1. 2005-2006 | New Community After School & Advocacy Program
New Community 2006
Check out the Healthy Teens at New Community!
Faculty Team Leader
Mary Beth Levin, MPH
SL Team Members
Ken Donohue, David Finigan, Sara Holmberg, Natalie Kirilichin, Kei Ouchi, John Parks, Thao Phung, Alison
Vogell
Community Partners
Cheryl Lewis
New Community
The New Community After School and Advocacy Program provides academic and cultural enrichment to children
and teens in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. New Community serves a wide range of ages, but our
service learning group worked specifically with high school-aged youth. Most of the teens come from low-income
families and spend many hours at New Community. At New Community, the teens hang out with each other, do

2. their homework, and take classes involving college preparation and computer skills.
More About New Community
Summary
On our first visit to New Community, we sat down with the teens and devised a list of their health-related interests.
In our planning for the semester, we considered these interests as well as topics we specifically wanted to
emphasize with the youth. The final list of topics included nutrition, diabetes, hypertension, marijuana, dating, sex,
HIV/AIDS, smoking, poverty, and pregnancy.
We wanted to present each of these topics in fun and innovative ways to keep the teens interested and engaged.
Each week, we divided the session into three separate time blocks: Jeopardy, snack, and a third that was different
each week. We played Jeopardy with the entire group, and then usually split up into smaller groups for the second
two time blocks.
Jeopardy was a very fun and engaging way to incorporate information about all of the topics on our list. Our
categories would change from week-to-week, and as time progressed, we added questions to reinforce things we
learned in past weeks. To keep the teens laughing, we also included some pop culture and random trivia questions
each week. Jeopardy was a good "icebreaker" to start each session, and helped us bond with the youth, especially
by helping us learn their names!
The teens wanted to learn about nutrition and also enjoyed having a snack each week. To address this goal, we
focused on teaching the teens healthy eating habits while showing them healthy snacks can also taste pretty good!
We planned a different snack each week and discussed different aspects of nutrition that were specifically relevant
to each snack. Additionally, we tried to pick snacks with inexpensive ingredients that would be easy to find in
most grocery stores. That way, the teens could go home and try their hand in the kitchen!
We used our third time block to address a variety of topics. Most frequently, we used this time for acting. Some
weeks we worked on a video starring the youth that emphasized healthy behaviors we wanted to emphasize like
eating healthily and not smoking. Other weeks, we acted-aloud a comic book series that dealt with serious topics
like poverty and HIV/AIDS.
During down-time, we also enjoyed simply hanging out the teens, joking around and talking to them about their
lives and goals. If a silent observer walked into any of our sessions, they could probably overhear a conversation
between a youth and a medical student about college, medical school, hip-hop music, sports, resumes, dating, or
anything in-between. In some ways, I think these interactions resounded most with all of us.
Our time at New Community changed each of us. Most notably, we gained a better understanding of what life is
like for teens in low-income neighborhoods in D.C. It was very encouraging to meet such well-spoken, intelligent
teens who were intent on going to college and learning as much as they possibly could from us. Additionally, we

3. saw that the health problems we learn about in lecture are issues that these teens face every day. It was very
rewarding to be role-models and "health advisors" for these youth -- we will definitely miss New Community!
Jeopardy
Each week, Jeopardy was implemented as one of the educational activities for the teens. The game was designed
to provide instruction on a variety of health and cultural topics. Some categories included "Nutrition", "STDs",

