What's Up, Food Science Club?
Image courtesy of Kaitlyn Davey
From taste testing to networking and trivia competitions, the University of Maryland’s Food Science Club brings together food science and nutrition majors to help put their knowledge from the classroom in fun and lively ways.
The president of the club and food science major, Kaitlyn Davey said the group meets once a month on Thursdays to do an activity or a professional development event, and once a week they have College Bowl, a trivia competition about food science.
Image courtesy of Kaitlyn Davey
There is about an 100 percent enrollment rate of food science majors joining the club, said Davey, but like all clubs, there is variance with participation, with monthly meetings having an attendance rate of around 15 members.
Different activities that the club has done include food sensory testing, where club members used triangle testing to examine the sensory perception between different products like chips, gummies and crackers, said Stratton Wimsatt, a senior food science major and treasurer of the club. They also have a pancake printer (a griddle that prints designs), and are planning a day to get together and plana worthwhile event around that.
The group traveled to North Carolina on April 13 to compete in a College Bowl competition against other schools. Wimsatt said that UMD has done well in the past, and this year they won fourth place.
Image courtesy of Kaitlyn Davey
But the biggest event the Food Science Club holds is in November. Resume Critique Night allows students to talk to industry professionals and government workers in related fields.
“It’s kind of like speed dating but for interviews,” said Wimsatt. “You can learn about what they do, what they look for when hiring, and help students develop interests in things they didn’t really know existed. Even within the food science bubble, not everyone knows what the options are for career paths and grad schools and things like that.”
This event has been a yearly occurrence, said Davey, and an event that helps a lot of food science majors.
“My favorite part is the internship experiences and networking you get,” said Davey. “The club supplements the major really well. You learn the material in class and then if you go to the club activities, you get to back that up and reinforce the knowledge and of course meet [professionals] who are actually doing these jobs in real life so you can see if you really want to do this.”
