Recent College of Public Health grads and “From the Front Row” contributors Luke Sampson and Megan Pospisil say goodbye and share their experiences as students, podcasters, and a little about what they’ve learned along the way.

Alexis Clark:

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to From the Front Row, brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. My name is Alexis Clark, and if this is your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student-run 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’re excited to celebrate two of our graduating From the Front Row hosts, Megan Pospisil and Luke Sampson. Both are graduating with their Master’s of Public Health in Epidemiology and have made substantial contributions to this podcast.

Luke Sampson:

Thanks for having us.

Alexis Clark:

Luke and Megan, normally you are the ones asking the questions, but today I’ll be asking you the questions so I’m sure this might be a little odd. But can you tell us a little bit about yourselves, your background, where you’re from, where you did your undergraduate degree at, and ultimately, why did you choose Iowa, and why did you choose to pursue a graduate degree in epidemiology?

Luke Sampson:

I guess I can go first on that one, Megan. My name is Luke Sampson. I grew up in a little town called Little Chute, Wisconsin. I came to the University of Iowa for undergrad and I got my BS in Public Health. Eventually, I chose epidemiology because I really enjoyed the idea of population-level health and working with large populations rather than individual level care. Luckily, as far as choosing the University of Iowa, luckily there was a three-plus-two, five-year accelerated program so it would be foolish of me not to continue my schooling at Iowa from undergrad through graduate school. That’s why I ended up staying here for an extra year and getting my master’s.

Luke Sampson:

Megan, what about you?

Megan Pospisil:

I actually also did my undergraduate coursework at Iowa. I’m from Cedar Rapids, not quite as far as Little Chute. I did my undergraduate in chemistry. I got a BA and then I also minored in Spanish. For all of undergrad, I was planning on going to medical school, so after I graduated, I took a year off and actually worked at UIHC as a nursing assistant. The reason that I ended up choosing public health is because I also was more interested in population-level health. I felt like working in a hospital, you see a lot of things that could have been prevented like hypertension, diabetes, stuff like that. That made me a lot more interested in public health and just like epidemiology and how diseases spread and develop.

Alexis Clark:

That’s great. Public health is so broad so the fact that you and Luke can be in the same exact program and have completely different sets of interests, I think is really a neat thing. Luke, what would you say your all-time favorite memory of graduate school has been?

Luke Sampson:

Honestly, it’s hard to put a pinpointed memory that sticks out to me, but I’ll go with a more general answer, and that would probably be hanging out in between classes at the College of Public Health Building and chit chatting with both other students, but also faculty and obviously having, building connections based off of like gossiping about a test or things like that was honestly something I will never forget. It was really cool to meet a lot of interesting people that way. Something else that I think will stick with me for a long time is talking to my peers in graduate school. You have sometimes, at least I do, sometimes I realize, oh my gosh, these people are going to do incredible things and I get to know them right now before they go on to do those incredible things. Broadly, I would say that’s my favorite memory.

Alexis Clark:

That’s a great reflection and hopefully prediction of the future. Megan, what about you?

Megan Pospisil:

I totally agree with that. Honestly, I would probably echo it. I would say probably the homecoming breakfast at first year of grad school. I feel like it was a little awkward because we didn’t really know each other yet so we were all just like, “Oh, we’re in the same cohort. We can sit together.” It was awkward trying to make small talk. But then I think just watching how all of our friendships have developed over the two years, especially even being virtual. I definitely remember being on the phone with the members of my cohort every night for multiple hours.

Alexis Clark:

That’s great. I think the relationships you’re building now and have built are completely a different dynamic than the ones you may have built in undergrad. Turning the table to From the Front Row, how long have you both been involved with the podcast. Luke?

Luke Sampson:

I joined the team in February of 2019. It was right before COVID hit and everything went virtual and everything like that. But I originally joined out of on a whim. I had never done anything like this before in terms of, I don’t want to say performing, but putting my voice out there publicly. I mainly wanted to do it to get myself out of my own comfort zone.

