Best Practices

The eCHECKUP TO GO Cheeseburger Challenge

Amy Buch, Director of Prevention Programs and Associate Director of the Health Education Center at the University of California, Irvine, came up with a creative and successful approach to encourage students to examine their alcohol use.

Amy shared her idea with the eCHECKUP TO GO Development Team, and with her permission we have included her summary below. She is quite willing to share the programmatic details of the UC Irvine 'Challenge' with you. Amy's contact information is provided below.

"I would like to share with you a story of how we were able to really promote eCHUG with our students. I held a contest with the RAs in the first year residence halls. We have two first year complexes here at UC Irvine. I promised In n Out burgers for the hall from each complex that had the greatest level of participation. Because I was unfamiliar with how to verify participation, we developed refection questions that students would complete after reading the feedback. Their reflection questions would serve as proof of their participation. We called it the eCHUG Cheeseburger Challenge (because it has good alliteration and because students seem to really be struck by the cheeseburger icons. We were clear in stating that we were not looking for the hall that had the most cheeseburger icons in their feedback however.) The results were that we received reflection results from 816 students. SIX halls had 100% participation. Burger delivery was becoming a bigger job than I thought so the UCI Police Department helped me deliver burgers out of the back of a squad car. It was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed the whole contest. We then ran and ad in our school newspaper congratulating the RAs who participated and named the halls to give them credit.

Anyway, I thought it would share the story because we LOVE eCHUG [a.k.a., eCHECKUP TO GO]! It is very helpful and very clever. I would be happy to share the Cheeseburger Challenge rules and reflection questions with any campuses who are looking to you for ideas about how to market the program."

Amy Buch
Director, Prevention Programs
Associate Director
Health Education Center
UC Irvine
(949) 824-9688 phone
(949) 824-WELL main