By Molly Williamson
After visiting the University of Kentucky’s Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition website, Jevincio Tooson was moved. He saw how happy the featured students looked and how they were changing the world through their degrees and on-campus projects.
“I knew that if I enrolled in UK, I would become a better person,” Tooson said.
Since arriving, the dietetics senior has attended seminars, participated in activities on campus and completed an internship. He serves as the volunteer chair of the Student Dietetic and Nutrition Association, a site leader for the FUSION service event, a peer mentor in the Interprofessional Healthcare Residential College and president of the Every Nation on Campus ministry organization.
“Receiving a scholarship means that someone believes in me,” Tooson said. “There are a plethora of hardworking students who want to make a positive impact on the world, as I do, but they are not given the opportunity to fulfill the good in their hearts. I have been blessed to receive a scholarship that helped me achieve a 3.73 GPA, cover my living expenses and prepare me to enter the workforce.”
The Michigan native studied abroad in Italy and Northern Ireland and has traveled to New York, North Carolina and Chicago for professional conferences. He has met people from all over the world, which enhanced his understanding of other cultures and helped his dietetics work. As an intern, he worked for Seedleaf, where he helped neighborhoods without a local grocery store find nutritious meals, for St. Joseph Hospital as a healthcare host and for Ashland Terrace Retirement Home as a kitchen assistant.
After graduation, he plans to become a registered dietitian and earn his master’s in business administration.