Clara Barton Gateway Students Create Two Health Initiatives
By: Elisabeth Iler, Director, Gateway Institute
June 8, 2005

On Wednesday, May 25, 2005, thirteen Clara Barton Gateway juniors attended a ceremony of the Arthur Ashe Institute at Downstate Medical Center. Mr. Maurice Pahalan, Gateway Coordinator and Ms. Jacqueline Foster, Principal of Clara Barton, were in the audience watching proudly as both groups of Clara Barton Gateway students presented their initial research on teen obesity and osteoporosis. Initial data about attitudes toward eating and weight had been collected in the winter and spring 2005 from peers at Clara Barton. The osteoporosis group presented an outline for an information pamphlet that they will produce and use in the fall 2005 at their school and community presentations about this disease. Ms. Foster has forged a strong partnership with the Gateway Institute and believes, as does Gateway, that health education and an agenda of fitness and nutrition for high school students is extremely important. She hopes that the efforts of these Clara Barton Gateway students will serve as a model for the school system to replicate.

Under the skillful leadership of Gateway Coordinator Mr. Maurice Pahalan, the students launched these two important health initiatives. Early this spring the students submitted proposals and received support of almost $12,000 in grants from the health insurer HIP to implement teen obesity and osteoporosis education and outreach programs for their school local communities. The S.T.E.P. Program and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, told the participants in their programs about the Circle Grant program, which encourages young people to create solutions to the significant health problems facing their communities. Gardeth Edouard, a Gateway junior, summed up the group’s sentiment when she said:

“We felt an urgency to address the two issues of increasing obesity in adolescents and osteoporosis among women. We also took advantage of the opportunity to discuss our ideas with Mr. Arthur Barnes: Executive Vice President, HIP Health Plan (NY) who was our ‘principal for a day’ at Clara Barton.”

HIP awarded the Clara Barton students close to $12,000 for projects that began this spring and will run through spring 2006.

Mr. Pahalan has partnered with SUNY Downstate Medical Center on student projects for almost ten years. He is eager to see what creative approaches the students, all juniors, develop to address these two important health issues. The students in the adolescent obesity study are: Mahwish Anwar, Latoya Codougan, Gardith Edouard, Evelyn Herrera, Ehi Omogun, Vanessa Vales, and Candice Wills. The osteoporosis study includes: Vivienne Cain, Amy Lau, Daphne Lundi, Rodely Moise, Harmanmeet Singh, and Arindam Singha.

The goals of the two groups are to :

• Research teen obesity and osteoporosis;
• Develop educational and outreach strategies;
• Organize workshops open to teens, parents and community regarding the risks of teen obesity and osteoporosis;
• Publish their findings in the spring of 2006 with outcomes based on the data collected in the fall of 2005; and
• Create materials and conduct workshops, incorporating what they have learned into lectures and group discussions during the 2005 fall term.