I saw that there is a big gap, I guess, between medicine and patient. It's not patient-centered
care enough. So public health service adds the community bridge to serve the patients
and they serve the patient's best interest, and serves the general public as a public
interest.
So that's what drove me to where, I think, the desire to make changes, real changes for
those individuals around me, for myself, for my family. So it starts with myself, and then
my family, and then my community, and then my nation. I feel like the contributions that
we can make as people--one person really can make a huge difference. So I think as someone
who had a previous career, this career I was drawn to it because I really do want to make
a difference.
What I want to go into -- I'm actually in a dual program where I'm going to do recreation
administration, as well as environmental health, to go into an urban planning/working with--getting
things together, like a built environment. I'm doing a Master's project right now on
the proximity of recreational resources and the effect that it has on childhood obesity.
So that's kind of where I'm concentration--maybe it will be even more concentrated, or maybe
it'd be more vague later on, but that's kind of what I'm really interested in right now.
So being able to understand the correlation between things that are--the parks or the
gyms or the Boys & Girls Club that are around these areas, and making these places safe
for kids to interact and be able to exercise and have play time. Hopefully, that will alleviate,
again, childhood obesity, which could lead to diabetes.
I'm here to see all the different research topics, what everyone's doing, what topics
are popular in public health. So I'm very excited to see what everyone has in store.
I came to the Annual Meeting today to support my amazing colleagues and faculty, who have
done so much hard work and are presenting here today. I'm really looking forward to
the networking opportunities, and hearing more about what's at the forefront of prevention
and wellness along the lifespan, because I think this is a very important topic, and
I think it's a wonderful time to be a public health student. I'm looking forward to all
the presentations.
