Anna Smith

Since graduation, I have commissioned into the U.S. Army, completed the Army’s Basic Officer Leadership Course in Texas, earned my Master’s in Nutrition from Baylor University, completed my dietetic internship at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and will soon sit for the registration exam to become a registered dietitian. After I completed my dietetic internship, I was selected to become the Chief of the Outpatient Nutrition Clinic at Walter Reed. I am thrilled to already be living my dream job—a dietitian in the U.S. Army—just 2 years after graduation.

While I have benefited from the Honors Program in many ways, one specific experience stands out. During a typical college experience most students are in classes and clubs with people very similar to them—whether they have the same major or the same interests. In the Honors Program, through different events and small-sized gen ed classes and seminars, I was able to meet people outside my circle of friends. I got to listen to these students’ ideas and hear what they were passionate about. Without this experience, I believe I would have stayed within my bubble and never would have branched out to meet people who were different from me. Thankfully, I became close friends with many of these people in the Honors Program—which has helped me to relate to many soldiers I work with who have had different life experiences than me before joining the Army.

Something about the Honors Program that stands out to me are the Honors seminar classes. These seminar topics are unlike any other class on campus. Even now, I still tell people about my Horror Films seminar and Psychology of Dreaming seminar—to which most people are intrigued how I had the opportunity to take these seminars in college. While these seminar topics were not related to my degree in nutrition, these classes broadened my knowledge of topics that I had never studied before. I became a more well-rounded person with the help of these seminars. In turn, this knowledge has improved my ability to connect with and to build relationships with coworkers and patients on any topic from Mozart to dreaming to horror films.