Public Health Student Association (PHSA)
I serve as a president for the public health student association. President position comes with a lot of responsibilities and accountability. My primary duty involves keeping the team together, assist them with their tasks, contact other organizations for collaboration, advertise and advocate for a public health program and PHSA, attend meetings, organize meetings, keep up the standards of the association, recruit students, create events and represent the club and the program on all possible platforms.
Leader is someone who runs with the team and not runs the team. I believe I have set great example of a leader. When I took the position, I was expecting a child. Despite the condition, I have participated in all community services, departmental activities and even have attended the events on campus to represent PHSA and Public Health program.
I have learned to share, recognize and appreciate team work. I have learned balancing work, family and school.
IPE Activity
IPE activity was organized by the MPH program and dental hygiene program. Each team had students from both declines. Working with someone that you do not even know is difficult. Especially when you are working remotely. I thought that we will not be successful in performing any activity because it was difficult for everyone to get on zoom simultaneously. It was even more challenging for me as I was in the postpartum stage. I missed a couple of meetings, but my team understood my situation and helped me catch up with my work.
We successfully completed our activity, but we learned to help, educate and support each other. It actually strengthens our team. We communicated through various media to keep each other updated, which mainly helped me to stay updated.
APHA Climate Change Championship
During my first semester in MPH, I was assigned as GA for Dr. Akpinar. She saw potential in me and asked me to apply for the climate change challenge and lead the team. Students who participated in the challenge were Emily Varvil, Brenda Berumen, Dwight Bland, and Julia Demeester. We were asked by APHA to schedule events on campus educating other students about the climate change – sea level rise. We planned all the activities and submitted a full proposal. Unfortunately, our proposal didn’t get selected, but I have learned about the sea level rise. I knew Louisiana is below sea level and facing many disasters due to climate change, but I never thought too deeply about the Norfolk community facing the same.