All Aboard “The Health Express”!

Southern & Jewish

Southern & Jewish celebrates the stories, people, and experiences – past and present – of Jewish life in the American South. Hosted by the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, posts come from educators, students, rabbis, parents, artists, and many other “visitors-to and daily-livers-of” the Southern Jewish experience. From road trips to recipes to reflections, we’ll explore a little bit of everything – well, at least all things Southern and/or Jewish. Shalom, y’all!

This update comes to us from AmeriCorps member Gernelle Nelson. For her year of national service, she’s working in the Community Engagement Department at the ISJL.

Greetings from the Community Engagement Department!

I am proud to announce that The Health Express, our peer-to-peer education publication, is now available to read online! This year, we began working on implementing a health initiative at Blackburn Middle School. This initiative focuses on empowering students with knowledge about physical health, establishing healthy eating habits, and promoting a safe environment. Rather than have the information just given to them by the adults, this is a peer-to-peer learning model: students are the ones researching and learning about healthy living, and they’re also the ones sharing their new knowledge with their peers and community via a student-published blog and magazine.

With the help of Bertha Hardy-Smith, Blackburn’s health teacher, we designated a small group of students to participate in the program. During my first months working with the students, we focused on teaching them the basic principles of publishing. The students came up with possible article topics, conducted focus group research and received staff positions and duties. The students began writing their first set of articles and named their publication “The Health Express.”

Our partnership with the School of Nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center begins this week. Through this partnership, the middle school students will have the opportunity to work with health professionals as they continue to generate more articles for The Health Express. We have started working towards getting the Health Express printed and distributed throughout the Jackson Public Schools district at the end of this school year.

We are very proud of the work our students have produced thus far – and we hope throughout the community, folks will be excited to get on board with The Health Express!

Please feel free to leave comments and questions on The Health Express blog – the students will love it!