January 6, 2025
Hailey Coyle, an MPH student and former Health Policy Ambassador, utilized LHC’s Health and Policy Conference Travel Scholarship in the fall of 2024. In this article, she reflects on her experience attending the annual conference of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium.
The Engagement Scholarship Consortium brings together university leaders who are focused on community-building. I was honored to present on the project I had worked on as a Health Policy Ambassador in the 2023-2024 academic year! My presentation, Cultivating Change: Broad Stakeholder Engagement to Move Municipal Policy, discussed efforts to incentivize the use of native plant species, discourage the use of invasive plant species, and encourage the development of green infrastructure through community engagement and municipal policy change.
I wanted to attend this conference to build my soft skills and to share the impact of collaborative work. Having never attended a national conference like this before, I was excited and grateful for the opportunity. I went into the conference with few expectations and was hoping to interact with other students interested in community engagement. With the wide variety of presentations, the only “plan” I had for myself was to attend any session I was interested in and to learn more about interdisciplinary partnerships. The symposium-style presentation Mobilizing Methods: Bridging Conservation and Art through Ecofeminism, presented by Liat Wilde, was one of my favorite presentations at the conference. Initially, I was interested based on the keywords from the presentation title. Wilde was a confident presenter who explained the community-engaged data collection tool used in Ecuador to advance conservation efforts and generate community knowledge. Foundationally, the program involves multiple long-term partnerships, and its success was insightful and inspiring.
With regard to my presentation, I received meaningful and encouraging feedback on our project. I was proud my presentation reflected the strong partnerships the Lister Hill Center has with both community-based organizations and students. Following the presentation, audience members were eager to learn more about the Center’s projects. Personally, I gained confidence in my presentation and communication skills. I met other students and made some meaningful connections.
I would strongly encourage other students to attend this conference in the future, especially if they are interested in community-based research, university-led partnerships, or the relationships between community members and institutions. I recommended preparing to socialize! Be present in the various meetings, take notes, and ask questions. Community is built by communicating and sharing knowledge.
