A public health capstone course empowers students to design and lead an evidence-based mental health initiative, building peer-to-peer support and enriching campus awareness and suicide prevention readiness.
April 10, 2026
Students in HLTH 4450 collaborate on planning Fresh Check Day.
I have been working with the Jordan Porco Foundation (JPF) to bring student-driven mental health awareness to campuses for the last decade. I first developed this model of implementing the foundation’s flagship program, Fresh Check Day (FCD) with the Physician Associate Studies Program at Sacred Heart, where I embedded the idea into the population health course I developed in 2018.
When I came to the University of New Haven in 2021, I suggested the idea as a partnership for the HLTH 4450 Health Science Capstone course for the health sciences and public health seniors in the School of Health Sciences. In 2023, when I became the Program Director for the Bachelor of Science in Public Health Program I took over teaching the course, enhanced the partnership with JPF, and added coordination with the Career Development Center.
JPF has grown and is now part of the Injury Prevention Center at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Fresh Check Day, an uplifting and engaging mental health promotion event for colleges, is recognized in the Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s Best Practices Registry. This program has an evidence-based framework developed by the JPF.
Fresh Check Day brings mental health awareness to campus.
The HLTH 4450 Health Science Capstone is a service-learning course for senior public health and health sciences students. In this course, students take an active role in implementing a health promotion intervention. In the public health field, the community serves as students’ laboratory, and I am excited to engage students in this type of immersive and impactful learning experience. The coursework has also been integrated into a partnership with the Career Development Center so that students can incorporate their learning experience into their resumes and professional goals.
The students in the capstone course take the initiative to completely fundraise, research, plan and coordinate the full day Fresh Check program. Last year’s capstone students served more than 350 students on the University of New Haven campus with this intervention, surpassing many of the attendance numbers at other schools. Evaluation data from 2025 shows that University of New Haven students who participated in Fresh Check Day were more than 80% more prepared to help a friend who is exhibiting warning signs of suicide.
Deborah List and Nick Marinelli presents the Fresh Check Day model at the Connecticut Public Health Association conference.
I’ve been recognized by JPF for coordinating a Fresh Check Day program where students completely lead the implementation of the program, fully integrating the peer-to-peer framework of the intervention. Nick Marinelli, MPA, Program Specialist at JPF, and I presented at the Connecticut Public Health Association conference in March, sharing the success of this unique student-driven model. Additionally, I have been asked to join the National Mental Health Collaborative work in CT, with the goal of increasing this type of work on college campuses.
Student reflection papers and course discussion indicate the critical need for student-driven mental health programming on campus. National data indicates the crisis of mental concerns of college students. But, what I hear in this class each year is how important it is for students to make a difference on this campus and to take initiative to address this need. That is why the JPF is working to make this model an example for other schools. I am proud to be a part of that work.
Recognition for student-led mental health work from the Jordan Porco Foundation.
Please save the date for this event. The capstone students hope that you will join them on the Maxcy Quad on Wednesday, April 22, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for interactive booths, prizes, food, music and fun, enabling us to to check in and take care of our mental health!
Instagram: @freshcheckday_unewhaven