The Allen County Public Health department began the public health student heroes’ program to get more youth engagement and help share important information with local students about health. The goal was to have students create content on important public health topics that they could share with all the schools to reach more students.
At the beginning of the school year, information was shared with school nurses about how students could apply. It was open to any high school students in Allen County. They had to complete an online application and then submit some sort of digital media project. That could’ve done anything from a logo, an infographic, an audio clip similar to a radio ad, or a video clip, focused on an important public health topic of their choosing.
From those that applied there were 10 students selected, (three of the 10 are EACS). The students were selected to join the team based on their score from a standardized rubric.
The students are currently working on their first set of deliverables focused on vaping. Each month the goal is for them to come up with a unique slogan and incorporate some sort of digital poster, an audio clip, and a video clip. They receive feedback and also provided help to improve their deliverables, but all media is student-made.
Once their final deliverables are completed the hope is to send out what they have made to all the different schools in the county so they can use these as PSAs on morning, announcements, social media platforms, or school news.
In addition to creating monthly deliverables, the students are also given several opportunities to engage with the public and with the Department of Health. Some of the students were trained on Stop the Bleed and then helped work a booth in downtown Fort Wayne to educate over 250 people about the importance of that first aid training. They also have the opportunity to be a guest writer on the department of health monthly newsletter, which is available to any school in the county to post.
Being accepted onto to the team and being able to list this experience on a college application, job application, count it as volunteer hours for various needs/accreditations, and the overall team learning experience.
Our students selected to be on this public health team are:
Layla Hodson, Woodlan High, Mr. Denny Kern, principal
Madison Burkett and Elany Giron, East Allen University, Mr. Doug Hicks, principal.
Congratulations!