Michigan Teen Helps Promote Media-Smart Youth Program from NIH

Detroit Country Day School student Alan Sun led a workshop in Canton to help youths understand how media may affect their choices. (Photo submitted)

Alan Sun 16, student at Detroit Country Day School has recently been recognized as Media-Smart Youth Teen Leaders by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), to help lead community health education efforts in Michigan (photo 1).

Youth today have tremendous access to the media, which can affect their overall health, particularly as it relates to nutrition and physical activity. That’s why Sun and his the Little Stars Foundation are taking steps to help youth better navigate today’s media landscape and understand how media can influence their choices .

Sun used the NICHD’s free curriculum Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active! to teach young people about media, nutrition, and physical activity. The first free four-week workshop held in Canton from June to July and more than 20 local kids aged 8-13 participate

During the workshop, children analyzed media messages, read nutrition facts labels, sampled healthy snacks, learned yoga poses, and got moving during fun action breaks. They also created videos, webpages, and other media products of their own to encourage their peers to eat healthy and get active too.

The workshop concluded with a final presentation, each student presented the knowledge they learned from the workshop through songs, dances, physical activities, and group presentations.

The NICHD developed Media-Smart Youth in response to studies showing a growing number of young people getting little physical activity and not enough needed daily nutrients.

These factors contribute to rising rates of overweight and obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in three children and adolescents in the United States is overweight or obese. Get more information about the Media-Smart Youth program here.

Sun also won 2015 Kohl’s Care for Kids Scholarship as one of eight regional winners in Michigan.