Wednesday, December 8, 2021

As a behavioral health major in the College of Public Health, Obot Sefonobong had the opportunity to work hands-on with the Mason City community to develop several public health campaigns to connect the partner’s aging population to helpful caregiver resources. 

Sefonobong and her classmates traveled to Mason City several times and spoke directly with the community members, informing the campaigns they created with authentic insights. With their community partner, the team of students designed and presented four unique public health campaigns.

The project, transitioning Sefonobong and her peers out of the classroom and into the community, provided an invaluable opportunity to apply abstract knowledge on a real-world stage.

“Learning how to interact with communities and talk about how collaboration works theoretically is one thing Sefonobong said. "To see it play out and be part of it over a whole semester and contextualize the lessons from the classroom to see what true collaborative relationships can look like was something else.”