What started as a senior capstone project turned into a movement to increase awareness of the underrepresented population of children living with pacemakers.
Students in the public relations capstone are traditionally required to research and construct a PR program for local non-profits. However, the fall 2024 section of the course took a different approach. Seniors at Loyola University Maryland created their own organization and website known as “The Pediatric Pacemaker Project” to provide information, resources, and inspiration.
“We created the whole website and also did the PR for it. So, it was a lot of work, but it was very much worth it,” Advertising and Public Relations major Catherine Kutson ‘25 said.
According to the American Heart Association, a pacemaker is a small-battery operated device that helps regulate heart rhythm. The device detects abnormal heartbeats and transmits electrical impulses through wires to stabilize the heart. A pacemaker can either be assistive or critical for survival.
Pacemakers are often associated with adults but are also found in pediatric patients. They are critical for the treatment of congenital heart block, a rare condition which is found in about 1 of every 22,000 children. Dr. Caridad De La Uz, director of Pediatric Electrophysiology at Johns Hopkins, said in a video feature on that site that education is the primary means of protecting children who have pacemakers.
“People are well aware of pediatric cancer but not as many people are aware of pediatric cardiac disease. So just by bringing it sort of into the light we are more likely to get support and move the field forward,” De La Uz said.
Motivation for the project was found within the campus community. Communication and media Professor Tania Cantrell Rosas-Moreno was described by Kutson as the heart of the project. She is the mother of now 9-year-old Scarlet Rosas-Moreno who experienced heart complications at 10 months and had a pacemaker implanted at age two.
The Pediatric Pacemaker Project was designed to empower families, caretakers, and children. Deconstructing the stigma at school was a turning point for Scarlet.
“My first fear was that everyone would laugh at me for being different. But then when I came to school I met a girl, and at recess we started to play together, and she introduced me to her other friends. I noticed that nobody laughed at me,” Rosas-Moreno said.
An unprecedented small class size of four students caused the PR Capstone to team up with the Digital Media Capstone. Communications and speech pathology double major Alexander Valencia oversaw website creation on the PR team. Valencia said that collaboration allowed the project to run smoothly.
“It took communication, right—because with graphics, there is always something people might want to add, a color or a text or something like that. So it was just a lot of good communication and honestly that helped the project,” Valencia said.
The team intends to regularly update the site and is currently working towards making the organization an official non-profit. To learn more about The Pediatric Pacemaker Project and what they do, you visit their website.
