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Health Messaging Competition Highlights the Power of Creative Public Health Communication

April 29, 2026

The graduate-level Health Messaging Student Competition drew equally impressive entries, with participants designing campaigns to promote positive behavior change and advance public health. First place was awarded to Basanta Sharma Paudel for Colorectal Cancer Awareness, a health communication campaign focused on the early detection of colorectal cancer. Second place went to Microbes & Me, a team entry from Megan A. Milligan, Lyric K. Tully, Antonia L. Hamilton, and Alexa G. Deyo, offering children a developmentally appropriate and engaging introduction to the gut microbiome through an educational coloring book that encourages evidence-based health behaviors around diet, movement, and sleep. Third place was awarded to Emily Young for Be Naloxone Aware and Overdose Prepared, a toolkit aimed at promoting the use of this life-saving intervention in combating opioid overdose deaths.

The top two finalists from the graduate competition will advance to represent Syracuse University in a cross-institution competition alongside sister Lerner Centers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Medical Center. 

Communications and Media Relations Office
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