Interview with Jill Bleyenbergm, Dietician

By: Leslie Miller, Past State President

Jill Bleyenberg is from Edgerton, MN and is former student at Edgerton Public School. For six years she worked as a county public health nutritionist and was the coordinator of the county WIC program, where she scheduled appointments for applicants of the program and did paper work, being that it was a government program. She is married with one child and is currently working at the Edgerton Daycare Center. In her free time she likes to read, walk, shop, and cook. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jill and asking her a few questions about her Family and Consumer Science Career.

Q: How did you develop an interest in Family and Consumer Sciences?
A: In high school I took classes (formerly known as Home Economics) with Marilyn Schoolmeester, and I really enjoyed the classes I was taking.

Q: What do you have a degree in?
A: Nutrition and Food Science Dietetics and I have a minor in Chemistry.

Q: What led you to choose your major or field of study?
A: Well, mainly the classes I took in high school and college

Q: What types of classes did you have to take in order to attain your degree?
A: A lot of chemistry! Anatomy, physiology, food science, food principles and introduction to dietetics.

Q: What are some of the things you have learned throughout the course of your career?
A: Well, in college they don’t really teach you about dealing with people, so when you get out into your field, you have to really learn how to work and deal with people.

Q: What types of people do you work with or network with in your field?
A: I network with dieticians in other counties; state level FACS workers.

Q: Does your career tie into any other fields of Family and Consumer Sciences?
A: It ties into many fields in Family and Consumer Science. In college I took classes not only pertaining to my major, but to many other various FACS fields. It is definitely a rollover occupation that can tie into many things from health inspections to county environmental sciences.

Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of your job? The most challenging?
A: The most rewarding aspect for me is helping people and seeing an improvement in some area of their life. The challenging would have to be working with difficult people!

Q: What would you say is the best part of your career in a Family and Consumer Science occupation?
A: Helping people and doing what I enjoy doing!

Q: Do you have any other thoughts about your career that you’d like people to know?
A: Getting a degree in a FACS occupation is hard work! It isn’t just baking or sewing anymore, and I hope people begin to change their minds about that. My career in dietetics is actually a very scientific one – in college I had to take courses that every pre-medicine student does except the physics and calculus! So it is a challenging field. You leave college a very well rounded person, in terms of education with a degree in Family and Consumer Sciences.