FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Seven seniors majoring in human nutrition and hospitality innovation at the University of Arkansas with a concentration in dietetics attended the 2014 Southeastern Conference Symposium, held in Atlanta in September.

The second annual SEC Symposium, titled, “Prevention of Obesity: Overcoming a Twenty-First Century Health Challenge,” brought together faculty, administrators and students from the SEC’s 14 member universities to address what health professionals consider a severe problem in the Southeast.

The U of A undergraduates represented the School of Human Environmental Sciences in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, as well as the Honors College.

“I thoroughly enjoyed watching individuals come together from all of the SEC schools, each presenting their specific research, to collaborate on such an extremely complicated and urgent issue at hand,” said student Mallori Sando of Highland Village, Texas.

The U of A group attended all eight sessions of the symposium and also had the opportunity to hear from keynote speakers Nancy Brown, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association and Dr. Michael Lauer, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

“The speakers talked about gestational weight gain, breastfeeding, formula feeding methods, and metabolic bio markers and their relationship to obesity in women and children,” said Cristina Janer Rubio of Fayetteville, who would like to work as a pediatric dietitian after graduating.

Kate Ross of Benton was also inspired by the speakers at the conference.

“The passion of these incredibly educated scientists and professors at the symposium has ignited a fire in me to collaborate and be a part of the solution,” said Ross.

Isa Barrenechea Arce of Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Taylor Thomas of Rogers, Morgan Trott of Bucyrus, Kansas; and Grace Heymsfield of Elkins also attended the conference. Heymsfield was the U of A Student Ambassador at the 2014 Symposium.