About Us

The PECOP Fellowship is a program that aims to professionally train the next generation of nutrition- and health-related profession undergraduate students to understand the fundamental determinants and consequences of early childhood obesity through basic and applied research, extension, and hands-on learning. It is a multi-functional evidence-based 10-week program, with a goal to enhance student experiences and professional preparedness. The skills, knowledge, and increased awareness gained on the complexity of problems associated with the development of early childhood obesity will also prepare students for graduate studies. Using a cell-to-society approach to nutrition, this transdisciplinary program will provide fellowships to primarily underrepresented minority and disadvantaged undergraduate students to reduce early childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating habits and physical activity in young children, their families, and childcare providers.

This fellowship is important because it will provide undergraduate students a co-curricular experiential learning, mentoring, career readiness, and professional development activities to enhance their credentials and capabilities for careers in nutrition and dietetics, human sciences, early childhood education, and agriculture sciences fields. The recruitment and retention of undergraduates into this specific area will not only increase the number of qualified workforces available to conduct effective prevention strategies and interventions in early childhood obesity but will also address an acute national challenge to increase the diversity of educators and consultants entering the early childhood obesity prevention field.