| Course | NS106 Nutrition Profession and Career Planning |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Resume and cover letter |
| Length | About 780 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Nutrition Science |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NS106 Unit 7
Results Before Duties: A Unit 7 Resume and Cover Letter for a Career Changer Seeking a Community Nutrition Educator Post
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NS106: Nutrition Profession and Career Planning
Unit 7 Resume and Cover Letter
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The applicant, her employers, the posting and every figure are composite; the labor and credentialing sources cited are real.
The Posting
The composite posting, for a Community Nutrition Educator with Harlan County Cooperative Extension, asks for a bachelor's degree in nutrition, dietetics or a related field; experience teaching groups; bilingual English and Spanish preferred; ability to deliver an evidence-based curriculum to adults with limited incomes; a valid driver's license; and food safety certification. It describes the job as teaching six-week nutrition series at community sites and tracking participants' behavior changes.
The Resume
Marisol Reyes. Columbus, Ohio. Phone and email.
Profile. Nutrition science graduate with six years of restaurant shift leadership, bilingual in English and Spanish, experienced training adult staff and teaching food safety. Seeking to teach community nutrition classes to families with limited incomes.
Education. Bachelor of Science in Nutrition Science, Purdue University Global, expected June. Relevant coursework: Fundamentals of Nutrition, Nutrition Through the Life Cycle, Nutritional Counseling, Food Safety.
Experience.
Shift Supervisor, Casa Verde Restaurant, Columbus, 2019 to present.
1. Trained 22 new kitchen and front-of-house staff in food safety and station procedures, reducing first-month errors noted in shift reports by about half.
2. Led ten-minute pre-shift briefings in English and Spanish for crews of up to twelve.
3. Redesigned the staff meal to include a vegetable and a whole grain every shift, adopted by the owner across both locations.
Nutrition Education Volunteer, Eastside Community Pantry, 2023 to present.
1. Taught monthly fifteen-minute cooking demonstrations for pantry clients, using pantry staples, to groups of 8 to 20.
2. Wrote a bilingual one-page handout on reading Nutrition Facts labels, now distributed at every pantry visit.
Certifications. ServSafe Food Protection Manager. Valid Ohio driver's license.
Languages. English and Spanish, fluent.
The Cover Letter
Dear Hiring Committee,
I am applying for the Community Nutrition Educator position with Harlan County Cooperative Extension. For six years I have trained adults on restaurant crews, many of them working their first job in the United States, and for the past year I have taught cooking demonstrations at a food pantry. I am finishing a bachelor's degree in nutrition science and want to bring both kinds of experience to your community series.
Your posting asks for experience teaching groups. My pre-shift briefings and pantry demonstrations have taught me to explain one practical idea in ten or fifteen minutes to a group that is tired, distracted or skeptical, and to check that it landed. At the pantry, I learned that a demonstration using the canned beans and rice clients will take home that day does more than any handout.
Your posting prefers a bilingual educator. I teach comfortably in English and Spanish and wrote the pantry's bilingual label handout, which pantry staff tell me clients actually keep.
My reason for this work is personal. After my mother learned she had type 2 diabetes, the class she was sent to met during her working day, and I became her teacher by default. Your evening and weekend series reach the people that class missed.
I hope to talk with you about the series and how I might teach in it.
Sincerely, Marisol Reyes
Every bullet on the resume and every paragraph of the letter answers a line in the posting, so that a hiring committee reading for thirty seconds sees group teaching, bilingual skill and food safety before it sees anything else.
Why Results Before Duties
The resume states what each task produced, such as fewer errors or a handout now in use, rather than listing duties such as "responsible for training." Committees often scan resumes quickly, and a number or an outcome gives them something to remember.
What the Career Change Requires
The documents treat restaurant work as relevant experience rather than something to explain away. Teaching adults, managing groups and food safety knowledge are central to community nutrition education, and education appears among the core activities of entry-level dietetics practice as well (Rogers et al., 2021), and many extension positions accept a bachelor's degree without a dietetics credential (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024). The letter does not claim credentials the applicant lacks; it does not use the title dietitian, which is reserved for those meeting the registration requirements (Commission on Dietetic Registration, 2024).
Revision Notes
The first draft listed "Shift Supervisor: managed staff, handled customer complaints, ensured food safety." The revision replaced each duty with a result tied to the posting.
