Student Graduate Assistant Reflection- Rebecca Fallick
When GW first announced The Global Food Institute, I was immediately excited that it combined many of my passions, both inside and outside of the classroom. I studied Public Health and Nutrition during undergrad at GW and felt that GFI gave me the opportunity to use all that I had learned through my studies. Additionally, as a foodie, I was of course familiar with José Andrés, his restaurants in DC, and his impactful work with World Central Kitchen.
During my time at GFI, I had the opportunity to contribute to many exciting projects. Serving as GFI’s first intern, I launched GFI’s student and affiliate faculty newsletters, grew the GFI website, and ramped up GFI’s social media presence. I also worked on GFI’s new Food Leadership minor and some new, exciting courses offered by GFI for undergraduates. I had the opportunity to attend and help execute events like the Future of Federal Food Purchasing Summit and the Grocery Retail for All Summit where I heard from speakers who were extremely passionate and knowledgeable about our food system, the challenges we face, and potential solutions to these challenges.
One of my favorite parts of working at GFI was learning about GFI’s affiliate faculty. These GW faculty members are involved in cutting-edge research related to all aspects of food. Though I was familiar with faculty members from the Milken Institute School of Public Health, meeting the affiliate faculty network exposed me to research and programs being conducted in other parts of the University. During my time at GFI, affiliate faculty members held the Building System Dynamics Connections Seminar Series. This four-part seminar series introduced system dynamics modeling and how this tool can be used to better understand the food system and its many parts. Though this can be a complex tool, the seminar series gave me and other faculty, staff, and students—even those with no prior knowledge in this area—the opportunity to learn about system dynamics modeling.
In my position, I had a front row seat to the growth of the GFI team, one exceptional addition at a time. I know that the team is working on some amazing projects, and they are hard at work to solve the food issues of our world. I look forward to hearing about all of GFI’s accomplishments as the team continues to grow and evolve. If you are a GW student who may be interested in working with GFI in the future, be sure to stay up to date with GFI by following the GFI social media accounts and signing up for the newsletter through the website.