Month: May 2019

“I went to Truman from 2007-2011 on a Pershing Scholarship where I studied Exercise Science. Following Truman, I achieved a Fulbright Scholarship to Spain to teach English. I stayed for two years and became fluent in Spanish through playing on a local basketball team in Madrid. Following Spain, I attended graduate school at the University of Kansas Medical Center on the prestigious Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship, where I achieved a Ph.D. in Physiology in the fall of 2018. Recently, I was hired as a Medical Science Liaison for Myriad Genetics, where I can take the skills I have learned from all of my experiences to build relationships with clinicians and communicate science, which I am extremely excited for!

As I reflect back on all of my experiences, I can say with confidence that the opportunities I had in the Exercise Science Department at Truman State are the reason I have gotten to where I am today. At Truman, I was able to become a T.A. and later a Head T.A. in Human Anatomy, which revealed my passion for deeper scientific questions and motivation to pursue a doctorate. I was also supported and encouraged by the administration in the Exercise Science Department to be the first student to design and instruct a student-led course. The Pershing Scholarship also pushed me to think bigger in terms of my future career aspirations. The relationships that I made with other students and with faculty are friendships and mentorships that continue to impact and enhance my career and my life. I can’t thank this university and the Exercise Science Department enough for the path it set me on!”

Five students from the Student Public Health Association (SPHA) participated in the Quiz Bowl event during the Public Health Scholar Bowl held at Saint Louis University on April 6, 2019.  Braden Zoller, Ashton King, Bansari Amin, Leah Wright, and Amy Kang competed against teams from Johns Hopkins University, Temple University, Emory University, and Brown University for total points in the event.  Quiz bowl competition involves knowledge, conviction, and luck.  The trick is hear just of the question to answer it before the other team does. Sometimes a question can only be answered if the entire question is read.  The Truman team had fun and placed ninth out of the 14 teams competing in the event.  Dr. Janice Clark is the SPHA faculty sponsor and took the team to the event.

This semester Emma Barnett and Shannon Dague continued the five-year tradition of Truman Health Science seniors completing their capstone project as the Buddy Pack Coordinators.  Working with Teresa Ross, Regional Coordinator for the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri, Shannon and Emma organized five monthly packing events, and recruited 160 volunteers to pack over 1,288 bags of food each time.  The Buddy Packs are delivered monthly to nine schools in eight school districts in Northeast Missouri, with weekly distribution to 322 food-insecure students in those schools.

It’s a big process that starts with cleaning and organizing the food in the warehouse each month,  Packing Night jobs include working on the assembly line to place food into the bags, tying bags, stocking assembly line, opening boxes to supply to the assembly line, working on trash detail, flattening cardboard boxes, and organize Buddy Packs.  Shannon and Emma supervise the entire process and double-count all the bags packed.  The day after the packing, the school representatives arrive to collect the Buddy Packs for their schools.  Then, they start recruiting volunteers for the next packing night

Two years ago Colin Osborne adopted a puppy and took her to obedience training.  The instructor suggested Tally, the puppy, would make an excellent service dog, so Colin continued training Tally and she achieved this certification.  This inspired Colin to combine Tally’s certification to implement an entirely new capstone project this semester in HLTH 440.  Katy Korte, director of the Kirksville Child Development Center (KCDC) and the parents of children attending agreed to allow Colin and Tally to present lessons to the children there. Colin, then developed six original 30-minute health-related lessons.  After an initial “meet and greet” with the faculty at KCDC, the lessons began.  The children were divided into two groups (age 2-3 year olds, and 4-5 year olds), and the lessons were taught to each group of children at KCDC.  The first lesson was on Dog Safety, with subsequent lessons on Needs vs. Wants, Habitats, Measurements, a health story, and review/ice cream party.  Tally and Colin were a hit and the children eagerly awaited their next lesson during April.

Oral Health Education was the focus for the HLTH 440 capstone project completed this spring by Sydney Prow, Nicole Lauritsen, Gabrielle Amos, and Emaleigh Sojka. Their cooperating supervisor was Health Science grad, Amy Carroll, MCHES, (Truman HS grad) Outreach Coordinator, Health Educator & Lifestyle Coach at the Northeast Missouri Health Council in Kirksville. They presented dental health education to seven of the ten classes of second grade students at Kirksville Primary School this spring. Their lessons reached 117 students who learned brushing/flossing techniques, identified sticky foods more likely to promote tooth decay, and signed pledge cards to floss and brush daily. Students were given an oral health calendar to log the number of times they brushed and flossed during a two-week time period.

Ashton King and Haley Sirokman worked on the “Curb Your Waste” project in partnership with Mr. Tim Reed, superintendent at the Kirksville Wastewater Treatment Plant.  Their project had several components:  a) raising the public’s awareness about yard waste pollution; 2) educating 225 Ray Miller Elementary students about keeping streams and lakes clean; 3) collaborating with local lawn care companies to not blow yard clippings into the streets and storm drains; and labeling storm drains during April.  With a team of volunteers, they worked on weekends in April to affix the labels to the storm drains in Kirksville.  Although they were hampered by cool weather, they labeled nearly 1,000 storm drains during their project.