With the school year drawing to a close, high school students everywhere are on the lookout for scholarships to the colleges of their choice.

Three students at Dearborn-area high schools were among the recent scholarship winners in the 2008-09 Young Epidemiology Scholars (YES) Competition sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the College Board.

The big local winner was Reem Mohammadieh, a Dearborn High School student, who won a national scholarship of $2,000 for her study of public health and will now depart on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for a chance to compete for up to $50,000 in guaranteed scholarship money.

In addition to Mohammadieh, Fatimah Farooq, a Dearborn Center for Math, Science and Technology student, was awarded a $1,000 college scholarship as a semi-finalist in the public health competition. Robert Hayes of Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn also won a $1,000 scholarship.

The YES Competition is a national program that gives out nearly $500,000 each year in college scholarships. YES competitors come up with a research question and hypothesis about a health issue concerning a group or groups of people, and then conduct research, analyzing the subject and suggesting potential ways to improve the problem based on their analysis.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the United States’ largest philanthropy organization that deals exclusively with raising money for the country’s most pressing health issues. The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Well-known programs run by the College Board include the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Advanced Placement program (AP).

Mohammadieh will be one of 60 high school juniors and seniors to compete for scholarship money in the contest, which is one of the biggest of its kind. More than 560 high school students across the country entered the competition, which is in its sixth year.

“The YES Competition is one of the nation’s most prestigious science competitions for high school students. The competition continues to attract exceptional projects that examine a variety of public health issues facing our country and the world,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The impressive work of these students demonstrates that a new generation of epidemiologists is emerging, which holds great promise for improving the health of our nation.”

Explaining Epidemiology: The scientific method used to investigate, analyze, and prevent or control a health problem in a population. Stories that involve the work of epidemiologists appear frequently in the news: • Outbreaks of illness from contaminated food • Health effects of second-hand smoke • Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence in populations around the world • Spread of bird flu among Asian countries

Epidemiology explores patterns of disease, illness and injury within populations with the goal of developing methods for prevention, control and treatment to improve health. Projects submitted by scholarship winners tackled a wide range of health issues from obesity to multiple sclerosis and body image.
Mohammadieh’s project was titled “The Underlying Effects of Performing Breast Self Exams on Early Breast Cancer Detention.” The scholarship competition in Washington, D.C. will judge the quality of each contestant’s written reports, oral presentations, and question-and-answer sessions.

“The YES Competition is designed to encourage students to explore careers in public health and epidemiology, but we know it does much more than that,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton. “These students are addressing national and global health issues shaping the world around us. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of their hard work in the future.”