National Public Health Week

Student government had its first meeting today. I've been appointed head of organizing student events for National Public Health Week (April 7 - 13, 2008), giving me the ability to represent the University of Pittsburgh in an official capacity.

The current plan: have students organizations and faculty put together presentations for local school children. Couple these presentations with activities designed by various people, including myself. The Create a Comic Project will feature prominently in all these events. I'll be using it in Module form, as it'll be using comics to teach climate change, not to teach about comics themselves.

Locations for the events will be off-campus; I already have one venue confirmed and am working on adding more. Schools will be asked to bring their classes to the events during the school day. By varying the locations so they're in different neighborhoods, more schools will be in walking/busing distance, increasing the likelihood of their participation. I'll be working with faculty who have connections with Pittsburgh's school system.

The more schools participate, the more teachers will be made aware of the comic project. It'll be up to me to ensure that the encounter is a positive one. With luck, I can use this opportunity to craft a CCP classroom outreach program. That would be a tremendous step forward to the project's development as a major youth literacy program.