Neelam Vohra
| Neelam Vohra |
Neelam Vohra1
Joan Gluch1, Marian Uhlman2
1Division of Community Oral Health, Preventive & Restorative Sciences, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine; 2Healthy NewsWorks
Description
Healthy NewsWorks is a nonprofit health media site dedicated to empowering elementary and middle school students to become writers, researchers and critical thinkers. The mission of Healthy NewsWorks is to work with students to advance their health education and literacy through factual publications and digital media.
Project Overview
BTG interns worked to create opportunities in which students could think critically about their and their community members’ health with the intended goal of engaging youth in advancing their own health literacy. This was achieved through active community outreach and design of creative, accessible and interesting health educational workshops.
Outcome
Through a total of 3 health educational workshops, participants engaged with material regarding dental professions, sleep health, and self-care. As students pursuing careers in the health professions with an interest in working in community settings, working with Healthy NewsWorks allowed us to explore and advance our skills in communicating health information. Empowering youth voices in the mission of advancing their own health literacy was rewarding, as was the opportunity to witness the excitement of students in creating their own published work. From the opportunity to talk about careers within dentistry, to discussing methods to alleviate anxiety in the moments before we sleep, to participating in a yoga exercise with a group of young girls, it was clear that given the chance to engage in these conversations, youth are willing and able to become champions of health literacy.