This week we talk to a group of current public health students about their involvement with groups and organizations outside of the classroom and why getting involved is an important part of their education and career development.

Emma Meador:

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to From the Front Row, brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. My name is Emma Meador, and if this is your first time with us, welcome. We’re a students on podcast that talks about major issues in public health and how they are relevant to anyone, both in and out of the field of public health. Today, we welcome seven student leaders from within our College of Public Health Graduate Student Organizations. We will discuss both the process for getting involved and why it is important to get involved outside of the classroom. To begin, I’m going to let the students introduce themselves. What program track they’re in. And what student organization they are here representing. Redwan, would you like to start us off?

Redwan Bin Abdul Baten:

Sure. Thank you, Emma. Thanks for having us here. My name is Redwan. I am a fifth year PhD candidate in the Department of Health Management and Policy. I’m in the health economics track. And today I’m representing the College of Public Health Graduate Student Association.

Hailey Bomar:

My name is Hailey Bomar, and I am the president of the Community and Behavioral Health Student Association. And I’m in my second year in the MPH in the Community and Behavioral Health Department.

Rachel Bryant:

Hi, my name is Rachel Bryant. I’m a second year MPH student in the Department of Epidemiology and I am here representing the Epidemiology Student Association, otherwise known as ESA.

Alexis Clark:

Hi everyone. And thank you, Emma. My name is Alexis Clark. I am a second year master of health administration student, and I am here representing ISAHL, which stands for the Iowa Student Association of Healthcare Leaders.

Lexi Fahrion:

Hi everyone. My name’s Lexi Fahrion. I’m a second year master’s of public health student in Community and Behavioral Health. And I am here representing the Student Ambassador Association.

Alex Murra:

Hi everyone. My name is Alex Murra, and I am a second year MPH student, the Department of Epidemiology. And today I’ll be representing the maternal and child health student interest group.

Laura Olds:

What’s up everyone. I am Laura Olds and I am in my second year of the master of health administration program. And I am representing Student Leadership Council as their present.

Emma Meador:

Awesome. Well thank you guys for sharing. And now can you tell us a little bit more in detail about what your organization is and how you can get involved?

Redwan Bin Abdul Baten:

Well, let me start. So at the College of Public Health Graduate Student Association, we are an official body within the College of Public Health, representing all graduate and professional students within the College of Public Health. We are one of the seven member governor that represents students across campus. So there are student governments in almost all colleges across campus. And College of Public Health being one of them, we are a member of government off the graduate and professional student government, which represents all students at the university level.

Redwan Bin Abdul Baten:

So CPH GSA represents students both at the university level and at the College of Public Health level. And we do a lot of activism and advocacy work, and we do a lot of social events as well for the students within the College of Public Health. And joining CPA GSA is pretty easy. You just have to communicate with us and shortly we will be sending out some information through a mass email to all students about how to get involved with us this year. We’re keeping it pretty flexible so that more and more people can join us in the post pandemic time.

Hailey Bomar:

So CBHSA are student association and the department of community [inaudible 00:03:39] health was designed to basically kind of provide opportunities for professional development for students in our department and service oriented outreach in the community and then also social events for our students. Really the goal is for us to kind of create a community within our department, upon the students and then also kind of facilitate communication between students and faculty. The College of Public Health, and then the greater Iowa city community.

Hailey Bomar:

So those are then of our big goals. We have professional development kind of branch, and then also service branch that we’re thinking about revamping or kind of changing our thoughts around the idea of service and community service. And kind of thinking about how to push those boundaries to fit more with our kind of goals that we have as a department. But then also the ideology of our students.

Hailey Bomar:

And then we have the social group as well. And all three of those we’ll need coachers from our incoming class this year. So we are sending out information about how to get involved and be a part of CBHSA and be a leadership in the department. The first week of September to our students.

Rachel Bryant:

So ESA, we are more of like a social group for the department, for the epidemiology department. So we’ve been on social events for the students, for after class for just to have some relaxed time and kind of get to know the department build camaraderie amongst students. We also are helping students with the alumni network. So that’s a big thing we’re going to revamp is making sure that our students currently have connections with recent alumni so we can help make more connections. And then currently it’s only available to epidemiology students. But we’re hoping for a future inner departmental connections.

