Pinterest, a relatively new content sharing service, is sweeping through college campuses all over the world. The site, pinterest.com, is designed around the idea of “pinning” your interests, likes and dislikes onto “boards” that are created by the user. Many students however, have found that Pinterest is often a nuisance when trying to be productive.
Kelsey Nance, senior from Murray, Ky., majors in nutrition, dietetics and food management, and has found a way to include her favorite content sharing pastime with her capstone project.
As a nutrition, dietetics and food management major, Nance’s required project was to create and serve a meal with her meal management class. The project is required to have a theme and decor, and must meet the layout guidlines. The meal consists of an appetizer, a main course that must have at least a meat and two vegetables and two desserts available for the guests to choose from.
From the very beginning, Nance said that she knew her capstone meal’s theme would be: Pinterest.
“It was kind of, ‘Pinterest is my Interest,’” Nance said. “I just knew that I wanted to do Pinterest, and I was actually kind of surprised I didn’t have to fight anyone for the idea.”
By selecting Pinterest as her theme, Nance also found that it made the organization of her project much easier, and even made the entire project much more enjoyable.
“I think Pinterest has made (my project) a lot easier from the beginning because all I have had to do is go to one website whereas other students have had to go through different sites, cookbooks and everything, and (my ideas) have just been organized into one place,” Nance said. “It helped me out a lot that it was all right there, and it was great because it was already a site that I was wasting time on. It’s been good too that this was my theme because now I have a reason to get on Pinterest and actually be productive.”
Held Wednesday in the Oakley Dining Room, Nance’s meal consisted of a potato and cheddar soup appetizer, ricotta cheese and basil stuffed chicken breast, sweet potato casserole, lemon pepper green beans, cake batter blondies and funfetti dip. All recipes were straight from Pinterest, as well as all dining room decor.
Students were required to decorate the dining room according to their themes as well, and were required to, at the very minimum, have theme appropriate table centerpieces.
“My decorations are inspired from Pinterest too, and for them, I kind of went with a winter wonderland theme,” Nance said. “They took forever though because I just kept seeing new things on Pinterest and getting new ideas that I wanted to add.”
Nance said that the project, for her, was one of the best times she has had in college. Nance found that by combining her favorite pastime with her academic career she created something she has truly enjoyed and will always remember as the years go on.
Said Nance: “It was just a really fun project, I mean, I know that there aren’t a whole lot of things in college where you can say, ‘that was fun, I enjoyed that,’ but I’ve really enjoyed this. Yes it was stressful at times, and it was a lot of work, but in the end it has been so much fun, and so worth it.”
Story by Shannon MacAllister, Staff writer