Washington, DC, March 4, 2004
-A program to recognize outstanding public health students has been given a boost thanks to a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
The grant provides $10,000 over two years to the Maternal and Child Health Section of the American Public Health Association to recognize up to 15 outstanding student members annually. The Section's program helps the students participate in the Annual Meeting of the Association by defraying registration and travel expenses. The Section also provides an award for the best student-authored paper presented at the Meeting.
But goals of the program go beyond simply recognizing talented newcomers says Maternal and Child Health Section member Deborah Allen.
"The program enhances the education of future public health leaders through work with Maternal and Child Health Section committees, it brings the fresh perspective of students to bear on the work of the Section and it provides an opportunity for current Section leaders to mentor their successors," Allen said. "This is an invaluable opportunity for students, who gain both from the intensive contact this permits with Section leaders, and from the opportunity to attend the major, national meeting in their field. For the MCH Section and the broader APHA, this program offers an opportunity to draw upon students' experiences and ideas, and to ensure continuous organizational leadership for the future."
Maternal and Child Health professionals comprise one of the largest and most active Sections of the American Public Health Association. The Section has developed this now 3-year old program to support participation of public health students in the organization.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 to "help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth, accepts responsibility for self, family, community and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions and healthy communities.
To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to the cross-cutting themes of leadership; information and communication technology, capitalizing on diversity, and social and economic community development. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.