Youth in Public Health symposium 2024
In April 2024, under the guidance of Dr. Liming Liang, the Harvard University Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (EDIB) and the Interdisciplinary Discussion on Disease and Health, A Harvard Griffin GSAS student group (IDDH-HGG), successfully hosted the Youth in Public Health symposium. For the first time, the symposium was aimed at local Boston high school students. The event saw participation from 19 Sharon High School, Brookline High School, and Winsor High School students (Photo 1).
Over two days, these students were engaged in five basic public health courses, each over an hour long, delivered by one Harvard professor and six doctoral students. The students also teamed up for a hands-on experience, conducting research on young people’s diet using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) databases (Photo 2). The symposium also featured a Harvard freshman sharing her self-development experiences (Photo 3).
The outcome was a resounding success, with a record-breaking 12 students expressing their keen interest in continuing participation and volunteering in the future. This year’s symposium was a great experiment, promising an even more exciting symposium for the following year. Post-event student feedback was overwhelmingly positive, further validating the success of this year’s symposium (Photo 4).
