Good health - it’s contagious!
The Wellness Effect takes place when kids and teens are equipped with the tools necessary to research healthy practices, how they work, and why they matter, on behalf of their communities. Participants can use their skillset to improve community health, ultimately leading to increased participant health advocacy confidence.
Our model allows for participants to develop strong health literacy skills, and then use their knowledge to positively impact others through health campaign materials. Sound vague? That’s because the chosen community health issue and campaign material is totally up to the students! After all, no matter how much pre-health mentors know about public health, students know their own communities best.
There are five components to our model: partnership, mentorship, health literacy, community impact, and impact measurement.
Partnership
Pre-health college students team up with a local public middle or high school.
During spring 2025, University of Maryland students worked with College Park Academy, a local public charter school. Mentors worked with middle school students (grades 6-8) during their CPA+ after school program “Wellness Club”.
Mentorship
Pre-health college students provide mentorship, both in teaching health literacy curricula and assisting participants in their health campaign creation.
The goal is that in having rising healthcare professionals mentoring program participants, not only will participant health literacy/advocacy skills improve, but mentors will improve in their health communication abilities.
Health literacy
We aim to increase participant health literacy over the course of the program. Our program uses established curricula to improve health literacy among students. Participants take part in engaging lessons regarding finding quality health information online, health comprehension, and health campaign creation. They complete group activities meant to test new skills, such as Kahoot! games.
In the first session, students are assessed on health literacy, and during the final session, students are reassessed.
Community impact
Campaigns address real health issues identified by students as prevalent community problems. Students determine which mediums they would like to use to distribute information (posters, social media videos, etc.)
It’s up to the students to determine how they would like to share their health campaign material! After all, they know their school community best. Mentors provide the support and resources necessary to help make participants’ most creative ideas a reality.
Impact measurement
Surveys and engagement analytics assess campaign success in improving school community health behaviors and attitudes.
Participant health literacy is also measured, with a pre-assessment taken during the first session and a reassessment taken during the last session.
In the future, there will be a pre- and post-program assessment of mentor health communication abilities/confidence.