In late March 2015, my colleague Jayme Trogus, Director of the Center for Health Education & Promotion and I co-presented findings and lessons learned from infusing alcohol education into the curriculum of first year students to the attendees of the statewide Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board conference held near Harrisburg, PA.
Over 100+ professionals attended our session that included information and insights on educational prevention programs available to students throughout an academic career. The programs we discussed included brand messages given at orientation, peer education programs, social norms marketing, guest speakers, social media messages, and academic course instruction.
Over the past year, the faculty in my department of Wellness and Sports Sciences have been partnering with the Alcohol and Other Drugs Steering Committee (which I am a member) to align curriculum offerings with the prevention programs offered on the campus and to build consistent messages into the curriculum early in the semester. To view the powerpoint click here: PLCB 2015 Curriculum Infusion.pdf and/or the tentative agenda published online: PLCB Conference Agenda 2015
Our presentation also included a brief analysis of these prevention programs and discussed the process of infusing alcohol information into the curriculum of the WELL175 course (a course that students must complete before graduating). We also presented results of the project pilot phase, and shared our next steps in gaining support and buy-in from all faculty within the department.
At the end of presentation, the participants in our session were able to: 1) Identify the importance of curriculum infusion as an asset of a comprehensive alcohol prevention program. 2) Understand the components of a first-year college course in wellness and the process of implementing change to address student-need, and 3) Discuss components necessary for an effective assessment for a public college health prevention campaign.
