Epidemiology students receive APHA grant to improve sexual health education on UNC campus
Dec. 2, 2013
Diana Sanchez (left) and Nadya Belenky
Nadya Belenky, MSPH, and Diana Sanchez, MPH, epidemiology doctoral students at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, received the American Public Health Association’s Advocacy on Campuses that Impacts Our Nation (ACTION) award to launch a semester-long sexual health-themed social media campaign called “Let’s Talk About It, UNC.”
“Social media programs are effective at disseminating information and initiating discussions,” Sanchez said. “However, they can be unidirectional, in that those receiving information are not necessarily able to respond or ask follow-up questions of those who deliver the information. Our program will disseminate information on STIs, HIV, abstinence, contraception, pleasure and other topics, and link back to UNC’s sexual health chat initiative, so that UNC students can follow up and obtain reliable sexual health information.”
Both women said that they were “passionate about translating epidemiologic findings into empowering, effective initiatives that change the climate of sexual health on the UNC campus.”
The ACTION grant program aims to motivate public health students to develop and implement plans for raising public health advocacy on their campuses and in their communities.
Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu.
