Public Health Capstone Course Hosts Culminating Poster Symposium
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Seniors enrolled in the undergraduate public health sciences capstone course participated in a Capstone Symposium event on November 21 in the Campus Center Auditorium. Approximately 90 students participated in the capstone course’s inaugural poster session.
As the culminating experience of the public health sciences major, the capstone course is designed for students to synthesize and integrate their learning from previous coursework, internship, and extra-curricular activities in the discipline. The class, which satisfies the integrative experience requirement for the major, also helps students to develop skills in teamwork, communication and leadership.
Students in the capstone course work collaboratively to complete a term research project, which involves identifying and researching a public health problem, and developing evidence-based recommendations to address that problem.
In the spring semester, students present their capstone projects at the Massachusetts Statewide Research Conference or the SPHHS Research Day. However, a comparable experience has not been available during the fall semester, so this fall the Capstone Symposium was developed to provide students with the opportunity to present their projects to faculty, staff, and students in a formal academic poster session format.
“As a capstone instructor, I encourage students to highlight their capstone projects in their resumes or graduate school applications,” says Sofija Zagarins, the major’s undergraduate program director who initiated the fall symposium. “Presenting their projects at the Capstone Symposium provides students with valuable experience, as well as the opportunity to review projects presented by other students. The event highlighted the breadth of student interests, with projects addressing a range of important public health issues.”
The poster session was judged by 16 public health graduate students. Four winning teams were selected – one overall winner, and winners from each of the capstone class sections.
The event’s overall winner was:
- Team: Jahnvi Punj, Ryanne Campbell, Ksena Gaskin, Odelia Teh, and Molly Gallagher. Project: “Bridging the Breastfeeding Gap: Increasing Lactation Duration and Exclusivity Rates in the United States.”
The section winners were:
- Team: Kerin McCarthy, Cynthia Wangeera, Emma Pike-Stein, and Dalila Salcedo. Project: “The Cycle of Shame: Alleviating Period Poverty for Women Living in the Bible Belt.”
- Team: Ashley Ngassa, Tedi Onwubueke, Imani Mungai, and George Prodanas. Project: “Combating Physical Inactivity in Young Adults Residing in the United States.”
- Team: Allison Kowal-Safron, Jake Soriano, Vivian Ruiz, and Daniel Onyeka. Project: “Increasing Perinatal Mental Health Resources to Improve Postpartum Outcomes in Mississippi: A Scoping Review.”