Rachel Bryant:

So technically every epidemiology students is already considered a member. And our first meeting will be the first Tuesday of September. So more information will come out soon, but we are also looking for our first year representative who will represent the first years in their class. And then more information will be sent out as well for that. But if there are any more questions about joining or events, you can contact us at cph-esa@uiowa.edu.

Alexis Clark:

Awesome Rachel, thank you. So ISAHL is the official affiliate of the American college of healthcare executives for the university of Iowa. With that being said, any student technically interested in healthcare management is eligible or invited to be a member. Typically, our membership base is normally made up of health management and policy students. Typically residential MHA students. So the only restriction on membership and being a student is you cannot have a full-time position in a healthcare management role because that then interferes with ACH’s bylaws. And being an affiliate we have to be able to coincide with their bylaws.

Alexis Clark:

So ISAHL stands on three different pillars, professional development, civic responsibility and member engagement. So throughout the year we will hold different professional development events. One being the annual golf outing, another being a co-sponsored event with SLC, all women’s health care management panel. And then with civic responsibility, we give students the opportunity to go out in the community and meet other professionals as well as volunteer their time.

Alexis Clark:

And then lastly, with member engagement, that is more of the social setting type events where you can get to know other ISAHL members better. And so in order to be considered a full member, you have to meet some requirements that we go into detail further later on in the year. But if you are interested in being an ISAHL member for the fall semester, our deadline is September 30th. If you have any questions or want more information, please email me at alexis-clark@uiowa.edu.

Lexi Fahrion:

Thanks, Alexis. Like I mentioned earlier, my name is Lexi Fahrion and I run our student ambassador program here in the College of Public Health. So the student ambassador program is essentially in charge of handling all recruitment and outreach within the college. We have a team of undergraduate students that focuses more on our undergrad side. And we also have a great team of graduate students that focuses on recruitment and outreach on the graduate side. We’re involved in things like Hawkeye visit days, but we give presentations throughout the college and other areas of the university. We have a social media account that we do outreach and recruitment through. And we also have as part of our program an awesome student run podcasts called From the Front Row, which is actually headed by Alexis Clark.

Lexi Fahrion:

On there we do great things like interviewing experts from our community, experts from across the country, professors and faculty within our college. And we do a lot of great networking and information providing within the field of public health. So if you’re interested in getting involved, it does require you to be a student within the College of Public Health. So if you’re an undergrad having a major within our college, or you’re a grad student being a part of one of our departments, we actually just sent out mass email applications earlier this week, and those will be due September 3rd.

Alex Murra:

So the Maternal and Child Health Student Interest Group, or just the MCHSIG to keep it short. It’s a relatively new organization. And we just got started last year after getting some grant funding from HERSA. And basically what we’re trying to do is create a space for students, whether you’re undergraduate or graduate students who are interested in maternal and child health in any capacity to come together and have a space to talk about it and to also learn about different things.

Alex Murra:

So some things that we’re planning on doing is having speakers also just like social activities, maybe a little journal club here and there and learn how to be an advocate for maternal and child health. Some things we did in the past too, is we’ve done fundraising activities. So we’re able to do a diaper drive and food drive for the domestic violence intervention program here in Iowa city. And if you want to get involved, straight up just email us. So we are new. So we are recruiting like crazy. So if you want to email us, that’s cph-mchsig@uiowa.edu. We’re also on Instagram @uimchsig and on Facebook too.

Laura Olds:

All right. And then for Student Leadership Council, AKA SLC, and this is in the department of health management and policy. It’s made up of five council members and then five elect members, which the elect members are typically first year graduate students in HMP. And then they assume the role for their second year. The primary purpose for SLC is not necessarily an organization that any student can just join into. Rather it’s a council that serves as a voice for students within the department, and then also facilitates coordination of recruitment, professional development, marketing communication, and alumni affairs. My specific role as SLC president serves mostly as the primary liaison between students and faculty. I organize meetings, operationalize some service projects and kind of direct the strategic plan of SLC. And then if someone wants to get involved or be a member of SLC, or you can either self-nominate or nominate a peer. And then upon acceptance of that nomination, we election and you’re in the class votes.

Emma Meador:

That was awesome. Thank you guys so much for sharing all the work you’re doing is great. Sounds like there’s some super awesome orgs within the College of Public Health. And then the next question I have for you all is, why do you think it’s important for students to get involved outside of the classroom? Redwan, do you want to start us off again?

