Alex Papadakis ’21 still remembers a quote from a professor’s lecture nearly four years ago that changed her life. It was Professor Joanne Burke who made this memorable statement, as she was delivering a lecture about food insecurity as both a national and local problem. “She said ‘We’re a developed country and this should be unacceptable,” Alex recalls. It would become the call to action that would direct Alex’s time at UNH, and her plans for her future.
Alex sought ways to explore this issue more deeply, later adding ecogastronomy as a major along with her sustainable agriculture major. The summer after her first year, Alex completed a research project under Professor Burke’s tutelage that looked at the sustainability of Seacoast-area food system. Alex visited several farmers markets, worked with Seacoast Eat Local, and surveyed SNAP beneficiaries to learn more about food insecurity. This hands-on experience solidified Alex’s interest in this area.
By her sophomore year, Alex was actively seeking new and different ways to learn about food insecurity. This led her to participate in Semester in the City (SiTC), a collaboration between UNH’s Sustainability Institute and the College for Social Innovation, a Boston non-profit. SiTC places students in internship experiences focused on social change throughout Boston. Alex was placed with Project Bread, a non-profit that connects people to reliable food sources and advocates for policy change focused on food insecurity.
While at Project Bread, Alex says, she felt as though she had a “voice at the table” because she was able to contribute the social change perspective that she was learning in the classroom. No longer simply studying abstract data about the issue, she was now involved in actionable solutions to food insecurity by pushing for policy change.
While working with Semester in the City, Alex learned that many of the advocates within food insecurity have either a nutrition or public policy background. This prompted her to switch from the sustainable agriculture major into the nutrition program, while maintaining a second major in ecogastronomy.
Alex had several other high-impact experiences throughout the rest of her time at UNH, including taking part in the ecogastronomy study abroad program in Ascoli Piceno, Italy during the summer after her sophomore year. During this program, Alex studied several dimensions of the Italian food system, including food culture, history, agricultural practices, sustainability, and nutrition.
Upon her return from Italy, Alex become more involved with Campus Recreation, finding another community with similar interests and values. Through her work at the Hamel Rec Center as both a building manager and program assistant, Alex continually refines her leadership skills as she coordinates, schedules, and manages a staff of peers.
Before her senior year, Alex was invited to return to Semester in the City and Project Bread for another internship. While there, she witnessed successful policy change that had been advocated for during her first internship there. “We went to all these lobbying events to make sure that people knew that food is a necessity to people…It can be super frustrating that you need to tell the story of [food insecurity] that everyone should understand. But I learned that any sort of small change that you enact is pushing [food security] one step further.”
This experience taught her that with continual support and work, real change can occur. Throughout her senior year, Alex has worked hard to pull all her academic and co-curricular experiences (including her time as a member of the Organic Gardening Club and Waysmeet Center during her freshman and sophomore years) together in preparation for applying for a dietetics internship, a foundational step to becoming a registered dietitian. She hopes to work in either public policy or community nutrition education.
As the daughter of a first-generation college student, Alex says she’s always understood that education can be made both inside and outside the classroom. Nutrition professor, Dr. Amy Taetzsch, sums up Alex’s experience at UNH when she writes, “Alex Papadakis is a strong and motivated student with a breadth of experiences outside of the classroom; she truly has created her own story at UNH. Alex has already made a positive impact on the works and will continue to do so her story I one we should tell to the UNH community.”