4. "College Prep", "African-American history," and "Manga." Manga is an educational comic book developed by
the World Bank to provide information about global poverty and HIV/AIDS. The teens at New Community read
a new issue each week. This category served to review pertinent information from those issues and provide
incentive for the teens to read them. As in real Jeopardy, the players' scores were recorded and the winner(s)
received prizes. Jeopardy was an outstanding success because the teens retained a lot of the information/answers
from Jeopardy. When asked what they learned the most during our sessions, the teens mentioned categories from
Jeopardy. We learned that interactive games such as Jeopardy can be utilized as productive educational tools.
Sample Questions:
Q: Name two ways to protect yourself from STDs
A: Abstain until marriage, always use condoms
Q: If a box of crackers has 5 servings and there are 200 calories per serving, how many calories would you
consume if you ate the whole box?
A: 1000
Q: HIV/AIDS primarily infects which type of blood cell: (a) red, (b) white, (c) blue, (d) patriotic
A: (b) white
Q: These are the two types of fats you should try to avoid when shopping for food
A: Saturated and Trans Fats
Q: Who was the first African-American supreme court justice?
A: Thurgood Marshall
Q: In this week's Manga, what did Somalee and her fiance do before they got married
A: They both got tested for HIV/AIDS
Q: What is one common mineral that a person with high blood pressure should try to avoid
A: Sodium (table salt)
Nutrition

5. Eating habits of the teens before our intervention...
.....and healthy eating habits after

6. Challenges:
The teens at New Community have a widespread array of low-cost but unhealthy food available to them at all
times. They live and attend school in an area near many fast food establishments and a fair number of the students
come from low-income households. Consequently, many have developed poor eating habits. We were faced with
the challenge of teaching the teens about the need for nutrition and showing them that healthy food can be
tasty too.
Approach:
We decided to incorporate a healthy eating and cooking portion to each service learning session as a continuation
from last years curriculum which was a success.
• We used websites such as the USDA's Mypyramid.gov and the FDA's site, to find simple healthy snacks
that the teens could easily prepare themselves.
• Each class included a lesson like learning about food groups, serving sizes, and how to read a food label.

7. n, we decided to make a cook book for New Community inclusive of all of our recipes
ns so that the kids could refer to it and copy it at their convenience.
nsistently excited about the snack portion of our meetings; it was one of their favorite
new our teachings were effective when we included nutrition questions in our Jeopardy
ents answered correctly.
hat We Would Change:
Community responded well to a question-based style of learning. Questions provoked
the kids engaged and helped them retain nutrition information and skills.
ersions of fast food (like Mexican pizza) was the most effective way of teaching
It would have been to our advantage to do more of that.
helpful to brainstorm snack ideas with the kids at the start of our sessions to tailor our
est. This way, they would be more likely to utilize our suggestions in their own homes.
ould suggest doing a healthy snack that involves food items common in every
f our ingredients were not necessarily staple foods.
Healthy Snack Recipes
Strawberry Banana Smoothie:
• 4 large strawberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/2 cup milk
• yogurt
• 1 ripe banana
• 5 ice cupes
Combine strawberries, milk and ice. Blend until perfectly
smooth.
Raisin and Peanut Butter Celery Sticks:
• 2 celery sticks

8. • 6 tbsp. reduced fat peanut butter
• 2 tbsp. raisins
Wash the celery and cut it into pieces (each piece should be about 5 inches long). Spread
peanut butter in u-shaped part of celery, from one end to the other. Press raisins gently into
peanut butter.
Fruit and Yogurt Dip:
• sliced fresh fruit
• yogurt
• fat free cool whip
Mix equal parts yogurt and cool whip for the dip.
Learning About Global Problems
In order to raise well-rounded & educated adults, we kept the students informed about the common problems
people encounter in other parts of the world. The topics that we explored include many common problems in both
developing & developed countries, such as poverty, cultural differences, HIV and its impact on families. We faced
a challenge because despite the importance of these topics, they are difficult to understand and depressing at times,
which make it harder for the students to keep engaged. To overcome this challenge, we have implemented
educational comic books (1 World Manga) that address these serious topics in an easy-to-follow format.
The mangas featured the main character, Rei, who explored different parts of the world in order to understand
different problems people faced in this world. As he traveled, he became increasingly aware that it is not as easy as
it looks to 1). Understand what the problems people face are, and 2). Implement a solution to resolve the problem.
In other words, Rei's perspective is similar to what we might think of when we encounter such problems.
Therefore, the students were able to put themselves in Rei's perspective to learn about seriousness of the problems,
and how he (an outsider) was able to help people solve their problems.
We took two approaches in order to deepen the understanding of difficult topics covered in the mangas. First, we
asked the students to play each character in the mangas, and read the words out loud / act out the scenes. Even
though students were at different reading proficiency levels, the mangas were easily followed. By acting the roles
of the characters, the students were able to put themselves in the situations. Second, we asked the students to
answer questions and rate the quality / effectiveness of such learning tool. By asking them to comprehend their
thoughts about the stories that they had read, we were able to assess the level of understanding after reading.
We learned that the students were very curious about the problems that people face in other parts of

