The Hill's Public Health Award is sponsored by Hill's Pet Nutrition of Topeka, Kansas, and was created during the 1997-1998 academic year to encourage veterinary-related papers in the Secretary's Award writing competition.  This writing competition shadows the Secretary's Award and encourages both single and interdisciplinary proposals.  These proposals must have a veterinary-related theme, and submitters must be enrolled in a veterinary medical curriculum.  

Requirements

Although collaborative projects with students from a range of health professions disciplines are allowed, at least one member of the team must be a veterinary medical student.  Prize monies are $1,000 for the first place paper, $750 for the second place paper, and $500 for the third place paper. During each academic year, each veterinary school may submit as many proposals as students who wish to enter.  Both single discipline papers and interdisciplinary papers may be submitted to the Hill's Public Health Award.  Students matriculating in U.S. and Canadian veterinary curricula are eligible to compete for the Hill's Public Health Award.  Deadline for submission to the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges is February 5, 2002.

Description of HP2010

The document Healthy People 2010 contains the nation's health agenda for the next 10 years.  The challenge for all health professions is to translate these objectives into effective action.  There are 467 objectives in 28 focus areas, making Healthy People 2010 an encyclopedic compilation of health improvement opportunities for the next decade.  The document's two major goals reflect the nation's changing demographics.  The first goal is to increase the quality and years of healthy life, while the second goal is to eliminate health disparities among our diverse population.  

Previous Winners

For example, during the1998-1999 academic year, Kim Langholz's proposal, "Veterinary Students Educating Elementary School-Age Children about Health and Safety Issues—Linking the Health and Safety of Children to That of Their Companion Animals via the Iowa Communications Network " won second place in the Hill's Public Health Award writing competition.  This educational project provided positive learning experiences regarding health and safety issues of elementary school children and their pets by utilizing the interactive, fiber-optic Iowa Communications Network.  Age-appropriate lesson plans covered topics such as zoonotic diseases and their prevention, bite and injury prevention, the role of animals in improving the quality of life, and nutrition and exercise for children and pets.  Participating third- and fourth-grade teachers received kits containing the lesson plans and other instructional materials for the hands-on activities.

During the1997-1998 academic year, Ruth Landau's proposal, "A Survey of Teaching and Implementation: The Veterinarian's Role in Recognizing and Reporting Abuse" won first place in the Hill’s Public Health writing competition.  This project included a survey of all colleges and schools of veterinary medicine in North America to learn the extent to which current veterinary curricula prepare students to recognize abuse of animal patients and human clients.  In addition, large animal and small animal veterinarians in Indiana were surveyed to find the extent to which they could recognize and report to appropriate authorities any suspicious physical abuse against children, spouses, and animals. This paper was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 215 (3): 328-331, 2000.       

Links  

These three links provide important information about writing a proposal for submission to the Hill’s Public Health Award writing competition.

• Hill’s Pet Nutrition (http://www.hillspet.com/) gives information about the awarding company.

• Healthy People 2010 (www.health.gov/healthypeople/) gives the full-text of the 467 objectives and includes a Table of Contents and a search engine to help you find what you are looking for.

• Guide for Composing a Proposal for Hill’s Public Health Award describes the contents of the proposal and offers advice about style. It includes the correct form for documentation and checklists to help you remember what is required.