Always soaking up information around her, Keene, New Hampshire, native Kayla O’Meara’s thirst for knowledge led her to the University of New Hampshire’s REAP program for summer research. Her collaboration with cheese-maker and graduate student Elyse Gordon led to a broader curiosity for food and its impacts on the human body, which launched Kayla’s research and introduced her to unexpected and delightful experiences in the nutrition lab and UNH’s EcoGastronomy program.
O’Meara, a sophomore French major contemplating a medical career, always knew she enjoyed the research process but says she never knew how complex it could be. Facing obstacles during her independent research opened her eyes to how hard it can be but also to how rewarding. She emerged with a newfound appreciation for food and its nutritional makeup. This motivated honors student hopes to extend her inquiry of food, science, and EcoGastronomy–and penchant for artisan cheese–abroad in France during her junior year.
University of New Hampshire Professor Joanne Curran-Celentano has mentored many students in her twenty-plus years on the faculty, but working with Kayla O’Meara on her REAP project was a different experience. Since O’Meara was to be an apprentice on a graduate student’s Master’s project, Dr. Curran-Celentano decided that “what we do, she will do.” O’Meara unfortunately broke her leg early in the summer, but a cast and crutches “did not even slow her down,” Dr. Curran-Celentano noted. “We were delighted to have her with us.” (Kayla was, however, not allowed to go into pastures to sample grasses.) Dr. Curran-Celentano specializes in the nutritional sciences and is a member of the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences.
Read Kayla O’Meara’s commentary REAPing the Benefits of France, Cheese, and EcoGastronomy >>