Redwan Bin Abdul Baten:

Sure. Thank you again. So I think all of the activism that happens in the College of Public Health and in the university in general, I think it’s more of like a complimentary sort of role to stuff that we learn in class. So at the College of Public Health graduate student association, you can have the opportunity to put into practice some of the things that you have learned in class, especially if you’re interested in things like policy-making. So if you have a great idea, how do you turn that idea into pieces of legislation, get it passed to appropriate bodies and then have it implemented. So, getting practical experience of that nature, I think is where we come in as an organization, we provide that kind of platform. We provide that kind of support so that you can get that kind of firsthand experience.

Redwan Bin Abdul Baten:

Also you can design your own projects here, if you want to do some service projects, or if you want to do some advocacy work for a specific issue that you have seen come up or is becoming more important. We are also a platform that gives you that opportunity. So any graduate and professional students within the College of Public Health, you can join this organization and also work, not just at the College of Public Health level, but have your voice heard at the university level at the graduate and professional student government as well. And there’s opportunity for collaboration with the undergraduate student governments across campuses as well. So endless opportunities, again complimentary experiences to the great things that we learn in class.

Hailey Bomar:

For me. I mean, I was so glad as a first year student last year to get involved with our student association, just because, I mean, it was just such a dark time to start grad school online. It didn’t feel real. I think just in the first three days of the semester, even though it’s not the same, it’s like, wow, I’m a real student. But being part of the student association and just saying yeah, let me try out. And be kind of on the leadership side of our department really helped me feel connected when we were so disconnected.

Hailey Bomar:

But I think in a normal year, it’s nice to just kind of see what other people in your department are interested in. With our professional development kind of branch, we’re really aiming to help students feel ready when they graduate with their MPH to go out into the world and know what it is that they want to do, or at least what they feel inspired by and connected to as well as just like the more practical stuff that it feels like no one teaches you. Like how to send a professional email and like what does my CV actually need to look like? And so that’s kind of our goal with that.

Hailey Bomar:

Of course, with the social element to our association, I think last year that was the one that we focused on the most because it was like, okay, we’re going to just keep doing zoom socials, but it was actually really nice. We had accountability kind of zooms where everyone could come in and just say like, “Oh, I’m working on this. And I just want to be held accountable.” But this year we’re really excited to interact as safely as possible in person. So thinking about doing kind of an outdoor picnic, inviting our faculty members and so really bringing those connections together in our department and making people feel welcome. And then with the service to you, I think and I just put in the zoom chat here that I love the phrase civic engagement that Alexis mentioned.

Hailey Bomar:

We’re really like rethinking that based on our views as a department, but also just where we are at this point in time in US history, in our community, thinking about what does service mean? We’ve had some amazing conversations around that and transforming service to mean something more than like doing a can drive like one time during the semester. And then that’s like the end of it, right? It’s like community really appreciates those donations, but how do you really… I mean, we’re the department of Community and Behavioral Health. Like let’s put the community into it.

Hailey Bomar:

So that has been really stimulating conversation. And I agree with what Redwan said, just kind of applying the things that we talk about all the time in our classes and then bringing them out of the classroom and into how we actually function as people in the world. But then also thinking about where we want to go with that and how we want to enact that in our lives. So I think it’s just a practice and it’s good connection too with both our community and the department primarily, but then other opportunities as well.

Rachel Bryant:

Kind of going off what Hailey said about her association, ESA kind of follows the same lines for building a support system within our department. So again, the pandemic was really hard on a lot of us and classes can be hard if you have no one to lean on or kind of share ideas or study with. So again, we kind of want to follow that this year of building more connections. So we think it’s really important that people get out there so they have, again, that downtime other than just study, study, and just focus on that. That they can come out to like some socials that we’ll be putting on.

Rachel Bryant:

So we’ll be having like an event at that pocket soon just to kind of wind down from the first week of classes. And we have pumpkin carvings planning in this fall. So a lot of events just to feel like more relaxed and be happy that we’re public health student. And just another way to like familiarize with the city. So we invite a lot of first years out to things so that they can get to know Iowa city since some of them, this is like their first time living in Iowa city. So it’s really important to like make those connections and be like, “Hey, do you want to come to the farmer’s market with me this morning?” And just kind of explore the area.

