Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition

$50,000 scholarships awarded to first-place winners

April 19, 2004, WASHINGTON, D.C. — Research projects about smallpox vaccination policies and indoor tanning by teenagers took top honors today at the first-ever Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) Competition.

High school students Benjamin Eidelson of Merion Station, Pa., and Robert Levine of Lincolnshire, Ill., each earned $50,000 scholarships as first-place winners in the contest, which is supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the College Board.

The YES Competition is designed to spur students' interest in epidemiology, the scientific method used to investigate, analyze, and prevent or control a health problem in a population. The 60 students who competed in the finals held in the nation's capital were chosen from nearly 600 entries nationwide. In all, nearly half-a-million dollars in scholarships were awarded to 123 students throughout the course of regional and national competition.

"In a world facing public health threats that range from the alarming increase in childhood obesity to potential acts of bioterrorism, the need for skilled epidemiologists and a strong public health force has never been more apparent," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and C.E.O. of RWJF. "These talented scholars have the potential to protect and improve the health of our nation."

Eidelson, who attends Akiba Hebrew Academy in Merion Station, developed a mathematical model to evaluate the effects of different smallpox vaccination strategies, based on data from previous outbreaks of smallpox. He found that mass vaccination before an outbreak typically resulted in significantly fewer infections than vaccinations after an outbreak, but that the two strategies were equal in their ability to eliminate the virus from the population within five months.

"This means policymakers ought not to view any of the options at their disposal as all-or-nothing endeavors, as many of them are quite potent even at moderate levels of implementation," Eidelson said.

Levine, who attends Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, conducted a random sample of students at a Midwestern high school to learn about their practices and attitudes about indoor tanning. He found 24% of the students tanned indoors, even though 92% believed that indoor tanning was unhealthy.

"More teenagers than ever before are tanning indoors, disregarding substantial evidence that links this behavior to skin cancer," Levine said. He said his findings "suggest a manner in which an educational campaign with committed resources can produce effective intervention."

A $35,000 scholarship was awarded to each of two second-place winners:

• Katherine Elizabeth Dillon, Downingtown High School East Campus in Exton, Pa., who conducted a study of residents living near a Pottstown, Pa., landfill and determined that there was no evidence of a cancer cluster due to the landfill.
• Victoria Hunt, Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif., who conducted a survey of high school students that linked an increased risk of infection to an increased number of body piercings. She also found a lack of enforcement of health policy regulations regarding piercing establishments.

A $20,000 scholarship was awarded to each of two third-place winners:

• Bevin Cohen, Oceanside (N.Y.) High School, who conducted a study that compared hand hygiene practices in two neonatal intensive care units and suggested ways to decrease exposure to infection among infants in those units.
• Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, Brewster (N.Y.) High School, who developed a computer simulation to model the spread of infectious disease, and showed that the rate at which an epidemic will spread and "burn out" increases as the greater number of social connections that exist in a community increase.

A $15,000 scholarship was awarded to each of six national finalists:

• Stephanie Mok, Mount Saint Mary Academy in Watchung, N.J., who developed a computer model of a smallpox epidemic that showed the disease spreads faster as the population density and the mobility of the people in a community increase.
• Alanna Hay, Oxon Hill (Md.) High School, who analyzed data from a study of pregnant women in North Carolina and found that women who were going through a greater number of stressful life events were less likely to stop smoking during pregnancy, despite the known risks to the offspring.
• Eugene Kim, Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Wash., who evaluated recent changes made in the system used to determine the odds of surviving breast cancer without recurrence and found that the new system gives a more accurate picture of the prognosis.
• Evan Orenstein, The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Ga., who used a computer simulation to show that people who have a higher number of contacts with people outside their own age group are more likely to spread influenza. He said this may suggest such people should be targeted for vaccination.
• Zarabeth Golden, Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, Fla., who reviewed the cases of elderly subjects diagnosed with dementia who later underwent a more comprehensive evaluation. She found that the rates of the types of dementia that can potentially be cured or prevented - as opposed to Alzheimer's, which currently can be neither cured nor prevented - are higher than reported by less sophisticated diagnostic techniques. She said this could affect the allocation of prevention and health care resources, particularly given the increasing elderly population in the U.S.
• Yuguan Shen, Illinois Science and Mathematics Academy in Aurora, Ill., who studied the mortality rate during the heat wave of 1995 in Chicago. He demonstrated that there was a decrease in the expected mortality rate in the following year because the most vulnerable people had succumbed to the effects of the heat wave. He described how this phenomenon could help target public health efforts to prevent premature deaths.

The national winners were chosen by a panel of nine judges that included some of the nation's top epidemiologists, as well as high school teachers and curriculum developers.

"Over the last few days we have met some of the most gifted students we have ever seen," said lead judge Lisa Berkman, Ph.D., chair of Harvard University's Department of Society, Human Development and Health. "They in turn, will give a gift to populations throughout the world by improving the health of the public."

While the competition focuses on epidemiology, YES seeks to develop skills that go beyond just that area of study. "The problem-solving involved in epidemiological research helps to develop critical skills - framing the right question, collecting relevant data, and analyzing findings - that can be applied in a number of disciplines," said Gaston Caperton, President of the College Board. "We are proud to be part of this important initiative."

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the nation's largest philanthropic organization devoted exclusively to improving health and health care for all Americans. The Foundation invests in initiatives that create meaningful and timely change and help people lead healthier lives.

The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 4,500 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. Each year, the College Board serves over three million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,500 colleges through major programs and services in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning.