This college student wants to make sure your teen never starts smoking

Megan Kaiser is helping your kids stay off tobacco right now, and after she graduates, she hopes to start working with refugee populations in the United States.

Kaiser was on an internship last year in Ghana, working with one of her professors at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to help educate patients in Africa about HIV, hepatitis C and other health issues. Her group worked for a short time at a public hospital in Ghana, where she saw a line of people stretching out the door, waiting for health care.

“It was crazy the number of people trying to get health care,” Kaiser said. “There was a line as if there was a concert.”

Kaiser, 22, of Bloomington-Normal, is about to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in science in public health, and a minor in business administration. She wanted a well-rounded degree, and found that the marketing and management classes she took in the School of Business helped immensely with her work in public health.

After graduation, she hopes to work with refugee populations in the United States, helping them acclimate to living in the United States and how health care works here.

“There are a lot of refugee populations in America,” she said. “They’re here, and they need our help.”

In addition to her studies, Kaiser volunteered on a project for the Madison County Health Department in 2015 to create an assessment of local health care needs and priorities. The study found a need to focus on substance abuse, obesity, mental health care and air quality in Madison County, and entailed feedback from stakeholders and community leaders as well as medical professionals.

That was the start of Kaiser’s work with the health department, where she is now an intern and working via a state tobacco-prevention grant to help teens avoid nicotine addiction.

That’s where a young person can really help, according to health department spokeswoman Amy Yaeger. Kaiser developed a Snapchat campaign to target teens in East Alton, Wood River and Roxana, finding them where they are — on social media. Yaeger said it was helpful to have someone working on the project who really understands how to reach young people and venues for helping them.

“After taking my first class in the public health program, I knew this is where I was meant to be and what I was supposed to do,” Kaiser said. “I love the genuine passion my peers, professors and I share to make the world a better, healthier place.”

Kaiser is also working on raising awareness among landlords for the benefits of smoke-free multi-unit housing: secondhand smoke can filter from one unit to another, and when one tenant smokes, others can be affected.

Kaiser’s work in public health caught the attention of the national Eta Sigma Gamma, the health education honor society. On March 31, she accepted a prestigious national award as undergraduate major of the year at the ESG national conference.

The day she found out about the award was also the day Kaiser heard that her work at the health department would be extended through July. “That was a big day for me,” she said.

The conference was a terrific opportunity, she said. “I got to meet a lot of influential people, and it inspired some of what I want to do after graduation.”

Kaiser said she is “tremendously passionate” about public health. Besides her current work in tobacco use prevention, she is very interested in global health. She studied a summer in London for the business portion of her degree before spending last summer in Ghana.

“Megan is an outstanding student who has demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities as a three-year member and current president of SIUE’s ESG chapter,” said Jennifer Caumiant, an instructor in the SIUE Department of Applied Health who nominated Kaiser for the award. “I am thrilled that Megan is receiving this award.”

Kaiser said one of the key things she discovered as a student was the importance of getting to know her professors. “It’s a smaller school, so you really can get to know them,” she said. “They’ve stuck their necks out for me, and I’m happy to call them friends. I know I can go to multiple mentors… get to know them, because no one knows the field better than them.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "This college student wants to make sure your teen never starts smoking."