Break the Cycle Annual Project: Survey of Past Students. 2005-2011

IntroductionBreak the cycle program is a collaborative interdisciplinary research and training program involving university faculty, who mentor graduate and undergraduate students in academic tracks that focus on the impact of environmental factors on children's health, particularly environmental health disparities. The target populations are communities where the environmental hazards are related to circumstances of social and economic disadvantage. Each student is required to develop a project that focuses on reducing or preventing environmental health- related illnesses or disorders of children who live in these communities. At the end of the project, the students present their studies and their findings at a national conference and are required to write papers that will then be published in a journal. Our budget allows us to provide for travel and lodging for the annual conference and a modest stipend for the student on completion of the project.Break the Cycle is a joint program of the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) and Innovative Solutions for Disadvantage and Disability (ISDD).Environmental health disparitiesThe diagram in Figure 1 represents how adverse social and economic factors may play out in the environment of a child and the impact that these factors have on health, development, education and future for the children in such communities. Substantial evidence, across a variety of academic and public policy areas, supports the relationships and patterns depicted in the diagram. This is the societal challenge of Environmental Health Disparities. There is no question of the need to interrupt and modify this set of relationships in order to change the course to create advantages for the children to break out of the cycle. In the big picture, the task is great and the cost is high. However, that does not mean that we cannot make a difference. We feel that any interruption is positive and can make a big difference for an individual, for a family or for a community. Indeed, the expectation is that the student projects will have a ripple effect not only on the communities, but also on the careers of the students to prepare them to be better leaders and stewards of our collective future.Cycle of social and economic disadvantage and disabilityWe have conceptualized this vexing and complex developmental, educational, social, political and economic challenge as a cycle. The importance of this view is that multifactorial nature of this situation can more easily be approached, and includes the additional dimension of time.We invite interested students to develop a creative project to "Break the cycle" at any point, and thereby reduce the phenomenon of environmental health disparities and promote optimal health and well-being for children and their families (see Fig. 2).Project details1) University faculty identify students who have an interest in this topic area, and encourage and support the student in the selection of an idea for research. We are specifically looking for projects that address environmental factors that adversely affect the health of children living in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage.2) Interested students submit abstracts of the projects which are then reviewed by the "Break the cycle" team and 10 to 12 of the best projects are selected for each year.3) During the project period, there are mandatory monthly conference calls with the students and their mentors to monitor the progress of the research projects, share ideas, and help to assure that the project is consistent with the spirit of the "Break the cycle" concept.4) At the end of the project period, a conference is held in Atlanta, Georgia, where the students have an opportunity to present their projects to their peers and to their mentors, as well as the "Break the cycle" faculty and other attendees.5) The students are also expected to write papers on their projects, which is submitted for publication in an international health-related journal as a monograph of the "Break the cycle" projects. …