This fall, Next Step was honored to have Melanie Kimmel, a practicum student from the Graduate School of Public Health at Boston University, on our team. Besides bringing general good cheer, kindness, and an awesome sense of humor to our office, Melanie worked hard to improve our program surveys and the evaluation process for our programs for teens and young adults living with cancer, HIV or a rare genetic disorder.
To make it happen, Melanie performed several areas of research including an environmental scan, literature review, focus groups with our young participants and she spent several hours working with our program staff. The work she did this semester will go a long way in helping us measure the impact that Next Step has on teens and young adults living with chronic illness – both in qualitative and quantitative ways.
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Melanie yesterday, but before we did, she presented all of the work she did this semester and explained how our improved surveys will help us provide our year-round community, music and mentorship programs in a more efficient and effective way for the seriously ill young people we support.
Of course, we mixed in a delicious pumpkin pie, made by Quita, to celebrate the wonderful impact she made on Next Step the last few months and going forward!
Thanks Melanie! Good luck with your last semester at BU!
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