This virtual gallery represents a selected sample of outstanding student projects completed in the Spring of 2022, as part of Professor Sue J. Goldie’s undergraduate course, Gen Ed 1063: World Health: Challenges and Opportunities.
The course, held as a part of the Harvard College Program in General Education, examines the extraordinary changes in the world that present both risks and opportunities to health—unprecedented interconnections across borders, rapidly shifting global demographics, and changing patterns of diseases and injuries. The course emphasizes interdisciplinary thinking, encourages active student engagement, and utilizes projects—rather than exams—structured to link classroom concepts to contemporary events.
This page was curated by the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University. GHELI inspires and supports innovative learning, teaching, and dialogue about cutting-edge, multidisciplinary global challenges. We foster and evaluate new pedagogical tools and instructional strategies that bridge disciplinary fields, educational spaces, and groups of learners. Through the deliberative design of inclusive learning spaces—to gather, to collaborate, to spark unexpected discussions—the Incubator encourages transformative thinking across disciplines while breaking down conceptual and geographic boundaries.
At the start of the course students were told:
This course has no prerequisites aside from an open mind, curiosity about alternative perspectives, a willingness to self-reflect, and a commitment to be present and engage – with the issues we will discuss, the products you will make, and the learning community we will create. The concepts and issues you will encounter in this class are relevant to the most salient societal challenges you will confront beyond your college years. The skills you will develop – from data literacy and quantitative reasoning to critical thinking and interdisciplinary analysis – will prepare you for problem solving in a globalized context.
For their final assignment, students were asked to systematically analyze a societal health challenge that they were passionate about, and to create a “problem-inspired” product intended to influence policy, motivate action, and inspire real-world change. While the analytic component assessed critical thinking skills, the “call to action” component encouraged students to step beyond their comfort zone, think outside the box, and take risks.
Listen to students explain how the creative assignment supported deeper learning than a more formal assessment may have:
Students were given the choice to create an extended policy brief or a multimedia campaign. In a creative and inspiring format, a multimedia campaign should raise awareness and draw attention to public health issues at the community and population level. Students who chose this format were asked to choose a specific target audience to focus the campaign's motivation to change the thinking or behavior of those individuals. Effective campaigns had the traits of being specific (what was the precise problem being addressed), measurable (what was the desired outcome and how could the solution be measured to quantify change), achievable (was it actually feasible for the target audience to change their behavior given the context), and relevant (did student goals align with the audiences' tangible goals).
Student projects represented a breadth of issues across the global health landscape, from mental health including anxiety disorders and depression among youth, the opioid epidemic in the United States, youth vaping in Canada, HIV in young male adolescents in Thailand, to antibiotic resistance in the elderly. The diversity reflected in their creative choices was remarkable—students created policy analyses, multimedia videos, educational podcasts, campaigns for social change, original artwork, micro websites, illustrated children's books, and even a short story. The sixteen multimedia campaign student projects in this gallery were selected for their exceptional, inspired qualities, creative thinking, and analytic clarity.
Covid-19 among Children and Teens in the United States
by Imani Fonfield
Artist Statement: I chose a webpage as my media product to conveniently distribute narratives and facts I've collected in a digestible and mobile online platform. A webpage can be shared easily across different locations at any time and in many ways (e.g., email, text, social media, etc.). My primary audiences are local and state-wide leaders and health-related organizations; secondary audiences are local communities and students themselves to promote awareness and solidarity. My goal is first to email this project to school community leaders that I have relationships with and know of in Massachusetts (superintendents and school committee members). Later, I aim to branch outside of Massachusetts potentially with the help of a Boston Globe editor whom I've recently been in touch with for a separate project. I hope to remind leaders and communities that youth who lost caregivers due to COVID-19 have much longer and critically important healing processes that need support inside and outside school. I want to put narratives and facts on these leaders' radars to enact community-based change, policy conversation, and implementation. I chose the design I did to express the urgency of this issue. The black and white coloring help inject pathos effects; the transition pictures between narratives emphasize the snapshots of young people's short yet powerful narratives. I also kept some (very vulnerable) clips when editing my interactive videos to evoke emotion and urgency to this topic.
