New Curriculum in Culinology with an Entrepreneurial Focus

Pamela White	Cheryll Reitmeier	Susan Wohlsdorf- Arendt	Linda Svendsen

Pamela White, PI, FSHN
Cheryll Reitmeier, Co-PI, FSHN
Susan Wohlsdorf-Arendt, Co-PI, AESHM
Linda Svendsen, Co-PI, FSHN

Amount Awarded: $110,000

Duration: 3 years

Contact: Pamela White, pjwhite@iastate.edu

Abstract: The proposal’s goal is to develop an undergraduate curriculum in the new field of Culinology®, with a specialty in entrepreneurship that will be administered by the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and the Department of Apparel, Educational Studies and Hospitality Management. With the funding received, the project will hire a half-time Program Director and half-time graduate student (quarter-time from generated revenues) to manage the Culinology® program and its resulting activities. Students will be educated in entrepreneurship by taking Entrepreneurship in Human Sciences (AESHM 474) and will be engaged in entrepreneurial activities throughout their years at Iowa State via the student club and on-campus internships.

Although the focus of the program is on education and not on research, the spin-off activities of students and faculty should enhance cross-disciplinary research programs, especially as related to our cross-disciplinary Nutrition and Wellness Research Center. For example and as just noted, new functional food ingredients being studied in the NWRC can be utilized by the Culinology® students to create signature products for their entrepreneurial activities.

* Submitted to both the Entrepreneurial Program Initiative competition and the Teaching Innovation Initiative competition. Judged separately in each.