While many legislators in North Carolina are trying to promote math and science education, students in the Gillings School of Global Public Health are trying to shift the focus.
“We gathered that students were not receiving high quality health education because of a lack of health educators in some schools, or the lack of trained health educators who were willing to teach the content in others,” said Liz Chen, a graduate student in the school.
Chen developed the idea for a website called MyHealthEd along with teammate Vichi Jagannathan after their experiences working with students through the Teach for America Program.
The two recently entered another competition, the North Carolina State Employee Credit Union’s Emerging Issues Prize for Innovation. With the chance to win $50,000 in prize money, Chen and Jagannathan saw an opportunity to turn their idea to help students into a reality.
Chen and Jagannathan said they wanted to create an individualized online health course, especially for those in low-resourced areas, in hopes of leading to healthier lives.
Jagannathan said MyHealthEd is intended to be a well-rounded health education by facilitating collaboration and conversation between parents, teachers.
“They want to be healthy,” she said about the high school students she worked with. “They just don’t know how. An online course seemed like a logical choice to broaden access to health education not only for students, but also for teachers, parents, and community members who play an equally important role in improving student health.”
Chen and Jagannathan recruited UNC seniors John Haskell and T.J. Tkacik to help with the development of a pilot site. Chen said there has been a tremendous positive response towards the project from individuals, schools, and other organizations in North Carolina and across the country.
“I would have to say that it’s pretty amazing how different people with different talents can come together to build something great,” Haskell said.
