Interdisciplinary Studies Summary Synthesis

As I reflect on my time at Plymouth State as an IDS major with a program titled, Marketing for Integrative Health, I’m realizing that my college experience has been far greater than I could have ever imagined. My work with different nutritionists showed me how necessary it is to be an interdisciplinary when promoting a healthy lifestyle, specifically how crucial it is to possess business skills as well as health and wellness knowledge. I knew designing a major to include both Business/Marketing courses and courses in Health and Wellness fields in my major would help me graduate with the skills I needed to be successful in my marketing career. In just a week I will officially have a bachelor’s degree in Marketing for Interactive Health. I will be graduating in both the Spanish and IDS Honors society, with the IDS Outstanding Senior Award, one internship and two practicums between Colorado and Oregon and my dream internship with herbalist and plant-lover Katrina Blair. 

For my capstone project, I decided to dive deeper into my research on probiotics and fermented foods. The notion that food is medicine has grown closer to my heart in my time at Plymouth. I was aware of new studies showing that gut health can improve everything from inflammation to mental health, but through my project I set out to find out why. The product of my investigation was a 25 page eBook discussing gut health, a basic nutrition guide and fermented recipes I collected from my advisor, mentor and friends. At my final Zoom presentation I had friends from all over the country, current and past teachers, family and at least one person I didn’t know. The event was shared on my own personal Facebook page as well as friends, the Bounder County Permaculture Guild FB page, and the Healthy PSU Facebook Page. I also advertised the event on my Instagram Page and sent it individually to friends. It was a collaborative project with Denise Normandin, director of Healthy PSU, business owner and one woman I have learned a great deal from about wellness and running a business. 

Combining marketing and my knowledge of wellness, this project is going to help me throughout my life because when people ask me, “why should I be consuming probiotics?” I can tell them that anyone who’s taken antibiotics just once in their life, likely has a gut microbiome needing improvement, that they may assist with stabilizing mental health, allow the body to metabolize sugar slower minimizing spikes in blood sugar and help the the body have proper access to necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients. I was originally going to do the project in person, but due to COVID-19 quarantine, it happened entirely online. I learned how to record and host a Zoom session and grew more comfortable speaking online. 

I had to slow myself down in my research because I learned that there are worlds to know about gut health. In the future, I am going to do more research on the specifics of gut health, but for my project I focused on creating something the general public could understand and apply to their own. My biggest inspiration for this project was how rewarding it was to publish something tangible that shows a little piece of something I’ve been passionate about for so many years. I am going to be working with one of my Health Coach friends I met in Boulder now on our own mini eBook series. Eventually, we would like to put our own book together to distribute. This project taught me that distance doesn’t prevent collaboration. 

When I made the decision to transfer from a private university in Manhattan to Plymouth, I felt like my 13 year old dreams to live in the big city were crushed, but I also felt a major sense of relief. I felt surrounded by a group of people who cared about the environment minimally and valued materialistic desires over personal wellbeing and (although I didn’t realize it at the time) I was one of them. The mountains were calling me toward a new path of self discovery and a deeper appreciation for the natural world and myself. I spent an entire year of my three at PSU living in Boulder, Colorado studying through Plymouth online. Working as a marketing associate for CORE Foods and getting to live in a community centered around wellness was one of the most transformative years of my life. At Plymouth I learned that education (and PSU) knows no bounds and that my deep appreciation for a healthy lifestyle and love to learn will lead me to everywhere I need to be. That kind of appreciation is my biggest takeaway from my time at Plymouth and something that will help me as I grow my career in marketing and future business and set me up for a successful and happy life.