Baldauf is a talented bass player and was first drawn to Nazareth to study music therapy. But in her first year of college, she felt pulled to affect people's health and well-being more broadly, which led her to social work.
"I was more drawn to how where you live, and who you see, and what you eat — macro aspects — affect a person's life," Baldauf says. "Dr. Charlesworth (social work professor) gave me a clue that social work focused on social justice and human rights."

She was able to continue playing music at Nazareth as well.

"You can only know so much and your influence is limited," Baldauf says. "You can listen to them. You can offer suggestions, but they can say no. Just because you have a degree doesn't mean you understand what they're going through."

When she offered multiple hands-on smoothie-making sessions to local community groups, she took a wide variety of ingredients and mentioned ideas such as trying spinach — rather than telling people they should eat spinach. "I talk about how easy it is to hide your veggies in smoothies," she says. She returned to each location a half dozen times.

"I love asking people what they want me to bring (next time) because it's super revealing about their lives," she notes. "Your life affects what you eat and what you eat affects your life."

The smoothie project grew out of her experiences volunteering monthly for several years during college at Asbury Caring and Dining Center in Rochester. She saw the challenge of providing vegetables and fruits in ways that guests would eat them. She thought light-hearted smoothie-making sessions might be a more successful strategy to provide and encourage healthier food options. Making a smoothie, she says, "is super easy and it's concentrated with nutrients." She adds, "A lot of people would say I didn't know you could put that in a smoothie. That's a win to me. And people taught me cool smoothie combinations! It was a two-way street."

Baldauf had to work through various challenges and had support from Nazareth's Center for Civic Engagement. One community agency staff member "kind of laughed at me. I had to push." After she got another group on board, she circled back to the reluctant staffer. Baldauf eventually convinced four local service providers to allow her to offer smoothie sessions and conduct surveys at their locations, and she successfully carried out the project at multiple sites over nine months, including a homeless shelter, a post-incarceration program, and a group for people who'd recently lacked permanent housing. At times, her roommate, Brigid Redihan-Henehan '19 — a nursing major — joined her to check people's blood pressure and to talk about body mass index and diabetes. Baldauf said she gained experience working with people whom social workers likely interact with.

For her 20th birthday, she asked for blenders. At the end of her project, participants at each site won a blender. One woman who'd been incarcerated and was just finding housing told her the blender would be the first appliance in her home and that she'd use it every day.

"I think it's so important to go into places you're uncomfortable." When she approached organizations about her smoothie project, or when she went to community meetings for her internship related to homelessness, she didn't know what she was doing. "Doing things that aren't comfortable to you is what makes you grow as a person."

Example: "I'd never presented a budget in my life. I've learned a lot."

By her junior year, as an intern with Sisters of St. Joseph, she helped interview people in Rochester's Lyell-Otis neighborhood for a community needs assessment. She also went to a prison and attended a men's religious group. "Take an interest in government and in your community. Almost any agency would let you shadow or volunteer for a day and you'll learn more than you can imagine."