Despite having to cope with two late season nor’easters in two weeks, Geisel’s annual celebration of National Public Health Week went off without a hitch, holding a full schedule of events and showing strong participation across the Dartmouth community.
Organized by the American Public Health Association to raise awareness about public health issues and to celebrate the contributions of public health professionals and organizations, this year’s events took place April 1-7.
For lead student organizers Manasvini Ranganathan MPH ’24 and Kathryn Giordano MPH ’24, both Master of Public Health (MPH) students at Geisel, overseeing and facilitating the week’s activities provided the opportunity to work together on a shared project with all of their classmates while supporting population health in the community.
“While the American Public Health Association provides general themes to follow around advocacy and education, we appreciated having the flexibility to be creative and incorporate topics and areas that members of our own cohort were most interested in participating in and will perhaps want to pursue in the future,” says Ranganathan, who served as National Public Health Week representative at Geisel.
The week’s busy schedule of events and activities included:
- a panel discussion with hospital CEOs on healthy neighborhoods
- a screening of a Netflix documentary on food regulation and safety
- a discussion about trends and innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry
- a presentation and tour by the Dartmouth Hitchcock Advance Response Team on emergency preparedness (see photos below)
- and a civic engagement session at COVER home repair
The week also featured a public health trivia night and wrapped up with a 5k run and walk to benefit Good Neighbor Health Clinic (see photos).
Photos by Eli Burakian D'00
“This has been a great experience—one that we hope has helped to raise awareness about the importance of public health and shown people how interdisciplinary it is,” says Giordano, who serves as president of the Student Advisory Council for the MPH Residential program at Geisel. “It’s been very enriching and exciting to see how things we’re learning in class play out in the community.”
Chandlee Bryan, MEd, career services manager at Geisel, who worked with the students on the project, agrees. “There’s a huge shortage nationally of public health workers, especially after the pandemic,” she says. “One of the things that was fantastic about this week was that it helped to showcase the range of potential opportunities that exist, not just for students but for anyone who is looking to positively impact the health of others.”
Click here to read student testimonials and experiences of National Public Health Week.