Imani Fonfield reflects on her final project:
Opioid Overdoses and Narcan in the United States
by Jay Gang
Artist Statement:My project consists of a series of Instagram posts, infographics, and posters about Narcan and the role it can play in reversing an opioid overdose and saving a life. The opioid epidemic has hugely impacted my personal life, so I came into college with some knowledge about opioids, their prevalence in the United States, and how to respond to an overdose. At Harvard, however, I noticed that many people are unaware of the extent to which opioid overdose is an ongoing threat to public health. More importantly, many of my fellow students are unaware of how easy it is to take simple steps—like carrying naloxone and knowing how to use it—that can ultimately prevent an overdose from taking a life. To that end, all components of my project are aimed for use at Harvard or similar college campuses. They are intended to motivate college students to carry naloxone with them so that they can use it if they are ever in a position where someone near them is experiencing an overdose. The Instagram posts are designed to be accessible and to convey the ease and importance of carrying Narcan. I chose to make Instagram posts because Instagram has become a significant source of information for many college students and because, via my own connections and those of others, it carries enormous potential to reach huge swathes of campus at once. The images are uncluttered and bright to catch people's eyes as they scroll. The words are intentionally non-technical ("Narcan" instead of "naloxone," "prevents opioids from binding to receptors" instead of "opioid antagonist") to try and minimize the number of people who will miss the message of the posts.
Furthermore, I created an infographic and a poster, both of which provide instructions or tips for administering naloxone and could be put up around campus. These will serve two purposes: (1) to raise awareness about naloxone for college students, hopefully making them want to learn more, and (2) to provide education on how to use naloxone for people who may not know. I think a necessary part of a campaign to get people to carry naloxone is a set of resources for learning how to use it. Finally, along those lines, I created a poster to get people to come to a free training event to learn how to use naloxone. Though the time has not actually been determined, this mockup will likely actually be used for an event that a club I run, Harvard College Overdose Prevention and Education Students (HCOPES), will host in the fall to give people free naloxone to take with them and provide training from the Cambridge Department of Public Health and Fenway Health on how to use it. As before, the same choices were made with respect to the brightness and simplicity of the materials to make them eye-catching and accessible.
Anxiety Disorders Among Children in the United States
by Ashton Body
Artist Statement: Anxiety disorders are a serious and growing problem for children in the United States, commonly presented as intense feelings of worry and fear (GBD Compare, 2019; Ghandour et al., 2019). Global rates of anxiety have almost doubled since the Covid-19 pandemic due to mass isolation, fear, uncertainty, and school closures, which have interrupted critical periods of development and socialization for children (Racine et al., 2021; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021). Introducing mental health and anxiety into conversation with children informally and educationally may give them a better understanding and vocabulary for what they are feeling; thus, Bluey’s Big Worries came to be (U.S. Department of Education, 2021; Lowe, 2009). By creating a children's book centered around an anxious fish, Bluey, children can identify with Bluey, understand and reflect on their own emotions and worries, and learn how to express their feelings. His constant worries are a dark shadow that follows him around and talks to him. The book even introduces a new coping mechanism to provide children and their caregivers with not only vocabulary to communicate but also a tool to manage their anxiety in trying to take the map away from their worries. The book is colorful and imaginative, designed to capture the attention of young children with a fun storyline and images. It uses imagery to describe both the worries and their control, the shadow and the map of Bluey’s day to visually present one way anxiety may feel. In creating this book, the hope is to help children better understand their worries and anxiety visually and through connection with Bluey’s plight. This book was designed to provide accessible support for mental health care for children both within families and schools, to combat the rising rates of anxiety significantly worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, helping children sort through what can be big and overwhelming emotions (Patrick et al., 2020).
