Announcing the spring 2021 cohort of community engaged learning fellows

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the Spring 2021 Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Fellowships. Of the nineteen fellows in the cohort, fourteen were awarded the Rose Service Learning Fellowship and five are Harvard-Mississippi Delta Fellows in Public Health.  

Community Engaged Learning Fellows are students from various degree programs, departments and fields of study across Harvard Chan. They come together in a cohort-based learning community that cultivates peer learning and self-reflection as an approach to their public health research and practice. Engaged Learning projects are taking place in the Boston area, across the United States and around the world.

Here is just a selection of the projects taking place this funding cycle:  

• COVID-19’s impact and ensuring health equity in the recovery process are one of the central issues of funded projects with Brandon McBay at MGH in Chelsea MA, Alexandra Gugliuzza at Boston Children’s Hospital, Lesley Baseman with MA State Senator Jo Comerford’s office and Sarah Tsay at the New York City Department of Health. 
• Supporting children, youth and families is another significant theme within CEL projects both locally, with Even Paglisotti working to support transgendered youth and their families at SAFETEE in Boston, Vanessa Acosta developing a transition toolkit for Youth and Young Adults with Special Health Needs at the MA State Department of Public Health and abroad, with Elizabeth Hentschel working with community research partners in Pakistan to develop measures for nurturing care in their work toward healthy child development outcomes.  
• Maternal mortality, maternal health and child development also feature in Aharisi Bonner’s work with Senator Comerford’s Maternal Equity Commission, Sam Mendez’s Maternal Mortality Review project with the National Indian Health Board and all five Mississippi Delta Fellows housed with the State Health Department, Mississippi Public Health Institute and the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi.  
• The health and wellbeing of incarcerated population groups has caught the attention of Harvard Chan students with Veronica Handunge at Justice 4 Housing to learn about barriers to housing for justice-involved populations, especially within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic while Bethany Kotlar is seeking to understand relationships between incarcerated women and caregivers of their children with Motherhood Beyond Bars.