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"Atlanta is the best place in the world to conduct any public
health research," notes Karine Markosyan, a Ukrainian research
analyst in public health for the American University of Armenia.
So that's where she headed: Her Fulbright grant took her to Emory
University's Rollins School of Public Health, which was her base
for investigating the development and implementation of school
health education programs in the United States.
With her Fulbright grant, she wanted to analyze the "strengths
and school health education programs and to evaluate their impact
on behaviors." She plans to use her results to develop "culturally
appropriate" education programs for Armenia.
Markosyan based her project on current health research in Armenia,
which shows that adolescents engage in unhealthy behaviors, including
drug and alcohol abuse and unsafe sex. She believes that these
risky behaviors could be mitigated if public health education
were strengthened. "Qualitative research has revealed that
health issues are poorly addressed by the
Armenian school curriculum," she explains.
Markosyan received a three-month extension to her 2000-2001 academic
year to develop an AIDS prevention module for Armenian school
students and to participate in a training module. "If in
Armenia I was facing problems connected to the lack of all kinds
of resources, in the U.S.A. the amount of resources was rather
overwhelming," she notes. Especially working with children
and adolescents, "new problems arise constantly that need
different approaches."
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