Laura Olds:

So I echo what a lot of you have already mentioned, but I think having that sense of community is huge, especially since many of the programs at the College of Public Health are so short. So getting involved early, because time just goes so fast is really important. I think that’s why you should be involved in any organization. Specifically to get involved in a leadership position, I think the reasoning is a little bit different. At least it was for me. I think it’s really important to always give back to leaders that before and who will come after.

Laura Olds:

Just setting them up for success and kind of just feeling like I do my part. So the program, our department and ISAHL can continue to move forward. I think is really important to me and that’s why I decided to get involved with a leadership role.

Lexi Fahrion:

Yeah. Going on with all that, for the ambassador programs specifically, I know I got involved because for me, I feel like college and even more so grad school is a place for growth and developing skills. And I think that can happen in and out of the classrooms. So that’s why I’ve loved getting involved in the College of Public Health is because I’ve been able to develop so many skills that are tangible, that I’m going to be able to take with me into my career. So that’s one of the reasons I’d encouraged anyone just to get involved in any organization, specifically in the ambassador side of things. We’ve all recognized in this past year and a half, two years, that public health communication is essential and the public health workforce is essential.

Lexi Fahrion:

So if you want to be a part of learning and developing great public health communication and recruiting and reaching out to the next generation of public health professionals, I think this is definitely the place for you.

Alex Murra:

It’s so hard going after all of these answers and like, what can I add to it? But I kind of a lot of the same, community aspect yet that network kind of sometime to maybe grow your skills and professionalism. I know that coming into graduate school, I once interested in maternal health, but I didn’t really know what that meant or like what my role could be. So joining student organizations was a way to kind of dip my toes into things and see what I really liked and get to know people, so networking.

Alex Murra:

Also, I think that when you join a student organization, no matter what it is, it’s a good opportunity for you to really talk to people and see a lot of different viewpoints. So for example, our SIG has people who are on epi, people who are in CPH and each person also brings their own viewpoints and their own perspectives. So it’s really nice way to get to know those. The things that you might not have thought about before.

Hailey Bomar:

Yeah. So off of all of that, I think that when you go to college or you start a program, they really throw a lot of information at you with a bunch of different organizations. And I think it can be really overwhelming. And so, although I agree with what everyone has said thus far, I think it’s really important for listeners to know that it’s totally okay to not feel like you need to jump in right away. I would encourage everyone to take their time and educate themselves, find your passions, figure out what your class load is like. And with all those collectively it’ll steer you in the right direction of what you want to join.

Hailey Bomar:

And for me personally, it took me years to get the courage, to join a group or even apply for a leadership position. So I understand that overwhelming part of it. But once you do put yourself out there, even just start by going to the CPH noon seminars or whatever they are, you get connected with the right people. And you’ll quickly find something that you’re interested in.

Emma Meador:

Well, thank you. That was great guys. I couldn’t have said it better than myself if you all had such good points. So thank you. And then the last question I have is what is one thing you thought you knew but were later wrong about?

Redwan Bin Abdul Baten:

Well, I can answer that question in two levels. On a personal level I mean joining a PhD program you hope to become wise, but four years afterwards I feel lesser than that. So that’s one aspect of it. At a different level, being an international student myself I was kind of skeptical that I didn’t have a clear picture about being active in student organizations about how well am I going to do, or am I going to be able to work properly. But at a university I’ve worked in several organizations over the past few years, I have found a great environment, a very inclusive and very inviting. Everyone has been very cooperative. And I have learned so much from everyone around me, leadership skills and everything else. So it has been an idea that I had, but it has definitely changed over the past few years.

Hailey Bomar:

When I started grad school. I really thought that if I was struggling, I shouldn’t let anyone know. And I should just like kind of try to hack it out myself and my mom who went to grad school in the eighties was like definitely don’t tell anyone. But I have felt so supported in the College of Public Health and especially in our department by our faculty and also the students. And so some of the best friendships that I made my first year, where when I just reached out in our departmental group chat and said, “Is anyone else struggling with [inaudible 00:22:41]?” And then suddenly I had like 20 friends. So I think there’s nothing wrong with letting people know that you feel like you’re struggling. It will help you get the right resources. So don’t hold back.

