2004-2005 National Third Place Winners
Third Place Winners
$20,000 Scholarship
Jamie Bell
Charles E. Jordan Senior High School
Durham, NC
The Freshmen Nutrition and Exercise Study
"I have always found it fascinating that a culture of people so obsessed with skinny models and perfect bodies has allowed themselves to become so fat. I developed a study that would explore the relationship between dietary intake, exercise habits, Body Mass Index calculations, and body fat percentages during the first 2-3 months of high school."
While working at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Jamie helped with a dietary analysis and exercise project. Using what she had already learned, she developed a project that had relevance to her life and a group of her fellow high school students. Jamie collected dietary intake and exercise data from subjects, as well as Body Mass Index (BMI) calculations and body fat percentages. Her results showed a significant correlation between increased amounts of exercise and decreased body fat percentages. However, the results did not show a correlation between increased amounts of exercise and decreased BMIs. Jamie suggests that measuring body fat percentages in growing teenagers may be a more accurate way to assess overall health than the BMI calculations. A varsity soccer player, Jamie is also a member of the National Honor Society and the National French Honor Society. She plans to study biomedical engineering at Duke University.
Casidhe Horan
Mills E. Godwin High School
Richmond, VA
The Epidemiology of Teen Pregnancy in Virginia: Indications for Prevention and Health Care
"In one of my classes, I learned about how teen pregnancy is a factor in studying the world's population growth. I was interested to learn more about it on a local level."
When Casidhe first learned about the YES Competition, she considered a number of different health issues. As a teenager in Virginia, teen pregnancy stood out in her mind as a pressing problem. She gathered data from the Virginia Department of Health to craft a study that identified geographic hotspots and compared that data to socioeconomic and clinical characteristics. The results were used to formulate recommendations for teen pregnancy prevention programs. Casidhe is a member of the National Honor Society as well as the French and Math Honor Societies. She also volunteers her time to a program that helps mentally disabled children and their parents. She enjoys playing varsity basketball and recreational tennis, and she plans to study economics and biochemistry at Washington and Lee University.