Healthy Teen Scholars
by: Melissa Aune, Melody Fung, Amy Jayas, Zoerina Ledwidge, Dan Marsden, Tara McCloskey, Ty Miranda & Kanisha Patel Introduction
• Who we are: • We are the ISCOPES Healthy Teen Scholars (HTS) Learning Community • Interprofessional team of undergraduate and graduate students in public health and medicine • Our site and who we serve: • Our site is Dunbar High School in Northwest Washington, D.C. th th • We serve students from 9 -12 grade • Dunbar is America’s first Black public high School and has a very active alumni network
Students ranked the sugar content of popular drinks
The Nutrition Series empowered students to make healthy food choices. Activities included: • Fruit & Vegetable Taste Testing – students were able to try foods including squash, cherry tomatoes and clementines • Produce Passport – encouraged students to try different foods tasting and practice healthy eating habits throughout the week • Rethink your Drink Kit - discussed amounts of sugar in popular foods and drinks • Understanding the impacts of food deserts on health
1.
Start planning field trips or service experiences at least 2 months ahead of the event date.
2.
Find topics that will be meaningful to your team, and more importantly, to the students at Dunbar.
3.
Successful implementations and site visits can be replicated by building on the topics that students showed the most interest in.
4.
Text reminders to the students the day before and the day of; many of them need permission from their parents to attend. •
5.
57% of the students in RCC liked the nutrition series the most out of all our club topics Dan discussing food deserts during our nutrition series
Adding team members to the reminder list will help everyone stay on schedule with messaging the students.
Activities are always better than discussions you may want turn a discussion topic into an interactive group activity by using ISCOPES resources.
What We Learned
Handouts used to encourage a diverse diet I.
Having a viable mode of communication is essential for a functioning team and high attendance at RCC
II.
Reminding yourself why you joined ISCOPES in moments of low motivation or morale can help pick up the team’s momentum
III. Keep your audience in mind when you are providing any type of service and selecting topics to discuss
What We Do
IV. Do not be afraid to hold people on your team accountable
• HTS led the Red Cross Club (RCC) at Dunbar High School • RCC is an afterschool club where we discuss adolescent health, explore health career paths, and find community service opportunities with students • RCC club activities cover topics including: • Goal setting • Social Media & Bullying • Sexual Health • Healthy Relationships • Nutrition • Sports & Fitness
HTS team after a discussion and activity about stress
Recommendations
Project Example: Nutrition Series
V.
Meetings with your teammates are essential during the forming stages of a team
Kudos A huge thanks to our team advocate, Alda, and team coach, Rachel, and the entire ISCOPES Leadership Team for helping us through this process. Thank you to the teachers, students and administrators at Dunbar High School for letting us into their space and teaching us so much about their community and service learning.
Process Outcomes
Melody and a student during our site visit about injuries
• Students were open to eating more nutritious foods • Higher retention rates during the RCC meetings each week • 88% of the students participating in RCC reported that they learned a great deal of information from club meetings • Students recommended the RCC be hosted at Dunbar twice a week, instead of once a week Dunbar students posing with their new backpacks during our end of the year celebration!