Naperville student offers healthy lessons for phone-toting teens
Cooking for herself on and off since she was 5, 16-year-old Mariel Thompson of Naperville has learned healthy eating lessons the hands-on way.
Fries are fantastic, but that groggy feeling post-nosh? Not so much.
Everything is better with more veggies, especially when they're pan-seared, seasoned Brussels sprouts.
“I'm a pretty big vegetable fan at this point,” she said. “I like to experiment.”
Dairy is OK for an occasional fix, “but it's not the best thing for me,” she says. And when it comes to meat, it's best to eat it sparingly and let Dad handle the cooking.
But pasta? Pasta equals love.
Maybe Mariel's way of learning about food was the hard way, so she's trying to share her knowledge with a younger set of kids through a workshop she's offering Friday at the Alive Center at 505 W. 5th Ave. in Naperville called Media-Smart Youth.
Developed by the National Institutes of Health to be presented to kids 11 through 13, Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think and Be Active! aims to help youngsters think critically about the media's influence on their nutrition and exercise habits so they can make healthier choices.
Older teens are encouraged to study the curriculum, make it their own and find an audience with which to share the lessons.
The Alive Center presentation. from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. during the facility's NaperBridge teen drop-in hours, will be the second time Mariel has given her own version of the Media-Smart Youth presentation.
Her mother, Tahiti Weaver, says Mariel is a foodie, a budding scientist and a natural leader, so her giving a talk to advise younger kids is no surprise.
“It fits her well,” Weaver said. “Her passions are teaching, leading and advocating.”
Finding younger students to attend her workshop shouldn't be a challenge. At the Alive Center, which opened in April 2015, teens often stop by after school to do homework and “they're always hungry,” says Mariel, an incoming junior at nearby Naperville North High School.
She's hoping some unusual snacks she plans to get from the nearby Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, possibly some vegetable chips or fresh veggies to crunch, will entice them to hear what she has to say.
“I'm just trying to teach them about their health,” she said. “Teaching them to carefully read (nutrition) labels on the back and be careful of what messages they might receive in the media about how they should be taking care of their health.”
Kandice Henning, founder and president of the Alive Center, said Mariel's workshop matches what the community center is all about — empowerment — and she's excited for students to learn from the presentation
One important lesson is not to believe everything that's posted online.
“They need to understand what they see through their phone screens isn't always credible,” Mariel said.
She's used to determining the credibility of information, as she's already experienced in scientific research through a mentoring program of DuPage County ACT-SO, or Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics.
The program allowed her to begin conducting biology and engineering research on sickle-cell anemia at Argonne National Laboratory near Darien. She's hoping to publish her findings in a scientific journal at Vanderbilt University, her dream college, which accepts submissions from high school students.
But first, Mariel wants to launch her junior year and teach kids about the path to good health.
“I notice a lot of my friends aren't able to cook for themselves,” she said. “If they had an opportunity like this to learn about the food that they put on their plate at an earlier age, they might not struggle as much.”