Ashton Body reflects on her final project:
Suicide in Young Women in the United States
by Oksanna Samey
Artist Statement: From the outset of 2022, popular media has been inundated with news stories surrounding the suicides of several prominent young women. While shocking to many, their deaths indicate the severe mental health crisis facing the United States. "The Storm" is a four-minute public service announcement (PSA) designed to air as an online media or television advertisement. These media are most likely consumed by members of the target audiences. To accommodate time constraints, the PSA is designed in three sections: 1) Storm Preparedness, 2) Mental Health, and 3) The Text Message. Although these sections are complementary, the "Mental Health" section is designed as a standalone if needed due to advertisement time limits. The target audiences are predominantly female consumers aged 12-60 on the online video platform YouTube or television programs. Within this range, the primary audience is young women aged 12-40 who may suffer from mental health issues or have a loved one who does. The secondary audience is adult women who may be mothers or maternal figures to young women who suffer from mental health challenges. A tertiary target audience is adult fathers or father figures who also struggle to help young women in their lives navigate mental health challenges. All these audiences are intended to take away a common message: discuss, challenge, and treat mental illness before it leads to suicide.
Oksanna Samey reflects on her final project:
Gun Violence among Adolescents in the United States
by Merlin D'souza
Artist Statement: Shown below are a series of posters intended to visually depict the harsh realities of gun injuries and consequences for adolescents in the United States. Gun violence is in the top 10 causes of death for adolescents. Posters are an easier way to showcase this information publicly. In the United States, the topic of guns is charged with feelings of protectiveness; people who own a gun might not seek out this information if it was on a website, so these posters can be placed in public areas to hopefully confront some realities. Every medium has its faults, but the posters make it easy to grab facts on the go. The images hopefully invoke a feeling of protectiveness and motivate people to learn more about how they can protect their families.
The first poster is meant to confront the viewer with platitudes often said, but the facts that contradict the feeling of safety, these statements of school learning or "my child would never…" provide.
The second poster is intended to visually depict a scenario of danger, an innocent child reaching for a gun that is not locked. Commonly, guns are not locked, and in movies and shows are often placed in bedside tables.
The last poster is meant to inform the viewer how they can protect their family. This information was taken from the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Youth Vaping in Canada
by Alice Chen
Artist Statement: This audio submission is written as a segment from a fictional Canadian podcast, Education Today, that features conversations between educators and guest invitees on key subjects relevant to education. The target audience is educators. This episode centers around the health problem of youth vaping in Canada with the guest invitee, voiced by me, giving an overview of youth vaping in Canada, the health consequences of youth vaping, and a clear call to action for the educators. I chose the medium of podcasts as it is popular among several generations, including millennials, and allows for a higher density of information communicated verbally. In designing the podcast, I thought about the tone of voice I wanted to use in conversation (informative but friendly), the structure of a podcast as a piece of media (intro music, advertising breaks, etc.), and the title of the podcast. This also allowed for some engagement between guest and podcast host, providing context, personal anecdotes, lived experience, and a very feasible, easy-to-implement call to action for educators. The call-to-action simply asks educators to be critical facilitators for information about vaping to parents and peers of youth, given the evidence that social influence is a significant determinant of vaping. The key change in behavior is shifting teachers from passively and occasionally talking about the harms of vaping to integrating it at various points in interactions with students and parents.
Opioid Epidemic in the United States
by Julian Handler
Artist Statement: The motivation for my product came from my desire to respond to the opioid epidemic, fueled by the recent death of one of my friends from elementary school by an opioid overdose. I wanted to focus my product on increasing awareness about naloxone because I was appalled that despite my personal connection to the opioid epidemic, I had not heard of naloxone until Professor Goldie brought it up in class. I hoped to address this concern by raising awareness about naloxone to inspire more people to get it and carry the medication with them to be prepared to save the lives of people they see who are experiencing opioid overdoses. I chose undergraduates at Harvard as my target audience because I thought that my personal experience could resonate most strongly with my peers, and I could most easily reach that group with my product. I decided to create a single poster to put up around places at Harvard—such as the houses and Science Center—since naloxone is so beneficial and accessible that one may be convinced to get naloxone just from the information that I put on the one poster. I designed the poster to tell a story of the problem and what people can do about it to prompt people to think that they can make a difference if they make the desired change. I showed my initial design to a doctor who I have shadowed to test it, and he convinced me to replace a fact about low naloxone coverage with the statement "you can save lives" at the top of the poster to hook my audience.
Moreover, I put a QR code on the poster that takes people to a website I created to give people more information on naloxone and more inspiration to get it.
