Full Article: First-year students recognized for outstanding population health research projects

Each fall quarter, thousands of first-year students at the University of Washington participate in a population health project called The Communities & Research (CoRe) where they analyze the various factors impacting the population health of different neighborhoods in Seattle. This year, UW First Year Programs (FYP) and the Population Health Initiative partnered to introduce a new aspect of the CoRe project – the CoRe Recognition Award to recognize the projects that go above and beyond in exploring population health through the lens of students’ individual passions or potential majors.

“Developing the CoRe Award and the Winter Showcase was about showcasing the brand-new Hans Rosling Center [for Population Health] in a way that also supports the value behind first-year students doing a population health center project,” explained Meghan Coletta, Senior Program Manager for First Year Programs, “Population health impacts every single industry, every single job; every person needs to understand what population health does to the world around us.”

Since 2018, the First-year Interest Group (FIG) program, in partnership with the Population Health Initiative, has assigned the CoRe project to first-year students of all disciplines to better understand the population health of the Seattle area. Students work in groups and are encouraged to choose an individual population health topic that intersects with their potential major or general interest to analyze the assets and challenges the neighborhood possesses as it relates to their topic. Each group conducts initial background research, visits their neighborhood together and ultimately combines each member’s individual research into a creative final project that showcases the overall population health of the neighborhood.

“The CoRe project is really cool, because it allows students to learn about population health by exploring a topic that is most interesting or relatable to their own major or interests,” explained third-year FIG leader, Maddie Seidel. “A lot of students might think about population health as a concept that only relates to science-related majors, but over the three years I’ve been a FIG leader, I’ve been able to see the way my students interested in everything from early education to accounting to psychology apply factors of population health to these varied areas of interest.”

With the addition of the CoRe award, each of the 123 FIG classes submitted the top project for their class, as voted on by their peers, as a finalist for the FIG CoRe award. The FYP office then randomly determined the top 20 projects from those final 123, and each group member from those winning 20 groups will receive a CoRe Award certificate and gift card in recognition of their outstanding research efforts. The winning projects are highlighted below.

The cohort of students selected for this year’s fellowship program are:

The finalists from each class will also be invited to participate in the Winter Showcase hosted virtually by the Population Health Initiative on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, from 4 – 5 p.m. Pacific to celebrate their hard work and showcase their projects to the greater UW community. The event will include a virtual gallery walk of the final projects and a scannable building postcard that takes participants on a self-guided tour of the Hans Rosling Center. The postcard is intended to be a fun, safe way to allow students the chance to explore the building despite the shift to a virtual event. The building exploration postcard can be picked up outside Room 155 in the Hans Rosling Center or in the First Year Programs office in Mary Gates Hall 120 through January 31, 2022.

All UW students, staff and faculty invited to join these first-year students in celebrating their accomplishments in interdisciplinary population health research. Visit the CoRe winter showcase webpage to learn more or register for the event.

The introduction of the CoRe award and accompanying Winter Showcase represents the Population Health Initiative’s continued effort to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on population health-related research and projects, while also activating the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health as the campus hub for this type of work.