UW-Stevens Point senior Brookelyn Heiss was named the 2022 Wisconsin Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (WAND) Outstanding Dietetics Student from a Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) for her demonstrated leadership and professional potential. She received the award at the WAND Conference in April.
The native of Marietta, Ohio, has upheld a 4.0 GPA while being named to the CPS Dean’s List every semester. She has also earned multiple academic scholarships throughout her time on campus.
Outside the classroom, she is a goalkeeper for the Pointers women’s soccer team, served as an officer for the Student Association of Nutrition and Dietetics and enjoys volunteering with Feed My Starving Children, Special Olympics and Central Rivers Farmshed.
On campus, Heiss works in the Tutoring-Learning Center (TLC) where she began as a tutor and was promoted to tutor mentor where she trains tutors on teaching techniques and coordinates meetings and group discussions to address tutoring issues.
As a student manager of the CPS Café, Heiss assists the café manager by providing food safety, policies, and procedures training to other employees. Since January 2020, Heiss also served as the student lab manager for the university’s food lab courses. She was responsible for procuring the ingredients for two food lab courses, maintaining inventory, and purchasing ingredients based on seasonality, sustainability, economy, and reducing food waste.
During summer 2021, Heiss completed a sports nutrition internship with the Wausau (Wisconsin) Woodchucks, a premier summer collegiate baseball team in the Northwoods League. As the team’s only nutrition intern, Heiss managed the foodservice operation for both home and visiting teams by coordinating purchasing, inventory, menu creation, production and nutrition education for players and coaches.
“It was evident from our early meetings that Brookelyn had clear plans for a clinical path with keen interest in sports nutrition,” said Deborah Tang, program director and senior lecturer of food and nutrition at UW-Stevens Point.
Heiss’s future plans include acceptance into the highly competitive U.S. Army-Baylor Master’s Program in Nutrition, where selected candidates will become a commissioned officer and attend professional military education prior to starting the MPN. Four-year active duty service commitment after MPN graduation is required.
“I am certain Brookelyn’s strong work ethic, standards of excellence, and interpersonal skills will ensure her success as a future dietitian,” said Tang. “Brookelyn is extremely deserving of this award, and I know that she will represent our profession well and dedicate her career to serving and leading others.”
Heiss is the first UWSP dietetics student to receive this honor since Jessica Becker in 2017.