The seven areas of responsibility, classified by NCHEC, are used to clarify and comprehensively define the role of a health education specialist.
i) Assess Needs, Resources and Capacity for
Health Education/Promotion
I worked with a team to conduct a needs assessment at a middle school which included a survey we made. We concluded that nutrition is a topic this age group is interested in, but does not have a lot of education in.
ii) Plan Health Education/Promotion
I created a standardized lesson plan for Foodlink's edible education program which incorporates gardening and nutrition.
iii) Implement Health Education/Promotion
A team and I developed the lesson plans and materials required to teach nutrition lessons to middle-school aged children. This lesson in particular focused on the importance of making smart food choices and ended with a competitive game of trivia.
iv) Conduct Evaluation and Research Related to Health Education/Promotion
After the conclusion of administering a nutrition education program to middle schoolers, I worked with a team to conduct an evaluation measuring the effectiveness of the implementation.
v) Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion
Foodlink has a fruit and vegetable prescription program that I created flyers for. This program provides participants fruit and vegetable food boxes and measures their health statistics over time. The purpose of the program is to see how healthy eating has a positive impact on a person's physical health. This flyer contained storage tips, recipes, and benefits of the food inside the box.
vi) Serve as a Health Education/Promotion Resource Person
I had the opportunity to create content for the Curbside Market social media page for their "Teaching Tuesday" posts. These posts consisted of healthy snack ideas, storage tips, or anything nutrition related
vii) Communicate, Promote, and Advocate for Health, Health Education/Promotion, and the Profession
A group and I did multiple tabling events through the month of April, Donate Life Month, at SUNY Brockport which informed students/staff/faculty about the need for organ donors. We were able to get 17 people to enroll as organ donors, and were able to hand out pamphlets and had conversations with 100+ people about organ donation.