On the home page, I described my story about my friend who died from an opioid overdose and my discovery of naloxone to communicate the feelings that prompted my purchase of naloxone. On the next page, I wrote a brief argument for why people should get naloxone to expand on the points and evidence I included in my poster. I made sure to use data specific to college students and Massachusetts so that my target audience could see how relevant the problem is here, but I also included general data from the U.S. because Harvard students come from all over the country. I added some images to go along with my story to help immerse the reader, but I decided not to include any graphics on this page because I thought that they were unnecessary to support my argument. I also omitted how much it costs to purchase naloxone because I did not want to include any disincentives. I then created a page that describes how to use naloxone with a couple of images to help people visualize the instructions, and the main purpose of this page is to demonstrate how easy it is to save someone's life with naloxone. I also linked a video that the aforementioned doctor recorded on how to use naloxone so that my audience can hear from an authoritative source. I finally added a page to the website where people can tell me if I inspired them to get naloxone so that I can publicly measure the impact of my project. I plan to put up my posters at the start of the next semester because I want to wait until as many students are on campus as possible, and at the beginning of the semester, students should have plenty of time to get naloxone at a pharmacy.
Julian Handler reflects on his final project:
Depression Among Youth in the United States
by Ines de la Morena
Artist Statement: I remember that when I was in middle school or early high school, the best way to catch my attention in class or while studying was through videos. I decided to create a short, informative video addressed to teenagers living in the United States about teenage depression. I wanted to make the video by hand to make it more interactive and eye-catching. I include statistics and encourage teenagers across the U.S. to treat each other with kindness, recognize warning signs, and know the types of help available to them. I hope that teenagers that watch the video are encouraged to perform random acts of kindness for each other and are more sympathetic and empathetic with their peers and their struggles.
HIV in Young Men Adolescents in Thailand
by Fabian Koenig
Artist Statement: The "It's Okay" campaign will be run in various cities in Thailand for six months in cooperation with local NGOs and city governments. The campaign aims to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS, particularly among young male adolescents. The primary audience is the vulnerable key population of adolescent men who have sex with men as stigma keeps them from utilizing services such as free HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. This is evidenced by the high rates of infection within this subpopulation. The secondary audiences are friends, family, and the broader society who are critical to supporting affected individuals and generating a stigma-free environment. Due to the success of peer-driven approaches and campaigns featuring personal narratives over other strategies, the campaign will focus on the personal stories of seven male adolescents documenting their own experiences with HIV. These individuals will be featured on large posters that, in line with previous HIV/AIDS campaigns, will be displayed on large shopping mall screens and conventional banner stands. Since the primary source of information is the internet for this target group and many individuals frequent dating apps, additional online advertisements will be run on pages of search engines, commonly frequented websites, and dating apps. These campaign products will be supplemented by a website detailing the stories of all seven individuals and links to educational resources.
This website will be displayed as a QR code on conventional posters and directly linked on online advertisements. A central platform for all these narratives, combined with resources, makes it easier for interested individuals to take action. The posters were designed to include a central message, beginning with the words "It's okay." Each message is associated with a person who could even be considered a role model to make it more memorable and recognizable. Beyond pictures, peer characteristics were emphasized by including the name and age, as well as a short sentence describing their relation to HIV. Each poster also includes a call to action, i.e., a short description why the depicted behavior is helpful and what the audience should do (e.g., get tested). In addition, two hashtags (#it'sokay, #fightHIVstigma) are included to simplify sharing these messages on social media. The messages cover various facets of HIV preventative actions, advocating for the conventional actions associated with stigma of testing, treatment, and protection with Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), but also other aspects compromised by stigma, like sharing an HIV diagnosis with friends or family. The latter has proven effective in supporting adolescents in HIV prevention and treatment, so de-stigmatizing it should promote healthy behaviors and reduce risky behaviors. The personal narratives are supposed to depict an alternative reality with reduced stigma to instill courage in the audience and reduce fear. It thereby hopes to increase the uptake of services, reduce new HIV infections in the population of adolescent MSM and potentially beyond, and increase treatment adherence.
