WVU HSTA students educate, work on health projects in their communities

What’s the News?

The Health Sciences & Technology Academy at West Virginia University helps the state’s high school students attain the opportunity to attend tuition-free college. The rewards of the program go beyond the individual, however, and permeate their communities as they become advocates who work on a health problem there for four years. 

Quotes and Comments:

“From ninth through 12th grade—because that’s how long it takes to get through HSTA successfully—each student has four chances to make a difference in solving some aspect of a community problem. So, they learn all these skills, but in the process of that they’re also learning content. In the process of doing these projects, the students are doing research, but they’re also gaining all of this background information on best practices in dental hygiene, best practices in water quality, best practices in increasing vaccination rates, and in some cases, they are finding out how to do it better than best practices. They become advocates for health literacy and advocates in populations that are really difficult to reach.” —Ann Chester, Director of HSTA

“It [HSTA] has given me presentation skills—we have to present at the symposium every single year—it’s given me great social skills, I’ve interacted and got to encounter tons of people that I would have never had the chance to without being in HSTA. In the future it will impact my life because I’ll always have a place to like, come home to in West Virginia, wherever I go or whatever I do eventually, I’ll know I can always call Morgantown home where our HSTA office is. I’ll have a family in West Virginia and all the HSTA alumni that I’ve met and know, that I’m actually really close friends with today.” —Kirk Moore, HSTA Student Ambassador

Resources:

(VIDEO): Ann Chester

(VIDEO): Kirk Moore

Target Audience:

• Middle school students
• High school students
• Parents
• Teachers
• Other colleges and universities
• Community health advocates
• Health practitioners