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Dietitians and nutritionists. In Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dietitians-and-nutritionists.htm
Commission on Dietetic Registration. (2024). Registered dietitian nutritionist eligibility requirements. https://www.cdrnet.org
Rogers, D., Griswold, K., Sauer, K. L., Abbay, E., Coufal, A., Eastman, W., Lawson, K., Slack, D., & Sulik, B. (2021). Entry-level registered dietitian and dietetic technician, registered practice today: Results from the 2020 Commission on Dietetic Registration entry-level dietetics practice audit. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 121(2), 330-378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.09.027
NS106 Unit 7 instructions, in plain terms
The resume and cover letter unit asks students to prepare application documents for a specific nutrition position. Prompts usually require a target posting, a resume and a one-page cover letter, sometimes with a short explanation of choices. Choose a real or realistic posting and read its requirements line by line. Write resume bullets as results with numbers where possible, not duties. Translate experience from other fields into the posting's terms. List your degree with its expected completion date. In the letter, address the posting's requirements in order and give one reason for your interest. Claim no credential you do not hold. Keep the resume to one page if possible. The documents and a brief rationale usually fill about three pages.
How the NS 106 Unit 7 example is put together
The posting's requirements are listed first. The resume follows with a profile, education with relevant courses, two experience entries with results-based bullets, certifications and languages. The cover letter addresses group teaching, bilingual skill and the writer's reason in turn, closing with a request to talk. The highlighted sentence states the design principle that every line answers the posting. A section explains why results come before duties. Another explains how a career change is presented and what titles the documents avoid, citing labor statistics, a practice audit and the credentialing commission. A revision note shows a duty-based bullet before and after. The rationale notes which requirement each bullet answers.
Where the points sit in the NS106 Unit 7 rubric
NS106 resume and cover letter rubrics usually reward fit to the posting most: whether each requirement is answered somewhere in the documents. Results-based bullets with specific outcomes earn credit over duty lists. Points go to translating outside experience convincingly and to accurate, honest representation of education and credentials. The cover letter is scored on organization, tone and a credible reason for applying. Formatting, length and error-free writing count under professionalism. A brief rationale, where required, is scored on whether it explains choices. Documents that list duties generically, or that imply a credential the applicant lacks, generally lose points. A bullet with a number or an outcome is usually judged stronger than one describing a responsibility.
NS106 Unit 7 help from the desk
Student resumes often list job duties, such as responsible for training, rather than what the work achieved. Another weakness is writing one general resume for every posting instead of answering the specific requirements. Career changers sometimes hide relevant experience because it came from another field. Cover letters frequently repeat the resume or open with a generic sentence about passion. Titles such as nutritionist are sometimes used without considering state rules. If you have a posting in mind, mark each requirement, list what you have done that answers it, since that list becomes both the bullets and the letter's paragraphs.
Get an NS106 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Paste the job posting you are targeting, your current resume or a list of roles, and the Unit 7 instructions with the rubric. Within 24-48h we return a free first draft of the pair built for that posting. Every figure, date and employer you have not confirmed stays in brackets for you to complete. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More NS106 papers and BS in Nutrition Science samples
- NS106 Unit 1: Career Motive Post
- NS106 Unit 2: Credential Comparison
- NS106 Unit 3: Scope of Practice Memo
- NS106 Unit 4: Ethics Analysis
- NS106 Unit 5: Informational Interview Report
- NS106 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- NS106 Unit 8: Career Portfolio
- NS106 Unit 9: Professional Development Plan
- NS106 Unit 10: Career Synthesis Paper
- NS105 Unit 7: Three-Day Food Record
NS106 Unit 7 questions, answered
What if I do not have any nutrition experience yet?
Many people in this course do not, and the resume is not expected to pretend otherwise. Translate what you have: food service, retail, caregiving, coaching, customer service. Each involves skills that nutrition postings list, such as food safety, communication with the public or record keeping. Volunteer work at a food bank or a community garden also counts and often reads as especially relevant.
Should I list the degree I am working toward?
Yes, with the expected completion date, written as expected rather than as though it were finished. Listing relevant coursework underneath is fine for a student resume. Avoid any phrasing that implies you already hold a credential or a title you are working toward, since employers check and many states regulate those titles.
Does the cover letter need a named recipient?
If the posting names a hiring manager, use that name. If not, a line addressed to the hiring committee for the specific position is acceptable. What matters more is that the letter names the position, refers to the posting's own requirements and pairs them with your evidence. A generic greeting on a specific letter reads better than the reverse.
Where can I find a free NS106 Unit 7 sample paper?
This page holds a complete Unit 7 resume and cover letter for a career changer seeking a community nutrition educator post, with margin notes and APA references.
Should a resume list duties or results?
Results. A line that says what the work achieved, such as training 22 staff with fewer errors, tells a hiring committee more in a quick read than a list of responsibilities.