March 27, 2023
First-year students assess the population health of Seattle neighborhoods
The Communities & Research project (CoRe) is an opportunity for incoming first-year students at the University of Washington to examine population health on a personal level. In interdisciplinary and collaborative groups, students analyze various factors impacting population health in different Seattle neighborhoods, all through the lens of their expertise, discipline and experience.
For the second year in a row, UW First Year Programs and the Population Health Initiative have partnered to recognize the CoRe projects that go above and beyond in their exploration of population health.
“Once again, we are excited to be able to feature these innovative projects our students worked on. This project brings attention to the sheer scope of population health and how it impacts every corner of our lives,” shared Meghan Coletta, Senior Program Manager for First Year Programs.
Since 2018, the First-year Interest Group (FIG) program, in partnership with the Population Health Initiative, has assigned the CoRe project to first-year students to examine various factors that impact the health and well-being of neighborhoods in Seattle. Students work in groups to analyze the assets and challenges the neighborhood possesses. Each group conducts initial background research, visits their neighborhood as a team and creates a final project showcasing their findings of the neighborhood.
“The CoRe project is really cool, because it allows students to learn about population health by exploring a topic that is most interesting or relatable to their own major or interests,” explained a previous FIG leader, Maddie Seidel. “A lot of students might think about population health as a concept that only relates to science-related majors, but over the three years I’ve been a FIG leader, I’ve been able to see the way my students interested in everything from early education to accounting to psychology apply factors of population health to these varied areas of interest.”
From more than 100 FIG group submissions for top project, the FYP office selected 20 projects to comprise the group of Top CoRe Awards. Members from each winning group have since received a CoRe Award certificate, a gift card in recognition of their outstanding research efforts and their project highlighted on the Top CoRe Awards web page. The winning projects are highlighted below.
| Project | Names of students |
| Ballard Website | Isabelle Drain, Lily Myklebust, Will Vanderburght, Anders McAllister |
| Capitol Hill Video | Mia Garnett, Josh Segal, Jude Joung, Iris Miller-Sherman |
| Central District Website | Andrew Woo, Rachel Guevara, Tuong Vy Nguyen, Mimi Richert |
| International District Infographic | Jinie Chon, Carly Rogers, Thea Klein-Balajee, Becca Barone |
| Northgate Social Media Page | Gabrielle Gutierrez, Efa Owen, Bridget Reed |
| Ballard/Fremont Social Media Page | Randolph, Carolyn Slack, Lyla Higgins, Morgan Cordle |
| Capitol Hill Brochure | Nicole Curtis, Joanna Vahey, Cindy Ngo, Lydia Sorbo |
| SODO/Georgetown Infographic | Caroline Williams, Cora LaFollette, Harper Gould |
| International District Social Media Page | Lucia Jiang, Mia Gouveia, Virginia Lantinga |
| Queen Anne Infographic | Felix Chao, Madison Parker, Hazim Mohar, Sarah Sinasohn |
| Ballard Social Media Page | Lanbo Jiao, Erika Matsuda, Kanoa Shim-Ly, Madelyn Forquer |
| Capitol Hill Infographic | Sydney Jacob, Katharina Cheng, Jeffrey Junio, Kathleen Tran |
| International District Social Media Page | Claire Ong, Clara Choi, Hana Fariha Dzulkifli, Sean Yuan, Chessa Shaffer |
| International District Website | Syra Patel, Ali Lewish, Gianna Lampert, Emily Martinez |
| Delridge Social Media Page | Umme Habiba, Adela Serrano, Nia Muriithi, Maggie Wood |
| Ballard/Fremont Social Media Page | Korina Daniela Medina, Hirosuke Takahashi, Justine Amanda Bang, Ann Violet Squires |
| Capitol Hill 3D Model | Anne Erys Rose, Collin Shen, Miles Zhang, Susan Lai, Ian Chiu |
| Central District Brochure | Ellina Ivanova, Avery Nguyen, Juan De La Rosa Sanchez, Pranav Gopalkrishnan |
| Northgate Website | Tobin Freeman, Daniel Noune, Oscar Robles, Christian Martinez |
| Belltown/Westlake Infographic | Alexander Kwoun, Lavanya Mamtani, Lynnie Li, Thomas Jian Liang |
The Top CoRe Award site and prize funding are part of the combined efforts of FYP and the Population Health Initiative to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on population health-related research and projects.