Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities

The Southeast PEHSU and Break the Cycle of Health Disparities, Inc. invites university students from a variety of disciplines to participate in our 15th Annual Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities training program 2019-2020 that focuses on social, economic and environmental influences on children’s health, growth and development.

Children who grow up in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage are at greater risk for exposure to adverse environmental factors and are more likely to suffer adverse health and developmental consequences. Break the Cycle supports an interdisciplinary set of student-driven research projects that explore the social, economic and environmental factors that adversely affect children’s health and wellbeing, and creatively develop strategies to reverse this situation to promote improved health and well-being for this group of children and, thereby, Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities.

Students are required to work with academic mentors from their respective university programs to submit a proposal on how they would develop a project to Break the Cycle. All proposals will be reviewed, and a limited number will be selected based on relevance to the cycle of environmental health disparities, creativity, feasibility, and strength of the project plan. Those selected will have the opportunity to work with the Break the Cycle faculty and with other students from around the country and internationally, to see the project to completion and present their research results and findings at an annual conference in Atlanta scheduled for the spring of 2020. There will be monthly conference calls to review projects and provide perspectives and guidance on the projects. During these conference calls, faculty and students will have the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with their counterparts in other disciplines at other universities. Students will also be required to write a scientific paper on their project which will be published in an international peer-review journal as well as a chapter in a book.

Since the inception of the Break the Cycle program in 2004-2005, have we partnered with over 30 different university departments in 11 States in the USA as well as internationally, and have supported research for over 100 students. We have had 10 monographs published in international journals and 10 books. In 2012 we conducted a survey of past students who rated their experience with Break the Cycle valuable, and many continued to pursue careers related to their Break the Cycle projects.

We invite students to submit a proposal abstract (form enclosed) by September 20th, 2019. Proposals received will be reviewed by a Break the Cycle panel and decisions of the panel will be communicated to all applicants by October 4th, 2019. We are looking forward to working with students and their mentors on the 15th annual Break the Cycle program and making this year another great success. Costs of travel and lodging for the student and faculty mentor to the annual conference will be supported by Break the Cycle. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me at lrubi01 [at] emory [dot] edu or our Project Coordinator, Nathan Mutic at nathan [dot] mutic [at] emory [dot] edu and we will be happy to discuss potential projects with you.

If you are interested, click HERE for another resource.