Last week I took a trip to North Carolina to evaluate a pending new course made by a few professors who want to educate new food scientists better. My professor from Cal Poly gave me the opportunity to be an advisor because I’m fresh, young, and cool with the kids. I stayed with my friend and professor Dr. Harris and spoke at an intro class to food science. I even recorded Dr. Harris and Dr. Luck’s podcast, Wolfing Down Food Science (expect that in two weeks).

Something I picked up was a sort of struggle in terms of the current student base. College admissions in NCSU, especially food science, are actually going down in enrollment. One of the professors from I dunno, Minnesota? was in our call put our discussion off topic, and talked about how students don’t want to pursue an industry job and are disinterested in what food science has to offer.

The pandemic has really affected how students socially interact with each other. Some professors have stated that they are even scared to talk to their own peers as their cell phones give them all the comfort they need. They are also disillusioned with work because it seems like life leads nowhere as you work for someone else. I’ve been there, but it seems to have been amplified. More cases of depression and anxiety pop up and though these topics are important to unearth, it just shows how much of a challenge this is.

How to Find Your Passion

Books such as Algebra of Happiness and So Good They Can’t Ignore You state that finding your passion is bad and you should focus on skill. Though there is some truth in it, I’ve found passion to be a never-ending source of energy that when found allows you to explore, find things you don’t like, and push through hard times.

I personally found my passion for cooking for people in high school. I would find a cool dish to replicate and share every Wednesday and it boosted my ego and brought me a lot of joy because people liked what I made. I thought I’d be a chef but I took one college course and hated it. So lost, I found food science and applied for a food science degree.

During college, I explored a variety of different things. Not only in my department but outside of it. A big area I put a lot of free time in was diversity as I started to join Asian-centric clubs, worked at the multicultural center, organized events that directly impacted diversity, and lead a lion dance team, which was really fun.

In my department, I did a variety of different things. I practically lived in the building. I got a summer job working the microbiology lab, I TA’d for a food engineering course, I participated in like, 6 product development competitions, and got a job developing chocolate and jams.

The point is, I tried a lot of things and that allowed me to sort out what I liked and didn’t like. I didn’t like working in a microbiology lab, I liked product development so I kept on exploring things. You have to find a spark and that can be random. It can be found in an event, or a random appreciation of life, but the best advice I have if you feel lost, is to keep on trying a lot of things.

Unmotivated Workforce

Gen Z is currently entering the workforce bringing a dynamic not many are used to. This happens every generation and though there will always be an outlet for complaining that the new generation is ruining everything, we have to acknowledge that the new workforce brings a different dynamic.

We know the concept of quiet quitting has kind of been spread out thanks to social media. The concept is that workers should just do the bare minimum because working hard is fruitless.

This is happening globally as more people feel like they are drowning because they can’t afford their house, which causes ripples as they find romance and marriage harder because they feel less worthy, and this also affects population growth as essentially all developed countries have reduced birthrates. A recent study says it costs $300,000 dollars to raise a kid. Do you have that kind of money?

Millennials only control less than 5% of the national wealth in the United States. Zuckerberg controls 50% of that millennial pie. We are generally doing worse off than our parents have and more people are staying at home longer than ever before.

We don’t do a good job selling a life worth living. In a wave of nihilism that gives you the perception that adulthood is just a bunch of bills, no friends, and dying alone, why even bother?

It’s a tough discussion, but it’s happening everywhere. Though I could mandate a solution in this article, I don’t think I have the authority or the knowledge to do that. Instead, I have some suggestions. 

What We Can Do

After all the interviews, and all of the work I’ve done through several different companies, what has always been resonant is that people excel when they find something they’re good at and are cultivated into making it happen.

Greatness is in the agency of others and we stand on the shoulders of giants. There are always key figures in your life that inspire us to move forward.

One of the most satisfying parts of my trip was talking with my professor at Cal Poly, Dr. Lammert who joined when I was in the middle of my time in college. The ambitious and wildly excited new professor would work night and day to make sure we succeeded and her effort allowed us at Cal Poly to be recognized nationally as we kept on winning IFT product development competitions.

During her career in academia, she finds bright but perhaps lost students and guides them to be rockstars in the sensory field. These students are then sent to industry or graduate school, and people are so impressed by the passion and work of these graduates. Four of them were hired in the top sensory lab in NCSU. We had dinner at a professor’s house and they were all cooking for us, enjoying their life.

As Dr. Lammert and I talked about finding passionate people in the food industry, I just recognize not only the far I’ve come, but how impactful she’s become with the students around her. It’s been 8 years since I graduated in college, this means that my professor had 8 generations of inspiring the next generation of the workforce and it just hit me how far we’ve both came from 8 years ago/

Professors have the ability to impact and mold a student’s passion. Sure, some students don’t care about their careers, and some people will figure it out no matter what, there’s a subset who wants to care, but they don’t know how. They haven’t tried enough things and they haven’t had enough mentors to push them forward.

Not just professors, we all truly have the ability to inspire young, bright talent. The reason why I do My Food Job Rocks is to not only understand the industry but to share the inspiring stories on just how people find their passion to feed the world but all it takes is to share your story.

After I presented my story in front of the food science class, the professor afterward told me that my talk was the most engaging talk she’s seen in years as the students just kept on asking questions. Hopefully, it might have changed someone’s outlook on life, a spark on the gathered kindle that’s been sitting and gathering dust since the pandemic.