Development of a Public Health Undergraduate Presentation Forum

A key component of the public health Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa is a student capstone project- the Applied Learning Experience. An important element of this experience is the University of Hawaii's Public Health Undergraduate Summit, a public forum where junior-level students present project proposals for their Applied Learning Experiences and seniors share their completed projects as academic posters. This forum has four primary objectives: 1) to link current undergraduate students with faculty, graduate students, community members, and alumni; 2) provide an opportunity for students to receive feedback on their proposed or completed projects; 3) to encourage students to develop professional skills through an academic-format presentation; and 4) to increase visibility of our public health program both on-campus and in the local community.

Through inclusion of multiple levels of our local public health family, from faculty and alumni to graduate and undergraduate students, we are able to promote cohesiveness among members of our degree programs, and simultaneously support our undergraduate students as they navigate their path to public health practice and beyond. The success of our students is compounded as we also use this forum as a recruitment event to increase awareness of our program on-campus and among populations of prospective students. It is our hope that this event will foster the growth and development of the current generation of new public health professionals, while strengthening public health partnerships with our local community, and sparking the interest future generations.