Students Engagement Program

A Vision for a Healthier World

Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders Through Biosafety and Biosecurity Infographics

In 2023, SEAOHUN, in collaboration with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), hosted its fourth annual regional student competition, emphasizing the significance of Biosafety and Biosecurity. This competition, themed "Protecting Lives: Promoting Biosafety and Biosecurity," challenged students to create visually engaging infographic posters.

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A pre-competition webinar, "Biosafety and Biosecurity in Preventing Diseases," was conducted on August 15, 2023. With DTRA's technical support, it deepened students' understanding of Biosafety and Biosecurity and provided guidance for poster design.

This year's competition attracted 39 teams, totaling 195 participants from six SEAOHUN member universities: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Each team comprised four students and a dedicated faculty mentor, collaborating to create an infographic poster with accompanying descriptions.

Celebrating Excellence

Sinukuan Gazette, Philippines

Sunshines, Cambodia

The Better World, Thailand

Inspiring Future Leaders

From the country-winning teams in the six participating nations, the competition recognized the top three posters with the highest scores. "Sinukuan Gazette" from the Philippines claimed the top spot, followed by "Sunshines" from Cambodia and "The Better World" from Thailand. As a result, the 12 students from the top three winning teams will be invited to a "Biosafety and Biosecurity" training program in Malaysia by the end of the year.

In an additional engagement, a 24-hour online voting on social media platforms allowed the audience to select their favorite posters among the country-winning entries. The "Public Pick Award" was presented to the three most-voted posters: "The Better World" from Thailand (1765 votes), "Ksatria Airlangga" from Indonesia (979 votes), and "Sunshines" from Cambodia (665 votes).

The SEAOHUN 2023 Regional Student Competition provided a platform for regional students and young professionals to display their exceptional posters and enhance their technical and soft skills, including teamwork, interdisciplinary collaboration, and leadership in conveying the Biosafety and Biosecurity message to a broader audience.

About Students Engagement Program

SEAOHUN Students Engagement Program encourages students across its member Universities to practice applying One Health concept and approach in addressing One Health issues. SEAOHUN organizes regional students’ activities where students across disciplines and countries can interact and develop technical and soft skills, including infectious diseases, zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance, communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, all of which are essential to solving complex health challenges. These activities include producing posters, videos, and arts to raise awareness of One Health in their communities.

Program Objective

The Student Engagement Program aims to foster the young professionals from multidisciplinary background to learn and apply the One Health concept to stimulate the good practices in the communities.

Our History of Successful
Regional Students Competitions

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2022

SEAOHUN marked World Antimicrobial Awareness Week in November 2022 with its 3rd Annual Regional Student Competition, partnered with USAID One Health Workforce – Next Generation (OHW-NG) consortium, Zoetis, and Pfizer. Undergraduate teams from SEAOHUN nations crafted digital and non-digital art to creatively communicate the urgency of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) to the public. The event commenced on September 21, 2022, accompanied by a webinar titled "Communicating the Impact of AMR through Art" on September 26, 2022, where OHW-NG speakers shed light on AMR and blending science with art. Participation from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam yielded 58 thought-provoking art pieces, reinforcing the idea that "a picture is worth a thousand words." SEAOHUN applauds partners USAID, Zoetis, and Pfizer for contributing to the success of the SEAOHUN 2022 Regional Student Competition. This initiative not only amplified AMR awareness but also nurtured cross-disciplinary skills among emerging professionals, empowering them to advocate One Health principles in their communities.

“Using Art is such amazing and fun idea to raise AMR awareness in creative way. The webinar also provided the knowledge and information of AMR and tips for drawing. I learned that messages conveyed in the form of art can educate the non-scientific community effectively and easily. Through this competition, I gained a lot of new experiences by working as a team, generating scientific ideas and converting into artwork.” – Rachana Dorn, Whale Team, Cambodia

2021

For the second year, “SEAOHUN 2021 Regional Students’ Competition: Risk of Zoonotic Diseases” was held with the aim to foster the young professionals from multidisciplinary background to learn and apply the One Health concept to stimulate the good practices in the communities. This competition was funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Chevron as a co-sponsor. This competition acted as an opportunity for the students of SEAOHUN member countries to utilize their creative skills (soft skill) and technical knowledge (hard skill) to communicate to the public about the risk of Zoonotic diseases. Over 200 students joined with 52 submissions received from seven SEAOHUN member countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam). The competition ended up with achieving one award per country and recognized six runners up, yielding so many interesting and well-made entries with a very successful public selection.

“I'm so very happy to join the SEAOHUN in the video competition, that was a new experience for me to create the video for raising awareness for people to understand the Risk of Zoonotic Disease… my team members [and I] learned a lot from making the video, especially about teamwork… we always motivate each other and keep working together during the pandemic. Finally, I thank you for creating this program that is an opportunity for youth to learn from each other and we contribute to helping our society or community.” -

A student who joined the SEAOHUN 2021 Regional Students’ Competition

2020

In 2020, there was poster and video competition of “Covid-19 Digital Awareness Challenge” aimed at engaging Southeast Asian students in educating their communities about COVID-19 and promoting risk-reducing behavior through digital platforms. The activity was supported by the USAID One Health Workforce Next Generation (OHW-NG) project. Over 200 students across six Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) submitted 110 posters, flyers, and videos to raise awareness of their communities on COVID-19. From there, 4 winners; 2 for videos and 2 for posters were identified who created the best original, creative and informative products.