Health Wise Prize

The Florida Department of Health in Sumter County, in cooperation with Lake Sumter State College, the Sumter County School District, and United Way of Lake and Sumter created the first public health-based knowledge competition, Health Wise Prize. This inaugural event was held at Lake Sumter State College on October 26, 2018.

Health Wise Prize is developed as an opportunity to highlight the importance of public health knowledge. The program also focuses on creating awareness among Sumter County students on a variety of public health topics and possible careers within public health.

To showcase and celebrate public health knowledge, teams of four students from the three Sumter County high schools compete on a challenging curriculum in front of a live audience. The students skillfully answer two rounds of multiple choice questions. Teams earn points for providing correct answers and lose points for incorrect answers. The final question allows the teams to put their point totals on the line by staking anywhere from zero to all their points on getting the correct answer.

The winners receive a monetary prize of $2000 and a beautiful trophy to display at their school. The first and second runner up receive $1000 and $400, respectively. The monetary prize is generously provided by the United Way of Lake and Sumter Counties, and the trophy is sponsored by The Villages Evening Rotary Club.

The vision of this program is to expand the competition to neighboring counties over the next few years. Sumter County Health Department will continue to strive to bring this exciting and innovative project to more students throughout the State. Through the continued support of our community partners we have no doubt that this program will only grow, evolve, and flourish in the coming years.

Anyone interested in finding out more about Health Wise Prize can contact Palak Gupta at 352-569-3147.