Grey Dietz

Grey Dietz
M.A. Integrative and Functional Nutrition, 2020

"A dream starts as a broad idea; work is required to make it a reality."

For Grey Dietz, earning a master’s degree from Saybrook was an integral part of doing that work.

“I have dreamt of being a doctor since I could walk,” Dietz says. “In high school, people did not understand my commitment to what I wanted to do. In college, professors suggested that medicine might not be the field for me. Many of my friends were dissuaded from the medical field and changed their majors. After college, I was advised to fit the ‘cookie-cutter’ mold: attend medical school right away or do a post-baccalaureate. But that’s not what I did, and I think it’s about time we all break the mold.”

Dietz came to Saybrook at an integral time in her life, opening her eyes to unique opportunities. Before her last year of undergraduate studies, she realized she wanted to stray from the norm by studying nutrition after graduation. “I found Saybrook’s ‘Integrative and Functional’ approach to nutrition to be exactly what other schools are lacking.”

“Saybrook immediately felt like home,” she says. “The curriculum inspired me to learn and grow in the basic sciences behind nutrition, but also pushed me to understand the complexities backing a nuanced field. ‘Nutrition’ does not only refer to food. It refers to the mental well-being or illness surrounding eating. It refers to barriers people have of attaining food based on their socioeconomic status. It refers to cultural differences regarding tradition and food availability. It refers to people coming together to share conversations and grow relationships. Food and how it metabolizes in the body is not even close to the whole story.”

During her time at Saybrook, Dietz researched nutrition in conjunction with pregnancy, mental health, gastrointestinal distress, and demography. She learned how a proper diet could have far-reaching positive influences on quality of life for all people through unique opportunities to directly interact with real patients and physicians, and integrate her practice with more holistic ideas of health.

She earned her master’s degree from Saybrook in the spring of 2020 and has since begun pursuing an M.D. at Ross University School of Medicine. She is eager to share what she has learned at Saybrook and has already spearheaded the organization of a new community to influence nutritional understanding among her class of future physicians.

“I dream of helping future physicians realize the importance of nutrition in their practice. Right now, it’s still just a dream, but I am committed to making it a reality, no matter how long it takes.”