Skip to main content

Healthy Contributions

Moya Alfonso, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Community Health Behavior and Education

Alfonso-lg.jpg
Dr. Moya Alfonso

Helping. Healing. Honing skills. Nurturing.

“Number one, I love to teach,” says Moya Alfonso, Ph.D., an assistant professor in her fifth year at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health. “I came to Georgia Southern because I wanted to teach. I had a research position for more than a decade, and I didn’t really have the opportunity to teach then. But it was something I always loved and wanted to pursue.”

Alfonso believes students benefit most when they have access to faculty and can build both a strong working and personal relationship. “I know that after our students graduate they really know how to communicate and apply the information they’ve learned to real-world situations. They are able to go out and make a difference in the communities they serve.”

For the past three years Alfonso has worked at promoting Bulloch County physical activities programs. The VERB Summer Scorecard (VERB) is a free program for youth, ages 8 to 13, which encourages outdoor activity during the summer months—a time when physical activity tends to decrease. It is incentive-based and currently in more than 22 locations across the United States.

“I was the first to bring it to the local area and to rural Georgia,” says Alfonso. “I’ve involved students in that research, and every summer I offer a practicum in which students from public health can act as service coordinators. In this role they go out into these communities to get children registered as well as conduct program evaluation and research.”

Alfonso is pleased that Georgia Southern faculty still focus on students. “We have time for them and can help develop their practical knowledge and skills in the public health profession so they can truly help the communities in which they serve,” says Alfonso. “Recently, I completed a number of community health assessment evaluations at the Willow Hill community in the Portal area. I worked with my community health assessment class to conduct a pretty extensive health assessment of the needs of youth in that community. They talked to teachers, parents, leaders, and school staff about what the needs were to specific children in that community. To get my students out of the classroom and use program evaluation methods in the field to serve the needs of such a unique community was really powerful. Students told me at the end of the semester that the experience had changed their lives forever.”

Alfonso is also proud of the contributions she’s made to service-learning at the University. “Everybody that I’ve met at Georgia Southern has really inspired me to do even greater things for the surrounding area, for the state, and beyond,” says Alfonso. “Every day I’m surrounded by people in our college who really want to improve the community we live in. If people don’t have their health, they can’t be contributing members of society. We’re really doing our best with limited resources to change the lives of people around us. And we need support to do that. We’re taking students with us on this journey to help create public health practitioners who can do even greater things than we can accomplish by ourselves.”

Reason to Stay
Ravneet Kaur, Student

Ravneet Kaur is grateful for professors like Dr. Moya Alfonso and their passion for building better futures for Georgia Southern students, especially those who venture here from foreign countries to study.

“For the first six months I was lost,” says Ravneet, who is originally from India. “Dr. Alfonso was my advisor and mentor. I can say that I didn’t know anything when I got here … she really helped me a lot.”

Ravneet applied to four or five other universities but ultimately decided to come here because, as an international student, it was the only place she felt comfortable. “When I came the first time, I was pleased with the attitude,” says Ravneet.

With her family living in Chicago, Ravneet admits she thought about transferring. “But once I got here,” she says. “I decided to stay.” Partly because of Dr. Alfonso, Ravneet plans to pursue academia. She admits she doesn’t know where the money to help comes from but is overwhelmed. “If that money comes from donors then, ‘God bless them.’ That’s the reason I stayed. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from ‘this place.’ I believe it doesn’t matter where you’re from. You can do anything.”

Back

© Pentera, Inc. Planned giving content. All rights reserved.