Student Handout Contest

Description:

The Diabetes Dietetic Practice Group (DDPG) invites dietetic students to participate in the DDPG Student Members Patient Handouts Contest 2025. All dietetic students who are currently enrolled in an ACEND accredited program are invited to create a handout on basic diabetes education/nutrition therapy. Submitted handouts will be judged by five professional members and the students with the top three handouts will be selected to receive an educational stipend and their handout(s) will be published on the DDPG website for use by dietitians and other diabetes professionals all over the world.

Contest goal:

To provide student members with the opportunity to challenge their handout creation skills and to contribute to improving the health of persons living with diabetes (PWD).

As an added incentive:

The first 25 students to submit a handout will receive an Academy membership and a membership with the DDPG for the 2025-2026 year.

Deadline for submissions:

• April 1^st, 2025, 11:59pm (EST), 10:59 pm (CST), 9:59 pm (MST), 8:59 pm (PST)

Guidelines:

• Handouts should be at a 6th grade reading level
  
  • Resource to help with readability:
    https://spectrum.adobe.com/page/writing-for-readability/
• Sources must be cited and references must be from reliable/reputable sources.
  
  • Examples of reliable sources: peer-reviewed literature, well-recognized professional organizations (e.g. American Diabetes Association)
  • Examples of unreliable sources: WebMD, Wikipedia, Healthline, blogs, personal websites, etc.
• Handouts should be engaging to the public in both content and visuals
  
  • Please use google docs.
  • While visually appealing handouts will increase competitiveness, selected handouts will be modified to be visually consistent with other handouts provided by the DDPG.
  • Here are some handout examples already published by the DDPG:
    
    • https://www.diabetesdpg.org/resources/education-handouts
• Handouts should be one to two pages in length
  • Keep sentences short. 6th grade reading level should be brief sentences.
• Handouts should be written using patient centered language. Follow the link below to learn more about patient centered language.
  
  • https://www.diabeteseducator.org/docs/default-source/practice/educator-tools/HCP-diabetes-language-guidance.pdf?sfvrsn=22

Reviewing Criteria:

• All handouts submitted will be reviewed by a team of five professional members. Each judging member will be provided a scoring sheet to score handouts based on criteria including but not limited to:
  
  • Accuracy of content
  • Relevance of topic and associated information
  • Organization of the content
  • Usability for educators and patients

Potential Topics:

• Differences between Type 1, 2 and gestational diabetes
• Sources of carbohydrates and the difference between refined and whole grain carbs
• Pairing carbs and proteins
• Impact of dietary fiber on blood glucose
• MyPlate Method for Diabetes
• Healthy Snacks for people living with Diabetes
• Diabetes meal planning for various cultures
• Other trending diabetes-related topics

How to submit your handout:

• All handouts must be submitted to Matthew Jaime, RD, CNSC at: T1DNutritionMatt@gmail.com
• All handouts must be submitted as a Google Doc
• All handouts must be submitted by the deadline below
• Only one submission per student will be accepted

Awards:

• The top handout will receive a $1,000 educational stipend
• The next two runner ups will receive a $500 educational stipend each
• The first 25 students to submit a handout will receive an academy membership and a DDPG student membership for the 2025-2026 year.

**Selected winners will need to have their student status verified prior to dispersal of educational stipends**