On April 1, 2011 students from the HES Department won the AAHE (American Association of Health Education) case study competition at the 2011 AAHPERD national convention in San Diego, CA. The HES case study team consisted of Sarah Folks, Katie Emery, and Grace McGaughey, with Gina Hansen as the alternate member.
Eastern Illinois University placed second and Ohio University was third. There were 8 teams from across the US in the competition: University of Florida, Eastern Illinois University, Prairie View A&M (from Texas), Truman State University, Ohio University, Ball State University, University of North Florida, University of Northern Iowa.
Each team was to work as a group of health educators who have been deployed to specifically reduce incidence and mortality due to skin cancer in San Obispo County. They were to propose a social marketing campaign designed to increase awareness and knowledge, increase preventive behaviors and reduce the incidence of Melanoma skin cancer. Their campaign had to include measures to assist the local community in securing funds to support the campaign, training staff concerning the implementation of the campaign, and in communicating the new campaign to the San Luis Obispo community. They were also to address the Healthy People 2020 Objectives related to Melanoma skin cancer and the four P’s of social marketing.
Three HES students (Katie Emery, Sarah Folks, and Grace McGaughey) also presented their research in an hour-long session at the AAHPERD convention in San Diego on March 29, 2011. Their presentation was entitled “Grabbing Red Bull by the Horns”. This was the completion of their research on caffeinated beverages used by students at Truman State and Missouri State University. Special thanks goes to Jerry Mayhew for helping the students with their data analysis!