Catching up with Rachel Bikoff
A typical high school teacher has more than a hundred students enrolled in their classes each year. So over the course of a decade, it’s not unusual for the names and faces of those teenagers to begin to blur together. But, ten years after Rachel Bikoff earned her Huntington High School diploma, none of her teachers is about to forget the Class of 1998 valedictorian.
Ms. Bikoff, who was a member of the National Honor Society and the National Spanish Honor Society, set a high standard of excellence over a four-year period and is still well-remembered and highly regarded as a hard working, conscientious and thoughtful scholar. Huntington’s graduating class in 1998 was quite accomplished, including salutatorian Julia Weber, who went on to obtain an undergraduate degree from Rice University in Houston. Yet, Ms. Bikoff was one senior that clearly stood out.
“After high school I attended Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts for a year, but decided it was not the right fit,” Ms. Bikoff said during a recent interview. “The following year I transferred to Washington University in St. Louis, which was definitely a great decision. While I was there I majored in biology, worked in a very interesting lab studying the medicinal properties of plants (specifically searching for new anti-malarial compounds) and got my first exposure to the field of public health.”
As a Huntington senior, Ms. Bikoff was presented with numerous academic awards. Her honors included the Robert K. Toaz Memorial Prize, Martin Schnittman Memorial Scholarship, Sons of the American Revolution Award, Spanish Award, Bausch & Lomb Science Award and the Cold Spring Harbor/Huntington Soccer Club Scholarship.
Her brothers, Jay (1995) and Daniel (2000) were also Huntington High School valedictorians. All three displayed an array of talents in an assortment of academic areas. While research is not yet complete, it is believed no Huntington family has ever produced more valedictorians.
“I knew I liked science ever since Mr. [Richard] Kurtz’s AP Biology class in high school,” Ms. Bikoff said. You could say Mr. Kurtz was a big influence on our entire family. However, I knew that I didn’t want to apply to medical school. After graduating from Washington University, I worked for a couple of years doing prostate cancer research at The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, an incredible research and treatment institution in Boston. I took that time to learn more about public health and decided to apply to graduate school for public health and nutrition.”
Ms. Bikoff said she finds “the field of public health to be most appealing because the focus is on prevention of disease, rather than treatment. I selected nutrition as my specialty because diet has such a strong influence on health outcomes and there are so many diverse career opportunities in this field. For example, you can work in a clinical capacity such as at a hospital, be an educator, focus on policy change, etc.”
After two years at Dana Farber, Ms. Bikoff headed off to graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, enrolling in the dual degree program in public health nutrition. “I now have my Master’s in public health nutrition and am also a registered dietitian,” she said.
The two months following Ms. Bikoff’s UNC graduation were devoted to one of her passions: traveling. She visited New Zealand and Australia before moving to Sacramento, California and settling into a position with the non-profit Public Health Institute, where she worked for the California Department of Public Health and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP-Ed, formerly known as the Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) program] as a program manager.
“From there I took another fabulous trip abroad to Thailand, followed by a new position with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is my current employer,” Ms. Bikoff said. “I am still working with SNAP-Ed funding. I transitioned from a more administrative role in California to a role in the field. I work with child care centers providing nutrition education to the kids, their parents/caregivers and the day care center staff. It is a very fun and rewarding position. The kids are full of surprises!”
While she is busy making a real difference in the lives of New York City children and their parents, Ms. Bikoff hasn’t lost interest in traveling. “I’m looking forward to the future including many more trips abroad,” she said.
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