Binghamton public health students serve community through AmeriCorps

In recognition of National Public Health Week (April 1-7), BingUNews is highlighting two Master of Public Health (MPH) students from Binghamton University committed to using their skills to make a difference in their communities.

Bolanle Olatunji and Brooke Traver serve as AmeriCorps members in their final year of the MPH program at Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Through this experience, they gain valuable professional skills, positively impacting their community’s health and fulfilling their fieldwork experience requirement.

Bolanle Olatunji began a one-year term with AmeriCorps VISTA in July 2023. She participates in the Rural Health Service Corps program, managed by the Rural Health Network of South Central New York. Olatunji’s project involves working with Guthrie Lourdes Hospital to survey community health needs. The needs assessment aims to identify how the hospital can better serve the residents of Broome, Tioga and Delaware counties by understanding why people in rural communities cannot access healthcare.

Olatunji earned a bachelor’s degree in health services administration from Lehman College in Bronx, N.Y. She said her experience in AmeriCorps has helped her apply the skills she learned in the classroom. Through this project, she is gaining experience in developing data collection tools such as surveys and focus group questions, organizing survey data, leading focus groups of community members, analyzing data in collaboration with the hospital’s analytics team, and creating a final report based on the survey and focus group responses.

According to Olatunji, the project gives residents a platform to voice their concerns while helping the hospital understand the factors affecting healthcare access for people in those rural communities. Additionally, the survey provides information on why some community members change practitioners within the Guthrie Lourdes system.

“Serving with AmeriCorps opens up many opportunities for me as an MPH student,” Olatunji said. “It provides me with a lot of experience and skills, and I’m able to grow in my line of work.”

Brooke Traver began her Public Health AmeriCorps service with the Rural Health Network in September 2023 and will complete her term at the end of June. Traver’s main responsibility is to work with the Food and Health Network’s Farm to School Program, which aims to provide healthy, local food to students.

Traver collaborates with staff, students, parents, farms and community partners to develop, implement, grow and evaluate the program. She assists with taste tests in which new recipes are introduced to schools to determine whether students enjoy them enough to add them to the school menu. These meals are cooked from scratch in each school’s kitchen using seasonal foods grown, harvested and produced in New York. These “NY Thursday” lunches are served two to three times a month.

Traver, who is from Vestal, N.Y., earned an undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Binghamton’s Harpur College of Arts and Sciences in 2021. She said her experience working with AmeriCorps enables her to help the community where she grew up and bring nutritious food to students.

“Balanced nutrition throughout the day contributes to student success in and out of the classroom,” she said. “Most students get their healthiest meals at school. So, my term serving with AmeriCorps plays an essential role in supporting obesity prevention, overall student health and academic achievement by improving children’s diets and combating hunger.”

According to Hannah Rion, Farm to School Program coordinator and Travers’ supervisor on the project: “Brooke has been a tremendous asset to our Farm to School team since she started her term in September. She is a true team player in every aspect, and her passion for working with children shines brightly in her service. Whether she is creating reels with pictures from our visits to schools or crafting surveys for our stakeholders to weigh in on our program, I know she will give it her all.”