Our multidisciplinary undergraduate public health project was a collaboration of 9 faculty across multiple disciplines who mobilized portions of 13 relevant pre-existing core and elective courses over two semesters and two summers. Crucially, it involved 14 paid student research mentors and over 150 students (with academic and vocational interests in public health, allied health, pre-med, environmental science and communication fields) in the quantitative and qualitative research process, including mapping, survey design, and direct and mediated interviews with stakeholders, service providers, and members of vulnerable population cohorts.

This presentation describes overcoming challenges: in developing a working relationship with the local county health department, in securing university administrative approval and institutional support for the sheer novelty and scale of this undertaking, and in gaining the cooperation of key players within the university system. It specifies the roles of our existing learning management system, tailored information aggregation system, and externally sourced trainings (in IRB, Trauma-Informed Practices, and Climate Impacts on Health) all of which was shared across the participating courses to ensure the overall coherence and compatibility of the multiple asynchronous streams of data gathering. Finally, and as the ultimate measurable objective, it demonstrates the importance to learning of student reflections and collective review at every stage of their involvement in this community-facing proto-professional research project.