A 16-Week Journey
This is not a traditional curriculum. It is a 16-week journey that uses a real public-health challenge as the terrain for developing systems thinkers, interdisciplinary collaborators, and future leaders.
Five Phases of Development
Orientation and Foundations
Weeks 1–2Students build a shared foundation in breast health, whole-body health, public-health challenges, systems thinking, leadership, and responsible problem solving.
Systems Mapping and Leverage Points
Weeks 3–5Students learn to look beyond symptoms, identify root causes, map relationships, identify stakeholders, recognize feedback loops, find leverage points, and understand how parts of a system affect one another.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Weeks 6–8Teams combine Legal, Technology, Public Relations, Marketing, Health, and Creative disciplines. Public-health problems cannot be solved through one lens alone.
Research, Discovery, and Initial Pitch
Weeks 9–11Students investigate the challenge, research audiences and context, identify assumptions, develop campaign concepts, present initial pitches, receive feedback, and begin refining.
The Secondary Cohort paused respectfully after Week 10 for school break and will continue on return.
Campaign Expansion and Refinement
Weeks 12–16Current PhaseStudents strengthen concepts, improve messaging, clarify audiences, test feasibility, integrate disciplinary perspectives, refine systems logic, and prepare for final presentation and potential implementation.
The University Cohort is in Week 16 of 16.
Current Cohort Status
University Cohort
Phase 5
Week 16 of 16 — Active
Secondary Cohort
Phase 3/4
Week 10 — Paused, Continuing
“The competition is the vehicle. The campaigns are the artifacts. The leaders are the long-term outcome.”
Six Disciplines. One Team.
Public-health problems cannot be solved through one lens alone. Each team combines six perspectives.
Legal
Rights, consent, policy
Technology
Data, digital tools, platforms
Public Relations
Trust, messaging, media
Marketing
Behavior change, audience insight
Health
Evidence, health literacy, accuracy
Creative
Design, storytelling, visual impact
Team Structure
6
Students per team
1
Per discipline
5
Teams per cohort
10
Teams total
Each team functions as a mini interdisciplinary public-health unit.