Department of Exercise Science faculty and undergraduate students partnered with the Alamance Dream Center to deliver culturally tailored nutrition education, creating meaningful learning experiences for students while expanding access to evidence-based health education in the community.
What happens when classroom learning meets community engagement? For undergraduate students Ahtziry Ramirez-Rodriguez and Cindy Munguia Yanez, working alongside Department of Exercise Science faculty Svetlana Nepocatych and Elizabeth Bailey, it means helping improve community health while gaining valuable real-world experience.
ThriveWell, a culturally tailored nutrition education program supported by a Danone North America grant, was developed from information gathered through focus groups with adults from racial minority communities residing in north Burlington. Elon faculty and undergraduate students partnered with the Alamance Dream Center, Inc., to develop and deliver evidence-based nutrition education for the community. The program was intended to improve nutrition knowledge, food skills, healthy eating behaviors, and cardiometabolic health by incorporating identified topics and design elements and delivering them in a familiar environment and language.
The six-week program combined interactive nutrition education, cooking demonstrations, grocery shopping strategies, food label education and healthy lifestyle coaching in a culturally welcoming environment. Undergraduate students played essential roles throughout the program, working alongside faculty to help plan and implement each session while building meaningful relationships with participants.
For Ramirez-Rodriguez and Munguia Yanez, one of the most rewarding aspects of the program was serving as bilingual translators. Their ability to communicate in both English and Spanish helped bridge language barriers, foster trust, and create a welcoming learning environment where participants felt comfortable asking questions, sharing experiences, and engaging in discussions about nutrition and health.
“Students were not only observing but became active members of the education team,” said Nepocatych. “They learned how to communicate science in ways that were culturally meaningful while developing the empathy, confidence and professional skills needed to work with diverse communities.”
Before working with participants, students received faculty mentorship and training in culturally responsive communication, evidence-based nutrition education, community engagement, research ethics and behavior change strategies. Throughout the program, Nepocatych and Bailey provided ongoing guidance, helping students refine their teaching skills, adapt educational materials to participants’ needs, and respond thoughtfully to participants’ questions and experiences.
The experience allowed students to apply knowledge gained in exercise science and nutrition while developing skills that extend well beyond the classroom, including teamwork, leadership, cultural humility, communication and community-based health promotion.
In addition to delivering educational programming, students assisted with health screenings, program logistics, participant support and evaluation activities, contributing to a research initiative examining how culturally tailored nutrition education influences nutrition knowledge, dietary behaviors and cardiometabolic health.
Preliminary findings demonstrated significant improvements in participants’ nutrition knowledge and healthier dietary behaviors, accompanied by encouraging trends in cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health indicators. These findings highlight the potential of culturally tailored nutrition education to support meaningful behavior change and improve community health.
For Nepocatych and Bailey, ThriveWell represents the type of engaged learning that defines an Elon education.
“Meaningful learning happens when students have the opportunity to apply their knowledge in partnership with the community,” said Bailey. “By working alongside participants, students gain a deeper understanding of the social, cultural and environmental factors that influence health while recognizing the importance of listening, collaboration, and respect.”
The partnership reflects Elon’s commitment to experiential learning by connecting teaching, scholarship and community engagement. As students worked side by side with faculty and community members, they discovered that improving health involves more than sharing information. They realized it requires building relationships, understanding lived experiences and creating environments where individuals feel empowered to make lasting changes.
Through ThriveWell, Elon students not only developed important skills for future work in healthcare and social services, but they also made a meaningful impact on members of the community in which they live.