida School Nutrition Association’s nutrition committee. Jenna is also responsible for updating our website and ensures that there is accurate nutrition information on the website. Jenna, along with two other supervisors, won the Florida Innovative Idea Award for her themed training.
Get to know
Nutrition education has been my goal and I never imagined how difficult it would be to foster a healthy school environment. Our focus is teaching students where their food comes from and to use school meals as a lesson on how to build a balanced healthy meal. I am confident that when our students are older they will realize they learned how to eat healthy while they were at school.
Q. What would you say you excel at over more seasoned colleagues?I’m driven to accomplish as much as I can. I think that gives me extra motivation because I am fortunate to work with two other girls under the age of 30 who make work fun and we are always trying to come up with fresh ideas.
Q. What's the best career advice you've been given?Our director, Marcia Smith, has been such a valuable mentor. The great thing about her is her advice is not necessarily spoken. She leads by example, and I’ve learned that patience and compassion are critical to success when you are working with people.
Q. What's been the biggest challenge you've had to overcome?I have had many ideas for what I would like to do with our schools, but so many times other priorities take over, so I have learned to work with other colleagues to accomplish my goals and learned that not everything has to happen right now.
Q. What's been your most rewarding moment?I presented an education session with my colleagues at SNA’s National Conference. We had more than 100 attendees and we got really positive feedback. It was a great feeling to know other people in our field were interested in what we are doing.
Q. What would you like to accomplish in your career in the next two years?I would like to feel that I have made an impact on our school environments. I have a vision of our schools being the model of a healthy school environment. I want our schools to be newsworthy and set an example for others.