Heather Gay, Tricia Gaumer and Jenna Manigold traveled to Texas last week.

The three health studies majors competed in the Association for Health Education National Undergraduate Case Study contest in Forth Worth, Texas.

“We got the case for the competition two weeks before the actual competition date,” said Gay, a senior health studies major. “We did some preliminary cases for our topic beforehand. The topic was adolescent violence in New Mexico.”

The team had to put together a case on how they would stop this. The team consisted of Gaumer, senior health studies major, Manigold, junior health studies major and Gay, along with their faculty adviser, Julie Dietz.

Dietz is the Community Health Advisor at Eastern.

Dietz was not allowed to help prepare a case for the team, but they would bounce ideas off of her.

“The advisers aren’t allowed to prepare a case for you,” Gay said, “But they make sure you at least have the right thoughts.”

They prepared a 12-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute question and answer session by the judges. They spent 10 days researching and putting together a case.

“Of course we wrote out our presentation and rehearsed it about a million times before the actual competition,” Gay said.

Dietz said the advisers were there only to advise, hence the name.

“We could critique and get them to think about something,” Dietz said. “But we could not overtly help them.”

This was the first time Eastern has ever placed in this competition. Eastern students have been going for the past three years, as long as the competition has been held for, Dietz said.

‘I went last year but it was the first year for the other two girls,” Gay said.

Gay said since it was her second year, it was an advantage for the team.

“Well since the case changes year to year I didn’t have an advantage on the topic, but I knew more of what the judges were expecting,” she said. “I told the girls what to expect before going into the judging room. I think it is an advantage to have someone who has already been there, it is a huge plus.”

Dietz has been the faculty adviser for all three years of the competition.

“It takes place at the national convention every year, last year it was in Baltimore over spring break and we got stuck in an ice storm on the way home,” Dietz said. “The year before that it was in Salt Lake City.”

Even though Eastern won the competition they did have a hard time getting there.

“This year we got caught up in the mess of American airlines canceling all the flights,

Diet said. “We flew out Wednesday morning and got routed through Arkansas. We got there at 2 p.m. and we were supposed to present at 1 p.m. The judges adjusted the time and allowed us to present late, however, so that was fortunate.”

Other competitors:

The other schools Eastern competed against were University of Northern Iowa, Ball State University in Northern Indiana, Ohio University, Towson University, Gustavus Adolthus College, Southern Illinois University and University of Central Oklahoma.

Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or at haholm@eiu.edu.