NSW congratulates Spring 2023 Outstanding Senior Valentina Accardo (Nutritional Sciences - Main Campus)
“Nutrition is so intricate, and complex, and individual. It’s so beautiful. Nutrition is really an art.”
When New York native Valentina Accardo registered for Nutrition 101 as a first-year student, she had no idea how it would change her future.
“Before that class, I had never thought to go into nutrition,” she recalled. “I have always loved to cook, and I’ve always been interested in food, but I didn’t really know what the field entailed. I knew I loved science, and I originally expected to major in biology, but after I took that first nutrition class, I was like, ‘This is it, I’m switching my major, I’m switching everything.’”
As a Nutritional Sciences major, Accardo was surprised to learn how complex nutrition science is. “I have such a newfound appreciation for the field of nutrition and for anyone in the profession,” she said. “There are so many nutrition myths and fads out there that are hard to debunk because there’s so much that goes behind the simple ‘nutrition’ idea. It’ so intricate, and complex, and it changes from person to person. It’s really an art.”
Accardo found herself drawn to sports nutrition right away, and in addition to her coursework, she started working with athletes as a volunteer at the Arizona Football fueling station. “It could mean helping get the vitamins set up for the players, or making smoothies, or telling them about different nutrients and what they should be eating at what time,” she explained. “It’s been a lot of fun, and it ended up being a glimpse of what I want to do in the future.”
By her third year, Accardo decided she wanted to pursue a career as a sports dietitian, which is a specialized field with specific credentialing requirements mandated by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She worried that meeting those requirements would delay her graduation, but she worked with her advisors to find a solution.
“My advisor told me about this new education pathway for students who didn’t do a dietetics program for their undergrad,” she said. “You need to earn a master’s to be a registered dietitian, and with this model, you get the stuff you missed in undergrad along with the graduate course material. So next year, I’ll be starting that kind of program and pursuing a Master’s in Nutrition and Human Performance at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.”
Accardo’s dream job would be to work as a sports dietitian for one of her hometown teams. “I would be really happy to work at a collegiate or even high school level, to help athletes perform their best and get the most out of their sport,” she said. “But the ultimate goal is either to work with the Yankees or the New York Giants.”
Would she ever consider working for the Boston Red Sox?
“Not a chance,” she laughed.