9. the world, and they simply needed a better learning tool to broaden their perspectives. If we had more
time, we would have videotaped the acting out of the manga to play it to the students during the
discussion. By having more time to discuss the individual actions, we could have learned more about
how students felt about each hardship that they had acted out. Overall, we felt that this was an
effective way to teach the students about common problems in the world, and we succeeded in
teaching them about many difficult to understand topics.
Reading sessions with the students and a sample script from the educational manga (comic book).
About 1 World Manga
Acting Healthy
We presented so much information to the students each week through our different activities. One of the
challenges that we faced was to invent a way for the students in retain much information as possible. After much

10. thought, we decided that acting out the topics we had covered in previous sessions through a skit would create
good memories about the topics learned. Therefore, in short amount of time that we had left after activities, we had
also engaged students to act out scenarios that addressed many healthy habit issues that they had learned.
We believe this approach was successful in furthering students' understandings of the healthy (i.e. eating right,
encouraging friends to quit smoking) and unhealthy behaviors (i.e. smoking, eating junk food). The students
enjoyed acting, filming and directing because it was much more active mode of learning compared to simply
reading. It was also a collaborative effort between the students and us, which helped build rapport with the
students. We also learned that the students were better able to understand the importance of such topics as
smoking cessation through acting out.
If we had more time with the students, we could have improved the quality of this activity by filming every topic
that we addressed in our sessions. We were only able to cover a small number of topics discussed in the film due
to the time constraints.
* The video clips are available at our presentation booth. Please inquire the presenters.
Health Information
One of the fundamental reasons we worked with the youth at new community was to share our knowledge about
health and healthy behaviors. We have already mentioned that one of the ways we did this was through interactive
games such as Jeopardy. Another way was through acting out healthy behaviors. Two other ways we disseminated
health information were through showing educational videos and providing informational brochures.
We decided to show health related videos in some of our sessions because they discussed topics that the youth had
brought up. Another reason is that television/video is a popular form of media and we felt the youth would be
receptive to the information provided in the videos.
The first video we presented was about sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The twenty minute video provided
information on STIs based on scientific fact. Statistics were presented on the prevalence of infections. Information
on modes of transmission and symptoms of different infections was presented as well. High school youth receive a
lot of information through their peer groups. Through the video we hoped to provide a basic level of factual
knowledge about STIs.
The youth expressed to us that they wanted to know more about marijuana. We therefore watched a 10 minute
video that juxtaposed college students' views about marijuana and statistical evidence about the use and prevalence
of the drug. The video attempted to separate popular myths from the facts. The video generated subsequent
discussion about marijuana use and led to a greater understanding of the negative side effects of its use.
In addition we provided information to the youth in the form of educational brochures. Many government agencies
including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide

11. informational brochures at no cost. We simply had to write and ask for the information. We sent off for brochures
about lung disease, STIs, HIV/AIDS, and nutrition to name a few. The information provided reinforcement to the
questions we asked in Jeopardy, the snacks we fixed each week, and the One World Manga that we acted out. The
brochures were handed out as part of Jeopardy prizes. At the end of our sessions we placed the brochures in the
community center so that they could be easily accessed.