Mr. Bryant Shannon, studied Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Florida. A leader in Florida Alternative Breaks, he organized service trips to Belize, Guatemala, and Atlanta for his peers. He is a national leader for the ONE Campaign, working in the community and on Capitol Hill to advocate for effective international humanitarian aid. He is also a Public Health Lead of the Engineers without Borders Bolivia Team, earning a grant from the Clinton Foundation to help fund the project. Mr. Shannon had interned in Uganda with a medical relief organization, volunteered in Nicaragua and El Salvador, studied health policy in Kenya, served as a teaching assistant for three separate classes and worked for the Chemical Weapon Elimination Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He conducted research at the Emerging Pathogens Institute, where he received funding for his research on the 2008 cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. Bryant will attend medical school in the fall of 2012, where he plans to study infectious diseases endemic to the developing world. Eventually, he plans to practice community health and work in global health policy, breaking the cycle of poverty through preventative medicine.

Mr. Shannon’s Fulbright-Nehru research titled “Examining the Impact of Health Education on Rural Indian Communities” will begin with the evaluation of four different crèches to gather baseline data concerning the preventative health knowledge of the community. This information will identify the priorities of the community, allowing customization of a Community Health Educator Training Program. This program will incorporate visuals that focus on various health topics. After training volunteers in two of the selected communities, they will be delegated the responsibility of spreading the health education they received throughout the community, specifically to young families. This program will be evaluated by a decrease in preventable disease at the crèches and improved and expanded as necessary.