[Health_Education_Promotion] OPHA’s Health Education and Promotion Section partners with local universities for National Public Health Week

[Sara Gardner-Smith]

OPHA’s Health Education and
Promotion Section partners with local universities for National Public Health
Week

June 17, 2015

 

The American Public Health Association uses
the first week of April each year to promote public health across the nation.
For 20 years, National Public Health Week (NPHW) has been bringing together
communities from across the United States to recognize the contributions of
public health and highlight important public health issues. This year, one
section of the Oregon Public Health Association (OPHA) found a new way to
support NPHW. 

The Health Education and Promotion (HEP)
section of OPHA partnered with two local universities to encourage student
involvement, promote student awareness, and foster growth in our future public
health leaders. “The idea came to us during a HEP leadership meeting,” shares
Sara Gardner-Smith, Chair of the Health Education & Promotion Section. “We
wanted to engage the student community in a way that helped them make their
ideas a reality. It was the perfect collaboration.” 

The HEP Section contributed grant funds and
mentoring to student public health groups at Oregon State University in
Corvallis, OR and Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR.  

Oregon State University’s College of Public
Health and Human Sciences’ Public Health Club hosted a health fair on campus.
Students recruited 20 different organizations on and off campus to promote all
forms of good health – mentally, socially, sexually, and physically. Students
ended NPHW with an inspiring message on communication in public health from
Richard Besser, MD, Chief Health and Medical Editor for ABC News. The goal was
to increase student awareness around the many facets of health, encourage
advocacy and discussion, and promote overall well-being for students and
faculty. 

Pacific University students used the
additional support to participate in the Oregon Master of Public Health Program
Student Poster Symposium during NPHW in Portland, OR. Twenty-five students had
the opportunity to present their ideas for novel community health
interventions. Projects ranged from an advocacy campaign to comprehensive sex
education in public schools to an on-campus stress relief program. For many of
these students, it was their first presentation of a scientific poster. The event
brought the cohort together in important conversation and nurtured these
emerging professionals in their work in contemporary public health practice.

 Each university’s group of public health
students and faculty advisors created two incredibly successful events for
NPHW. “The end result completely exceeded our expectations,” says
Gardner-Smith. “It was the first year of partnership, and these are student
organizations, so we didn’t know what to expect. We were so pleased with the
outcome and look forward to more collaboration with local colleges and
universities.”

Both events have been featured in the Oregon
section of the July issue of The Nation’s Health: http://thenationshealth.aphapublications.org/content/45/5/20.full#sec-29.

 		 	   		  
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