2011 graduate Elisa Haggarty realized two things upon her arrival in Hong Kong, where she relocated from Morristown, New Jersey. One: her new job as an English teacher was not all she had hoped it would be; and two: her students suffered from a poor level of health and nutrition.

After contemplating where she saw her future self, and how she could make a difference in the health of her students, she enrolled in Integrative Nutrition’s Health Coach Training Program and sensed a new path emerging in her career. Elisa continues to teach English, but is now sharing her knowledge of health and wellness in her school and introducing new practices that her coworkers and students otherwise may never have learned. She hopes to eventually transition to educating others about whole foods and eating well full-time, since she has found in her travels that the strong need for health coaches is universal. Read more about this graduate’s journey below!

What were you doing before Integrative Nutrition?

Before enrolling in IIN, I was teaching English at an International School in Hong Kong. I came here from New Jersey in the pursuit of an adventure, change of pace and a new challenge. As soon as I arrived, I knew this job was not the right fit for me. I had no support system here and felt frustrated by teaching English when I KNEW there was more important information and more issues for me to tackle. At one point, only four years into teaching English, I even contemplated quitting teaching and finding another profession. I felt an overwhelming sense of apathy because I saw so many of my students were overweight and headed straight towards bad health and disease.

A gaping hole in the modern education system has left the average teenager nearly clueless about nutrition or cooking. FoodFight, a non-profit based in New York City's public school system, is out to change that.

Now with courses in 15 city high schools, FoodFight gives teachers a curriculum in two parts. The first aims to help students relinquish pre-existing notions about food that have been built by media advertising. In an article from the New York Times, students at Park Slope Collegiate analyze a McDonald's commercial to discover how food advertising can warp their ideas of healthy eating.