Stigma often is the only barrier that keeps Thai individuals from utilizing the excellent HIV services in the country, so this campaign seems both relevant and achievable. All materials with translations are included. All people depicted on these posters only serve as a template for the actual campaign, which should feature real people. Portraits were cartoonized to portray individuals in a more abstract way, making them more generalizable to the overall society. The materials were translated to make them more approachable to the target audience. The stories are purely fictional and, again, should be real for the actual campaign. The list of resources on the website is not comprehensive and should only be an inspiration for structuring a central repository as part of such a campaign.
Fabian Koenig reflects on his final project:
Air Pollution in U.S. Minority Communities
by Wonuola Obasa
Artist Statement: I chose to do a podcast on how air pollution affects the health of minority populations because it is an issue that does not have that much public attention, and many people don't realize how the air that they are breathing in can be detrimental to their health. In the podcast, I briefly introduce the situation in the United States and then allow three characters to "tell their story," with each character representing a different minority group: Asian, Black, and Hispanic. These characters live in different neighborhoods, and different factors contribute to poor air quality in their communities. Still, the commonality is that they all face the health effects of air pollution. The stories told in the podcast are not the stories of real people but are very realistic and help depict what it is like in different communities throughout the nation. Using a podcast allows me to tell the message in a way that keeps the listener hooked. This structure allows different people to relate to the issue and think about how their community is reflected in or resembles the communities discussed in the podcast. I then go on to provide broad potential solutions so that people can get an idea of how they can enact change within their communities to impact the environment and health of their communities positively.
Racism and Maternal Mortality in the United States
by Aimee Ramirez
Artist Statement: This infographic is meant to bring awareness to a health problem plaguing women of color. Pregnant women of color suffer higher rates of complications and maternal mortality, especially Black women. Facing the intersection between racism and sexism, expectant Black mothers experience the most risk during their pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum. By providing specific data, and corresponding visuals, the reader can understand the magnitude of the problem. Expectant Black women are in a disproportionate amount of peril compared to their White counterparts. Multiple factors contribute to this dilemma, but before those are tackled, the problem itself must be recognized. No woman should have to be fearful of what should be a particular moment in their life.
Aimee Ramirez reflects on her final project:
Mental Health in Young Men in the United States
by Kaitlin Shannon
Artist Statement: Originally, this video was going to include various gender identities and emphasize the positive impact therapy can have on anyone’s life. While conducting interviews, I was disappointed by the difficulty I had in finding men who had been to therapy, deeply considered it, or were willing to discuss the concept. Additionally, the first two men I interviewed entered therapy out of obligation. Their decisions to continue with therapy demonstrate its positive effects. Still, their stories and the lack of men I found to interview pointed to a more significant issue surrounding the male relationship to therapy. As a result, I focused on the male experience, or lack thereof, with therapy, mental health, and the stigma accompanying these concepts. I chose to use real-life interviews and a video so the audience can feel personally engaged with a real person and real stories. This format also fits with the video's overarching message that we, as a society, need to have more real-life discussions about these topics. The video targets an audience of young men to show that other men experience similar feelings, thoughts, or struggles and that it is okay to need and talk about mental health help. It is also targeted at the overall population because breaking the stigma requires society to normalize, discuss, and care about young men's mental health.
Antibiotic Resistance in Elderly People
by Michelle Lara
Artist Statement: This short story is intended to be a unique way of portraying the invasiveness of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the disparity between rural vs. urban treatment in nursing care centers, and the sometimes lonely, though easy-to-positively-impact reality of nursing care facilities. Though not the most technical in nature, the short story is meant to engage the reader’s attention and emotions and be entertaining throughout. People can gleam different messages from this: An average community member can see the impactful and meaningful work that volunteering can provide; physicians and hospital administrators can be mindful of instilling antibiotic stewardship programs in their work; and policy-makers, activists, government workers, etc. can better understand what the issue of antibiotic resistance means to a large percent of the U.S. population, and hopefully be motivated to respond. Overall, it could help spread awareness and potentially inspire action, especially in conjunction with the increasing national discussion about this issue. To increase readership, I would love to publish something like this in population-specific magazines (one with high medical worker viewership) or online newspapers like the New Yorker that allow for short story submissions.
