Project HEART: Promoting Healthy Eating and Activity through Recreation and Teaching

Responder Karen Liu
Project Title Project HEART: Promoting Healthy Eating and Activity through Recreation and Teaching
Start Date 7/14/22
End Date 2/28/23
Project Location: City San Antonio
Project Location: County Bexar
Other Student Leaders Jacqueline Moreno, Medicine
Christina Tilley, Medicine
Alina Sonesra, Medicine
Community Partner Organization Bob Hope Elementary School
CSL Mentor – Name Steve Tsai
Other Mentors
Is this project interprofessional? No
Professions Represented Medicine
Project Category Education
Project Activities Health Education
Is this project conducted as part of a student organization? Yes
Student Organization Name Cardiology Student Interest Group
Is this project done as part of an academic course (required OR elective)? No
Course Name N/A
Community Partner Name Maricela Passmore
Community Partner Job Title Principal
Total Number of Students on Project Team 17
Number of Community Beneficiaries 109
Total Number of Other Faculty/Staff
Number of Other Community Volunteers 6
Mentor Hours 6
Student Leader Hours 116
Total Number of Student Hours 326
Semester Service Hours 103
What type of funding did you use to conduct this project? CSL Mini or Midi grant from the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics
Mini/Midi Grant Amount Awarded 500
Did you do this project as part of Federal Work Study from the Office for Financial Aid? No
Did you receive In-Kind Donations for this project? No
Amount of In-Kind Donation $ N/A
CSL Abstract Project HEART Abstract.pdf
CSL Poster Project HEART Poster.pdf
Challenges The challenges we faced were mostly related to teaching. Some of the students struggled with reading, which made administering the surveys difficult as teachers had to spend additional time reading the questions and answer choices out loud to the students. We responded to this challenge by editing our lesson plans to introduce concepts at a reading level that matched the students’ proficiency and by shortening the length of the surveys. Additionally, students in the bilingual Spanish-English speaking class often had difficulty understanding concepts when they were taught in English; we often relied on individual medical students who had proficiency in Spanish to help bridge the language gap. In future iterations of the project, we will include Spanish translations of our teaching materials so our medical student teachers will have the tools they need to help students who may learn better in Spanish than in English. These challenges we faced were part of the environment and community we chose to engage with, and they were an opportunity for us to learn how to adapt to and accommodate the needs of the community members we served.
Lessons Learned One lesson we learned was to decrease the frequency with which we administered pre- and post-test surveys. Initially we had planned to administer a pre-survey at the beginning of each “module”  followed by a post-survey at the end of each ”module.” Each module was two weeks long: two weeks of Heart Anatomy and Function; two weeks of Nutrition; and two weeks of Exercise. In other words, in week one we planned to administer the Heart Anatomy and Function pre-survey, and in week two we planned to administer the Heart Anatomy and Function post-survey. In week three we would administer the Nutrition pre-survey, followed by the Nutrition post-survey in week four. And so on and so forth. However, upon implementing the program in week one, we realized that the pre-surveys took too much time to complete–upwards of 15 minutes–and we only had one hour total with the students. This detracted from valuable time with the students spent learning. Thus for the second and third modules, we omitted administering the pre-surveys to maximize the time we had teaching and actively engaging with the students. We felt that this was a more productive use of our time with the students, and we were still able to collect the data we needed. In future iterations of this project we will continue to do the same and limit the frequency of surveys to one pre-test and one post-test. We believe this is the best balance between collecting data to assess outcomes and interacting with the students in a way that benefits them.
Success Story To us, the entirety of Project HEART is a success story. Teaching and working with children like the bright young students at Bob Hope has been a dream of ours, and from the program’s inception in July 2022, we worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality. Were it not for the hard work and dedication of the medical student volunteers, the welcoming community partners at Bob Hope, and the generosity of the CMHE, Project HEART would not have been able to impact the community in the way that it did. Because of the contributions of everyone involved, we were able to encourage young students to live more heart healthy lives, provide an opportunity for future physicians to explore and develop their passions for teaching and community engagement, and foster a relationship with a community that has historically been overlooked.
Conferences Where You Presented Project Liu K, Moreno JL, Tilley CM, Sonesra AM, Tsai SC. Project HEART: Promoting Healthy Eating and Activity through Recreation and Teaching. Poster presented at: 16th Annual Community Service Learning Conference; February 04, 2023; San Antonio, TX.
Publications of your Project N/A

CSL Project Reports