Rachel Bryant:

For me, I will start personally. So kind of an undergrad in graduate school, I learned you can’t take on everything. So I’m one of those people who like, I want to join this and this and this, but it kind of strains you and then you end up burning out a little bit. So definitely I recommend prioritizing your activities, prioritizing your life, kind of putting the time in where it most needs it with academics, of course, being the central. But that’s a little bit that I’ve learned over the past few years. And then for this program specifically, when I came in, I was nervous about talking to my professors.

Rachel Bryant:

Then during the orientation, they were like, feel free to like reach out to us, even if they’re like really high in the department; like, Dean Parker is very welcoming and I’m pretty sure you can email her and she would respond back. But I emailed my department head with questions. And even though I know she was really busy, she always took time to respond to me. So I don’t recommend like flooding them with emails. Because if you want to talk to them or maybe you’re interested in like the same research they’re doing definitely reach out to people in the College of Public Health because everyone seems very welcoming to their students.

Laura Olds:

I think one thing that I thought I knew, but was later wrong about was I viewed the university of Iowa as a really big pond and that we were really, really small fish in it, especially coming from a smaller undergraduate institution. And I learned that while the university of Iowa is a really big organization and entity. The fact of the matter is that in the College of Public Health, you can be a big fish in a small pond that is part of a larger pond, if that makes sense.

Laura Olds:

So that was really comforting to know that just because you are at this massive university, that’s partnered with a larger healthcare organization, you can still make a difference or at least be highly involved in the decisions that are being made here on campus.

Lexi Fahrion:

I want to echo everything that’s been said so far. I think that’s all like really great advice. For me personally and within this organization, I think that I’ve learned that you should definitely speak out if you have an idea that you think is worthwhile or you think that something could be done better. I think that before I was a little bit worried on maybe stepping on people’s toes or I kind of just went with the mindset of how this is how it’s always been. So it’s going to continue to be this way, but just on a couple of random ideas, I know I spoke my mind and I was really hard and people acknowledged that maybe we could change it and now we’re on the way to changing those things.

Lexi Fahrion:

So I think that I learned that I should just not be afraid to voice my opinions and my ideas. And I think that’s a really good skill I’m going to take away from this position.

Alex Murra:

Yeah. One of the things that I learned a lot in grad school was that it is okay to struggle and fail occasionally. And that failure is not always a terrible thing. I had a mentor one time tell me that, you have the CV that you’re putting on all your sparkly accomplishments on, but if you actually also have a CV with all your failures, he was like, “Well, mine would be like 15, 20 pages long.” I said, “Oh, you’re such an accomplished researcher, how can that happen?” But for every missed internship or even like within the organization, like failures with organizing it you do learn a lot. And I would say don’t just freak out about the failure and then like tuck it away and never think about it again. Like actually you can grow from it a lot. So that’s one of the things I’ve learned a lot during grad school.

Alexis Clark:

So coming from someone who’s never held a leadership position before this and in my undergraduate career, I really put myself out there. I think my perspective of what being a good leader, what that meant was really initially very skewed. I often thought that good leaders were super knowledgeable. They knew exactly what to do, what to say and how to get people from point A to point B. I think this is a lot like how a kindergartner views being the line leader. Like totally front and center, no one’s going to stop you like the line leader was it. And then you get to middle school and you realize that the back of the line is where it’s at. Like that’s where all the energy is. And so over time, I think I’ve really come to realize that as a leader, you should focus on educating yourself and grasping the opinions and ideas and perspectives of everyone. And it’s okay to not know at all. It’s okay to fail a little bit even sometimes because collectively as a team, you will get to your goal much quicker than if the leader has a tunnel vision.

Emma Meador:

That’s great. Thank you guys so much for sharing. You all had wonderful and honest things to say. I know a lot of students will be able to relate and appreciate both on a personal and professional levels. So thank you. And that is it for today. So thank you guys so much for tuning in and we will see you next time.

Alexis Clark:

Thanks for having us.

Speaker 9:

That’s it for our episode this week, big thanks to our seven student leaders that joined us today. This episode was hosted and written by Emma Meador and edited and produced by Alexis Clark. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and SoundCloud. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support the podcast, please share it with your colleagues. Our team can be reached at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode was brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Stay happy, stay healthy, and keep learning.