The Pitt Public Health Undergraduate Scholars Program wrapped up its third year with 25 students presenting their work to the Pitt community during a poster session on July 30. The 2025 cohort, representing 12 states and with majors ranging from economics to bioethics, came to Pittsburgh for eight weeks for classroom study, one-on-one work with a faculty mentor, and a University or community organization internship.
Students worked on a variety of projects, including evaluating drinking water and improving access to the Pitt Vaccine Hub for essential employees. They evaluated food insecurity, urban farming and indoor air quality in schools. They answered questions about the impact of tick surveillance and the correlation between emotion and severity in kids with asthma.
“I was a kid with asthma – so it’s crazy to think that there is a correlation between emotions and asthma severity in kids,” said Kabba Kargbo Jr., a Pitt junior who worked with School of Public Health Dean Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, and Cynthia Wallace, EdD, at the Oasis Project to investigate how emotional, psychosocial and environmental factors can affect childhood asthma. Kargbo looked at data on 4- to 13-year-olds from the National Survey of Children’s Health to evaluate social and emotional health. “This opportunity was awesome, and the work is important. I’m thankful to the dean and the School of Public Health,” Kargbo said.
“This program benefits the student and the School of Public Health. That mutually beneficial aspect is important,” said Carl Lawson, PhD, MPH, MA, associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion, health sciences at Pitt, one of this year’s mentors.
Chelsea Ibezimako, a public health practice major at the University of Maryland, designed an evaluation tool for an entrepreneurship program for local middle schoolers and learned broadly applicable skills that she and her mentor Elizabeth Felter, DrPH, MCHES, assistant professor of behavioral and community health sciences, described as “legacy skills,” transforming herself and the kids into better changemakers for their communities.
While working with Field2Fork, a paid program for high school students living in a fresh food dessert, Cassandra Lopez, a public health major at Old Dominion University, started from the ground up to learn about planting, harvesting, bundling, cleaning produce and even building community with an outdoor pizza oven. “From a One Health standpoint, there are some gates protecting the crops. They are easy to untie for the community to access over 200 varieties of food, but they keep the deer out,” she explained. “Ultimately, making a difference falls on these kids.”
Nicholas Harrell, a biochemistry major at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, studied the impact of ticks and vector-borne disease in 11 regional counties with mentor and supervisor Danielle Tufts, PhD, assistant professor of infectious diseases and microbiology. “We have to take care of each other because if one fails, we all fail,” he said.
“This program is part of educational and professional discovery. Since these are undergraduate students that are still exploring, they are still learning about their interests,” said Lawson. “This program allows them to identify what interests them the most and how they can apply their skills.”
Depauw University student Kristen Greaves was Lawson’s mentee this year, working with Nadine Masagara-Taylor at The Corner Community Center on a project called “Building Resilience through Community Care: Evaluating the Role of Local Resources to Foster Neighborhood Wellness.”
“I’m so excited that I got to experience these beautiful kids,” Greaves said of the Learning Lunchbox Program she worked on with 5–13-year-olds.
Greaves is creating additional digital engagement products, like Instagram videos, so she can continue to foster community engagement in the future. “It’s important to me not to just engage and then leave,” she said.
“With my background and love for public health, being able to serve as a mentor in a public health setting is something I’m always going to seek out. Everything is a bonus in terms of deeper connections,” Lawson said.
Lichtveld advised students to keep connections with each other and always with their peers, as they will someday become colleagues. Similarly, she said they should always seek to identify mentors both professionally and in life. “Focus very sharply on your goals,” she advised. “Begin with taking care of yourself. Otherwise, you can’t take care of others.”
Many of the scholars will travel to Washington D.C. for this year’s American Public Health Association annual meeting, where they will get to talk about their work to prospective students and friends at our booth and then also during our alumni reception on Monday, November 3.
PHUSP is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s John R. Lewis Undergraduate Public Health Scholars Program.
- Caitlin McCullough