Mental Health in Harvard Students
by Erin Hamlin
Artist Statement: I created a series of posters intended to be placed around college campuses to motivate students to get help if they are overwhelmed, overstressed, or are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, depression, or any other mental illness. The intended audience is U.S. college and university students. I added a QR code on each poster that leads students to a curated page of anonymous resources that they can use to find multiple forms of help (the QR code works, scan it to see the resources I compiled!).
The resources page includes recommendations for stress relief apps, information on anxiety and depression in college students, anonymous mental health screenings, and hotlines to call if they need more immediate help. In creating designs for the posters, I focused on anonymous treatment options and statistics because many studies have shown that a critical barrier to seeking professional help among college students is the stigma toward mental illness and treatment (Czyz et al., 2013). Research has shown that the two most common reasons for not seeking mental health services among college students with depression were the belief that stress is expected in school and the lack of perceived need for help (Czyz et al., 2013). A survey of college students during the COVID pandemic showed that students were less likely to admit to suicidal thoughts or harming themselves if they attended a college where their peers had a high stigma toward mental health problems and treatment. This survey also showed that in places where students' peers stigmatize mental health treatment, students do not even want to acknowledge their mental health struggles (Gaddis et al., 2018). Students will be more receptive to anonymous resources if a large part of why they are not seeking help is perceived stigma from their peers. I hope these posters can help change students' attitudes toward mental health treatment. I hope seeing these posters will help students realize that high levels of depression and stress are not typical, and many other college students are going through the same issues. Finding ways for students to get help despite the stigma surrounding mental illness is a critical first step in improving mental health issues on college campuses.
Erin Hamlin reflects on her final project:
Refugee Health
by Heba Mohamed
Artist Statement: The three posters on display tackle the failures of the international community’s response to refugee health needs, especially for those who have already been resettled into a new country. Refugees' lack of access to housing, employment, and specialized healthcare services leaves them with lower health outcomes than the general population. This project aims to envisage the refugee experience by provoking familiarity. I use three infamous—and familiar—Western paintings to re-envision the refugee context and show how those ostensibly great figures would appear if they were in the shoes of masses of displaced and besieged populations. This juxtaposition hopes to elicit emotion from the audience and encourage policymakers to execute laws prioritizing refugee health needs in terms of financial allocation towards specialized, targeted health programs.
Heba Mohamed reflects on her final project:
Mental Health and Suicide in College Students
by Clare Morris
Artist Statement: As a college student myself, I feel that student mental health is not a priority for many, which can quickly lead to a mental health crisis and, eventually, suicide on college campuses. This topic has become especially important to me in recent years, as I had a close friend greatly affected by the suicide of one of their college-student relatives. Ultimately, the motivation behind the posters I created is to change the culture on college campuses to prioritize interpersonal relationships and place less importance on social media presence/one's curated image that they present to the public eye. My target audience is U.S. college students, and this is reflected in my choice of creating solely posters instead of a mix of posters and billboards. College students don't often drive around and instead congregate on campus. Thus, placing posters all around campus seems a much more effective way to reach this target audience than with large highway billboards. I would envision the more serious, detailed, and somber posters I created in more private yet frequently trafficked campus places, like bathroom stall doors. In contrast, some of the more simplistic posters would function well in areas where people spend just a few moments, like a student union building door, classroom hallway, or dining hall entryways.
The Origin of Gen Ed 1063
Since its inaugural year, more than 1,800 students have taken the General Education course developed in 2010, SW24: Global Health Challenges: The Complexities of Evidence-Based Policy. In 2019, we revisited the original curriculum through the lens of the renewed Harvard College Program in General Education, and reimagined the course through the lens of “urgent problems and pressing questions” in order to “explicitly connect the content in the classroom, to the people they will become and their world beyond the university.” After field testing new approaches to structure, pedagogy, and assessment the new curriculum included a modular format that emphasized interdisciplinary thinking, encouraged active student engagement in large and small groups, enhanced assignments that linked classroom concepts to current events, and replaced exams with projects.
Watch the video below to see a glimpse into the development of Gen Ed 1063: World Health: Challenges and Opportunities as Professor Goldie introduces twelve students who were invited to GHELI for the 2019 gallery opening where they reflected on the course and their projects.
