My name is Allyson Lipp, although I haven't gone by Allyson since I could speak because I prefer to be called Ally. I recently just graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee and have moved back to Miami, FL where I have been born and raised for almost twenty-three years now. The transition going off to college is a great one but even harder to come back "home." You are sent off to a new city to make new friends that are unfamiliar from your friends in your hometown. It is a hard transition to say goodbye to the people you spend every moment with. These  are the people that shape and build you for your future. My roommates, who were more like my family, helped me when I was struggling through my dilemmas not just of life but of school as well. My undergraduate degree was in Dietetics, which kept me very busy throughout my four years in Tallahassee.

Different experiences bring you to meet different people in all ways. In the summer of 2007 I interned for FLIPANY, Florida Introduces Physical Education and Nutrition to Youth. Their mission was to work with low income children and families making long term changes in their eating habits. We would go to a different after-school facility and teach nutrition education and do a cooking class. After a long and productive summer I was back to FSU to finish school. Now I am back in 2008 and returning to join FLIPANY as an AmeriCorp volunteer.

Yesterday, Wednesday was my first class as a coordinator. I was both excited and nervous. I had only been the nutrition educator previously, but this time I was in charge of the entire class! I had an amazing nutrition educator, Carlos who is a student getting his degree in Dietetics who worked beautifully with the children. He had planned out his nutrition lesson three days before the class and had went over it step by step with me before teaching it. The first class is traditionally supposed to cover an overview of the food pyramid touching each section lightly. For the cooking, we made turkey tacos as an example of a complete meal to represent the whole pyramid. The children who were between ages 8-10 were very engaged and asking many questions. They were very excited to be part of this class, eager to learn and be involved in both the learning and cooking. They are very excited about us coming back next week and that makes me very happy because that means we made an impact! They were able to give us feedback about what they had learned that day as well.

That is it for now. Until next week, my second class!

Ally