Professor: Nancy De Sousa
Students Reporting: 17
Time Reported: 24
Course Description:
As future medical professionals with a responsibility to disease care and prevention in their communities, GW medical students had the exclusive opportunity to integrate advocacy into their curriculum through Professor De Sousa Williams’ fall HSCI 2110 course.
Exclusively available for students in GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, De Sousa Williams’ 8-week online course produced some pretty incredible and in-depth projects about health education and disease prevention in D.C. Students reviewed basic public health concepts, especially those regarding prevention and were able to delve deep into the core concepts of the course through a hands-on approach.
As part of this course, students also studied and created a proposal to engage a local community in program planning to achieve health equity. An emphasis was placed on achieving health equity through disease prevention and health promotion to advance U.S. community, population, and public health. Through their work, students interviewed with community leaders and human services agencies in and outside D.C., expanding their perspectives on issues such as infant mortality and food insecurity.
For information about Community Engaged Scholarship at GW: https://go.gwu.edu/cesc
Examples of Student Interviews & Their Impact:
| First Example |
“This by far was the best experience that I have ever had. What I can sometimes take for granted because I already have certain rights and protections, this community is still currently fighting for.” |
| Second Example |
“Mrs. Addington was very informative and engaging on the topic of infant mortality. She provided a great amount of insight into the social determinants which affect infant mortality within Jacksonville, Florida. From unconscious bias and cultural differences from providers/care givers, to horrid infrastructure/capabilities for a safe home life all affect the macro-view of infant mortality.” |
| Third Example |
“[Dr. Allkhenfr] was able to provide great insight to the challenges presented by the refugee crisis as well as the outlook for the state and assisting community-based organizations. I was provided ample information by Dr. Allkhenfr and was fortunate to be connected with such a subject matter expert to our local community.” |
| Fourth Example |
“I learned a great deal from the session this week. - I sat in on a planning meeting for the nonprofit organization asking questions and posing ideas.” |
Additional Quotes from Students:
“I enjoyed looking into all of the resources in my county that help adolescents with mental health challenges. I found that a lot of them are fee-for-service programs though, which I feel like is not helpful to those who need it. It made me more motivated to come up with an initiative that based on volunteers, that way no one is left out.” - A student whose project focused on mental health resources, prevention, and support
“It was a great opportunity to work outside of my comfort zone for my final project.” - A student working on a project to increase the awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco and to increase smoking cessation numbers
