Las Vegas is typically known as "America's Playground," but for a group of Penn School of Nursing Nurse Practitioner students, it was the site of the culmination of months of hard work and diligent research.
Graduate students Rebecca Hogan, Lisa Cantore, Ellen Clore, Amy Felix, Anne Grifo, Michelle Haimowitz and Megan Kinnear were awarded first prize for their research poster, "Assessment of the growth, nutrition knowledge, activity level and type 2 diabetes risk factors of children in the community," which they presented at the 24th Annual Pediatric Nursing Conference in Las Vegas.
Their research findings were a result of a collaborative project between students from Penn Nursing and West Philadelphia's Sayre High School. The collaboration was funded by Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships and highlighted at the conference by Megan Souders-Zobian.
The nursing students delivered two presentations on diabetes risk factors to the high school students, and together the high school and graduate students addressed students in kindergarten through eighth grade at the Sayre Beacon after-school program about their own health.
"I'm tremendously proud of the collaborative effort between the Penn Nurse Practitioner students ... and the Sayre High School students," said Terri Lipman, a professor at Penn Nursing and the supervisor of the project.
The collaboration - which is entering its fourth year in the fall - focused on assessing growth and diabetes risk factors in the West Philadelphia children who attend the Sayre Beacon program, as well as promoting healthy eating and exercise habits to kids who need the tips.
"The whole purpose of this project [is] to do something culturally relevant for these kids," said Lipman, citing that 30-percent were found to be at-risk for Type two diabetes and 78-percent couldn't reach their target heart-rate in activity when the study began.
Together, the Penn and Sayre students showed the Beacon kids that nutritious food is good - one afternoon was spent making yogurt parfaits - and that exercise can be fun, through activities like dancing.
Cantore said that it was a "unique experience because it wasn't just Penn - it was a joint effort," and the Sayre students "had a say in it the whole entire way," right up to the prize-winning poster presented at the conference.
Recent Sayre graduate Princess Carter and Sayre junior LaQuan Williams even had the opportunity to present in Vegas. Lipman noted that no other high school students were there, so the students' presence was "incredible."
"I think it was definitely a wonderful opportunity," said Cantore, adding that the prize at the conference was a gratifying end to the experience.
"First place reflects how much work we put into [the project] and how much we care," she said.
