News | College of Public Health

College of Public Health and Independence Blue Cross foundation announce nursing pipeline program

Temple’s College of Public Health and the Independence Blue Cross Foundation today introduced a multiyear grant program to create a direct pathway to nursing from high school to college for students from underrepresented communities. The new IBC Foundation Healthcare Scholars Pipeline Program will provide full four-year scholarships to students from select local high schools pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing degree in the College of Public Health. In addition to the grants, which cover tuition and educational expenses, students will receive mentoring, internship plac...

College of Public Health

Nursing

Students

After studying tobacco control, Monshi returns home to teach health policy in Saudi Arabia

Sarah Monshi is heading home to teach public health policy at Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, after earning her doctorate this year at Temple’s College of Public Health. Umm Al-Qura’s relatively new College of Public Health has a program sending instructors abroad for graduate-level education so that they can later return as faculty members. Born and raised in Saudi Arabia, Monshi earned her undergraduate degree in laboratory medicine at Umm Al-Qura, where she later worked as a teaching assistant. She studied at Hofstra University to earn her master’s d...

Students

Health Services Administration and Policy

Global health

Fellowship supports research into child behavior, early language learning

Before arriving at Temple’s College of Public Health to earn her doctoral degree, Maura O’Fallon worked as a speech-language pathologist in a school for children with behavioral issues. Now, the second-year doctoral student has received federal funding to explore connections between child behavior and language learning. O’Fallon has been awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship, or F31 grant, from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Designed to strengthen research skills in predocto...

Language and cognition

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Research

Students

Kruth stresses patience and empathy in his DPT clinical work

Between earning his undergraduate degree from Temple and starting in the college's doctor of physical therapy program, Kevin Kruth took a year off. For him, that year “off” involved working at children’s hospitals and outpatient clinics and getting experience in physical therapy, “just to confirm if this was the right path for me,” he says. Now, Kruth is set to receive his doctoral degree in May, with support from Temple’s Matt Williams Scholarship. He values the scholarship for helping him pursue his studies, but he sees more to it than that. Established in mem...

Physical Therapy

Students

Holtz fights for 'the most important resource on the planet'

For Samantha Holtz, it’s all about access to clean water. More than a billion people globally lack access to safe drinking water, and Holtz has been exploring solutions at both the community level and the policymaking side of this vital public health issue. “I've always been into water, water scarcity, contamination,” Holtz says. “It’s the most important resource on the planet. Too many people don't have access to clean water, or the water they have access to harms them.” She is pursuing her master of public health in environmental health degree at the College of...

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Environment

Students

Akamo sees DNP education as an opportunity for her community and her heritage

Working as a nurse in multiple settings while earning her doctor of nursing practice at Temple, Abiola Akamo is making the direct impact on people’s health that she wants to make. “I always knew I wanted to work with people. I knew I wanted to work with my hands. And I wanted a job that challenged my thinking,” says Akamo, who is finishing her second year in Temple’s doctor of nursing practice program, with support from the J. Russell Fawley Annual Scholarship. “Nursing is active and humanistic. We're constantly with people. On top of what you learn science-wise, and...

Nursing

Students

College transforms Dean's Office into clinic, vaccinating 900

The reception area at the College of Public Health on Temple’s campus hosted an eager group of visitors in February: hundreds of people arriving for their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The improvised vaccine clinic allowed space for three socially distanced inoculation stations, where Temple student nurses, in masks and face shields, efficiently administered the shots to fellow students with clinical placements, educators, and frontline staff such as Temple police officers. Around 900 people received their second shot over the course of three days, after getting t...

Coronavirus

Nursing

Students

Social work student looks to turn service experience into policy solutions

Cristian Hinkley, a junior studying social work at Temple’s College of Public Health, had been working 40- to 50-hour weeks to put himself through community college in Texas when he decided he wanted to do something more “substantial.” He spent several years working across the country with the service organization AmeriCorps NCCC, eventually landing in Philadelphia. Now, with support from Temple’s Opportunity Scholarship Fund, established in 2005 though the generosity of Barbara B. Ernico, SSW '71 and Jeffrey A. Ernico, LAW ’70, Hinkley is putting his experience...

School of Social Work

Students

Crowdfunded scholarship supports diversity in public health, healthcare

Four College of Public Health students were chosen to receive scholarships through a Temple Student Government fundraising effort aimed at supporting minority students pursuing healthcare careers. McKensie Morrissey, studying in the public health program, and health professions students Zuha Asghar, Peace Maddox and Jasmine Dantzler, received Diversifying the Public Health and Healthcare Workforces Scholarship awards to help defray textbook and other expenses. Temple Student Government in recent years raised scholarship funds to address student food insecurity. Mark Rey, vic...

Students

Despite COVID challenges, OT students create and deliver adaptive devices

Five-year-old Eli has a rare and severe condition called Cornelia de Lange syndrome that limits him in multiple ways. He is nonverbal and has difficulty communicating. He needs support to stand. His condition created a challenging assignment for the Temple graduate occupational therapy students who chose to custom-build helpful adaptive devices for Eli as their semester-long project in the hands-on Assistive Technology class. “I had in my mind what kind of equipment would most benefit Eli, but I wanted the students to figure it out themselves,” says Colleen Carroll, Eli�...

Occupational therapy

Community

Students

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

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