Case competitions offer NSU students the opportunity to solve industry-specific problems (real or fictitious) to senior-level executives and faculty. This fall semester, NSU Career Development collaborated with the NSU Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, College of Psychology & Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine to develop an immersive pre-health case study focused towards vaccinations in the U.S.
Childhood vaccination has proven to be one of the most effective public health strategies to control and prevent disease. Unvaccinated groups of people can generate local outbreaks of diseases that can later spread across the country, affecting anyone who was unable to get vaccinated for any reason. For example in 2000, measles was declared to be eliminated in the United States, when no sustained transmission of the virus was seen in this country for more than 12 months. In 2019 there were more than 1000 reported cases of measles across more than 20 states.
In this mock case study scenario, students were selected by the Center of Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) as a member of a three person task force in Florida, to focus on how to increase the immunization rate in Florida and decrease the amount of exemptions for the Measles Vaccinations. Students had to submit an official CDC implementation plan and address the case from a Public Health, Psychological and Scientific perspective.
Thirteen Teams (39 students total) competed in the competition, each team had to have representation from each of the colleges involved (Example: 1 Biology student, 1 Public Health Student & 1 Psychology Student on a team). Students were challenged to do extensive research on vaccination trends, non-medical exemptions for vaccinations and the prevalence of the outbreak of measles as a whole. Out of the thirteen implementation plans submitted; three teams were selected to present their solutions to a panel of faculty judges.
Our first place team consisted of Marlee Mallat, Genesis Alvarez & Sujad Younis (pictured above) who received a $900 prize. Second place went to Antoine Pham, Neira Algazzaz & Alesa Chabbra (pictured on the right) who received a $450 prize and third place went to Disha De, Shirin Jacob & Gloris (pictured on the left), who received a $150 prize.
NSU has been hosting case competitions for four years and counting, and the variety of topics as well as experiences and prizes will continue to grow as opportunities expand and more students participate.
If you are interested in potentially joining a future case competition, please contact the NSU Career Development at (954) 262-7201 or
visit https://www.nova.edu/career/students/professional-development.html .