This three-part series spotlights four Syracuse University students who graduated early from college — part 1 of 3.

While some students see it as a chance to jump-start their careers, Jasmine El Nabli saw early graduation as a chance to get a head start on a new education.

With a degree in psychology, El Nabli graduated in December. Her decision to do so stemmed from a desire to get ahead of her peers in dietetics.

But she didn’t always plan on getting done ahead of schedule. Despite arriving at SU as a freshman with college credit, she always resisted her father’s wishes for her to graduate early.

“I would always get a little upset when he’d mention it — I wanted to have my whole college experience,” El Nabli said. “But after my internship, I really knew what I wanted to do. As much as I love Syracuse and being around my friends, but I’m ready to move on to the next thing.”

El Nabli first realized her passion for health and nutrition during her sophomore year, but it was her internship at the Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic last summer that changed everything, she said. Following guidance from her adviser at her internship, Kristin Kirkpatrick, El Nabli learned not only how lucrative, but also how helpful a career in dietetics could be.

During the internship, El Nabli worked at the Wellness Institute three days a week and spent the other two days in the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Store. There, she said she learned many aspects of nutrition, as the store offered a variety of books, foods and information for customers.

Her plans to work in the profession were solidified. She just had to decide what her next move was.

Kirkpatrick, a wellness manager at the Cleveland Clinic, regular contributor to the Dr. Oz Show and writer for numerous nutritional magazines and media outlets, discussed El Nabli’s options with her for the future during the internship.

“We had many different discussions about what routes she could take, and in the end I had encouraged her to go to grad school. You can go much further with nutrition with a graduate degree,” Kirkpatrick said. “Her goal is to be a dietitian — she has to go backwards and doing so sooner is better.”

Instead of staying for the spring semester at SU, El Nabli will take science courses at a local college near her home in Orange County, California to supplement her psychology degree. She then plans to apply to coordinated dietetics programs — programs that offer master’s degrees and an internship together — at graduate schools across Southern California for the fall semester of 2014.

El Nabli said she switched from psychology to nutrition as another way to more “proactively” help people.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to help people. Psychology was one way to help, but [the Cleveland Clinic] made me aware of the preventative measures that nutrition provides,” El Nabli said.

At Syracuse, El Nabli was active on campus. She was part of Orange Pulse, interned at local organizations, all while maintaining a waitressing job at Goldstein Alumni & Faculty Center. In her sophomore year, she declared a minor in nutrition, with which she was able to learn more about the field.

Jane Uzcategui, a professor who taught El Nabli in several classes, said El Nabli was always one of the more “driven” students.

“She’s always at the front of the classroom, taking notes and just really absorbing all of the information provided to her. I have no doubt she’ll go far,” Uzcategui said.

El Nabli said graduating early is the right choice for her, even if it means leaving her friends and professors behind. She added that while job opportunities in the field of psychology are frequently limited, nutrition is “limitless.”

While graduate classes occupy her foreseeable future, afterwards, El Nabli said she hopes to open up a gym.

“Nutrition and fitness go hand in hand. People don’t realize how much the two mesh,” she said. “Nutrition and fitness are teaching tools. You don’t really want people to come back to you, you want people to learn how to rely on themselves.”

In addition to the possibility of opening a gym, El Nabli said she also has dreamed of a position as a nutrition expert on the Dr. Oz show, or a writer at a women’s health magazine. El Nabli believes that now that she has a clear goal in mind and a focused future, all of her goals can be accomplished with her early graduation.

Said El Nabli: “The knowledge and experience I have gained at [the Cleveland Clinic] has been crucial. I’m so much more focused and driven. I am ready for the next chapter of my life.”

Published on December 21, 2013 at 2:02 pm

Contact Madysan: mgfoltz@syr.edu | @madysangabriele