Teens Teach Nutrition Virtually to Youth During COVID-19: Improved Leadership Skills and Health Behaviors

The Choose Health Action Teens (CHAT) program of Cornell Cooperative Extension engages teens to teach a nutrition curriculum to younger youth, with the goal of enhancing the leadership skills and health behaviors of the teen teachers. Due to COVID-19, an in-person CHAT program in New York City was converted to virtual and implemented online during Summer 2020. Twelve teens, mentored by eight college interns, taught youth virtually in their homes. Quantitative and qualitative assessments demonstrated improvement in teen leadership and facilitation skills and health behaviors, and suggest that converting this type of programming to a virtual environment can be successful.