Behaviour Change Case Competition Wrap-Up: July 16-17

What an incredible two days at our student case competition!

Hosted by the University of Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change, and the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA), this event saw our Master of Applied Psychology students tackle a real-world challenge: how to help 16-24 year-olds quit vaping.

Over two intensive days, student teams developed creative, evidence-based interventions and presented them to a panel of judges from Quit Victoria, BETA, and MCBC – and they blew us away with their creativity, insight, and professionalism.

A huge thank you to our fantastic judges: Sabine Ostrowski from Quit Victoria, Dr. Loren Willis from BETA, and A/Prof Michelle Jongenelis from MCBC. Thanks also to our dedicated team mentors: Mary-Ellen Brierley (MSPS), Gemma Cook (MAP Grad), and Riley Childs (BETA).

Prizes for the teams included the opportunity to present their idea to the Federal Government, presenting at the MCBC Conference, and mentoring sessions with Quit, Cancer Council Victoria, and the UniMelb Wellbeing Team.

Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive:

• 100% said they would recommend the event to others
• The topic was rated as highly engaging and relevant
• Students praised the structure, expert mentoring, and chance to present to professionals

Some standout quotes from students included:

“It was a well organised event & was a great opportunity for MAPpers to put what we’ve learnt into practice!”

“The pressure to finish everything in less than 2 days is – pushing us to be creative and effective, love it!”

“Being able to experience what it’s like to work on these sorts of cases in the real world and fully immerse myself in the case and developing an intervention collaboratively with such an excellent team.”

“Loved it! Was insanely stressful. But so happy I did it!”

A huge thank you to our mentors, judges, organisers, and of course our students for making this such a success. The enthusiasm, creativity and willingness to take part in this event (during their Winter break!) is a nice reminder of what an engaged and motivated bunch of students we have at MSPS!