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Each year, Sanford’s public policy undergraduate honors thesis gives students the chance to spend a full academic year conducting original research, working closely with a faculty mentor, and developing deep expertise on an issue that matters to policy and practice. The experience challenges students to ask ambitious questions, gather and analyze evidence, and contribute new knowledge to the field.
This year, Sanford recognized Kate Seneshen with the 2026 Best Honors Thesis Award for her work on HPV prevention practices among adolescents in rural Peru. Seneshen completed the project under the guidance of Ernesto Ortiz, Senior Manager of Programs, Hubert Yeargan Center, with an affiliate faculty appointment at the Duke Global Health Institute.
Kate is a senior majoring in Global Health and Public Policy with a minor in Biology. Her research examines how social and behavioral factors shape adolescent and women’s health across diverse settings. She first discovered her passion for community-based research in rural North Carolina, partnering with local clinics and communities to improve chronic disease management and cardiovascular health. While studying abroad in Argentina, she interned with Mendoza’s Ministry of Health where she drafted a proposal to strengthen provider adherence to hypertension guidelines.
She currently serves on the executive boards of Partners in Health Engage, Global Health Student Union, and Duke Club Field Hockey. She aspires to become a social epidemiologist advancing evidence-based, equity-driven approaches to global women’s health.
Here is Kate’s description of her thesis and her research experiences.
“I could never have guessed that writing a public policy thesis would lead me to live in a small town in the Peruvian Andes – a town where I would spend my days dancing in local parades, connecting with health centers, and surveying secondary school students about their Human Papillomavirus (HPV) prevention practices.
This opportunity to carry out my own research project from start to finish helped me develop invaluable skills in protocol writing, survey design, data collection, cultural competence, data analysis, presentation, and report writing.
I am immensely grateful for the support of the public policy department and my mentor Dr. Ernesto Ortiz for their consistent guidance along every step of the process.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the world and some strains cause various cancers. Through conversations with health officials at Peru’s National Cancer Institute, the National Ministry of Health and VIDAWASI, I recognized the need for improved HPV prevention in rural Cusco. I conducted a cross-sectional investigation of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of secondary school students regarding HPV and related diseases in Urubamba, Cusco, surveying 120 students aged 12-18 across two secondary schools.
I consolidated results into eight recommendations for HPV interventions, emphasizing that initiatives should be school-based, inform about risk factors, focus on cancer prevention, involve parents, combat vaccine hesitancy, and address low national vaccine coverage goals. Based on this project and my other fieldwork, I have co-launched a global health student research training program through which four Duke undergraduates will spend the summer in Urubamba, co-designing sexual health interventions.”