Fall 2019
The winners of the Fall 2019 (fourth annual) Spirituality & Public Health Student Essay Contest are listed below, along with their universities and the titles of their winning essays. Prizes were awarded for graduate student essays. Cash awards are given each year for first prize ($1000), second prize ($600), and third prize ($300).
- First Prize:
Rajat Das Gupta, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, for “Translating the lesson learnt from the family planning program: Using implementation strategies appropriate with local religious value in tobacco control program of Bangladesh” - Second Prize:
Beverly Anaele, Thomas Jefferson University College of Population Health, for “Religion, spirituality, and sleep deprivation: Finding rest in the Divine” - Third Prize:
Maxwell Akonde, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, for “Harnessing the Ghanaian spirituality for holistic public health; Need for a spiritual-public health framework”
Fall 2018 Contest Winners
The winners of the Fall 2018 (third annual) Spirituality & Public Health Student Essay Contest are listed below, along with their universities and the titles of their winning essays. Prizes were awarded for graduate student essays. Cash awards are given each year for first prize ($1000), second prize ($600), and third prize ($300) (prize money is split in case of tie).
- First Prize:
Biblia Cha, University of California, Irvine, Program in Public Health, for “Addressing mental health disparities among Asian American and Pacific Islanders through research and partnerships with religious/spiritual Leaders” - Second Prize:
Thien-An Ha, University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, for “Using Buddhism to contextualize PTSD and healing in Khmer Rouge refugees” - Third Prize (tie):
Abigail Jessen, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, for “Doing the work: validating the role of faith community nurses in community health promotion” - Third Prize (tie):
Petra Sprik, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, for “African American breast cancer patients and God Locus of Health Control: What we know and what we meed to know”
Fall 2017 Contest Winners
The winners of the Fall 2017 (second annual) Spirituality & Public Health Student Essay Contest are listed below, along with their universities and the titles of their winning essays. Three prizes were awarded in the graduate student division, and two prizes were awarded in the undergraduate division. As was done in the first annual contest, winners will also be publicized elsewhere. Cash awards are given for first prize ($1000), second prize ($600), and third prize ($300).
Graduate Division
- First Prize:
Soim Park, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, for “Social support in South Korean churches and mental health promotion among North Korean refugees” - Second Prize:
Sarah Snyder, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, for “Working together: Implications for collaboration with local places of worship in community health education programs” - Third Prize:
Olufemi Erinoso, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, for “The relevance of religious and spiritual factors in curbing the opioid epidemic in the US”
Undergraduate Division
- First Prize:
Niathi Kona, University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, for “Collaboration between allopathic and faith-based practitioners to close India’s mental health treatment gap” - Second Prize:
Adetutu Sadiq, University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, for “Bridging the gap between public health and religion/spirituality through the application of ethnographic principles to epidemiology and other aspects of healthcare”
Fall 2016 Contest Winners
The winners of the Fall 2016 (first annual) Spirituality & Public Health Student Essay Contest are listed below, along with their universities and the titles of their winning essays. Winners are also publicized elsewhere (link). Cash awards are given for first prize ($1000), second prize ($600), and third prize ($300).
- First Prize:
Molly Scanlon, University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, for “Our common home: Embracing religious and spiritual tenets to advance a new model for environmental health research and education” - Second Prize:
Kennadiid Abdulla, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, for “Measuring religion – An exposition on the need to develop more nuanced approaches for assessing religiosity and spirituality in epidemiological research” - Third Prize:
Edward Nelson Kankaka, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, for “Frenemies: Spirituality and public health in the HIV/AIDS response in sub-Saharan Africa”
Please join the contest organizers in extending our thanks and hearty congratulations to these outstanding winners and future public health leaders.
Sincerely,
Essay Contest Founding Organizers
Doug Oman, PhD
(University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health; founding director)
S. Leonard Syme, PhD
(University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health)
Janice V. Bowie, PhD
(Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
Rabbi Nancy Epstein, MPH, MAHL
(Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health)
Mary A. Garza, PhD, MPH
(University of Maryland School of Public Health)
Cheryl L. Holt, PhD, FAAHB
(University of Maryland School of Public Health)
Heather Kitzman-Ulrich, PhD
(University of North Texas Health Sciences Center School of Public Health
/ Baylor, Scott & White Health)
Katelyn Noel Gregg Long, DrPH
(Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health)
.