Alexis Clark:

Megan, what about you? How long have you been involved and what initially drew you to the podcast?

Megan Pospisil:

I joined, I think, last fall just because I was a part of Graduate Student Ambassadors and then I also saw that you could opt to be a part of From the Front Row. I think it’s really cool to have a platform for our voices and for public health issues, especially from a student perspective. That is what drew me to it as well.

Alexis Clark:

Going off of that, Megan, what episode has been your favorite to be involved with?

Megan Pospisil:

I think my favorite was probably the first global public health issue that we did where we talked with [inaudible 00:06:21] about what was happening with the End SARS movement. We talked about what was going on in Hong Kong a little bit. I really enjoyed, I didn’t know very much about those issues at all, and then all of a sudden I had to do even my own research to talk about it. I think just having to think about public health on a global perspective to me was really eye-opening.

Alexis Clark:

Luke, what about you?

Luke Sampson:

This was tough to choose one necessarily, but I think one that specifically sticks out to me is the first interview I did during the COVID era. It was a little bit more lighthearted. It was with one of my good friends from undergrad, Daniel Soto. We basically just got to chat about how crazy life was in that moment. It was definitely one of the more unstructured and lighthearted conversations I got to have. It was so lighthearted that we went way over time and had to trim down that episode from an hour to 20 or 30 minutes. But it was really great to just have in that moment of so much uncertainty to have a moment of reflection and, and back and forth with a friend.

Alexis Clark:

Absolutely, I think it’s really great when your life can come full circle and you get to interview and talk with people that you know on a different level versus just public health. Since you guys have been around the block a few times with From the Front Row, how has the podcast changed or developed since you initially joined the team? How do you think you might have personally developed from From the Front Row?

Megan Pospisil:

I think that … okay, Luke’s been a part of it far longer than I have so you probably have more input on how it’s changed and developed. Because when I joined, it was mid-pandemic so everything has been over Zoom the whole time that I’ve been a part of From the Front Row. But I think personally, it’s just been interesting kind of at first. Someone just wrote the script for me, and then I’ve only done a few interviews, but towards the end it was like, I was developing the questions on my own or thinking about, who do we want to interview, who’s a good fit for this, and stuff like that. I think that that’s a really cool skill to have, to be able to say, “I’ve been a part of a podcast and I’ve done a little bit of script writing.” To just be able to have that is cool.

Luke Sampson:

I can speak to some of the changes that I’ve noticed since joining the podcast. A big change that happened right after I joined, obviously, was that we’ve been virtual over a year now, which is just crazy to me. But right before that happened, we got a studio and it was a really exciting time for the podcast. I would say another thing that has changed over time is it’s been really cool to watch more people get involved and different voices get involved from different departments. When I first joined, it was basically, I was the fourth person ever to join basically. So it’s been really cool to see it grow in terms of amount of people that are involved and everything like that. On a personal level, I have gotten very comfortable hearing my own voice on a recording, which sounds a little dumb, but that was something that I was really self-conscious of before. I’m really happy to be comfortable chit chatting and talking professionally to others and being confident in my own voice in that way.

Alexis Clark:

Absolutely. Moving on to some advice that you guys might have for future students or newly admitted students, what advice can you give to students interested in pursuing an MPH in Epidemiology? Megan?

Megan Pospisil:

I would just say, “Go for it.” Honestly, when I chose Epi, I just chose it because, like I said, I had a chemistry background and I knew that I wanted to do something in health, but also with more science focus kind of. I knew I was interested in infectious disease and I feel like when I applied to grad school, when we started, everyone was kind of like, “Infectious disease is dead. Everything’s going towards chronic now.” Then, there was a pandemic, literally six months later. I feel like you should just go for it.

Alexis Clark:

Luke, what about you?

Luke Sampson:

I would mirror what Megan said there. Go for it. Don’t be afraid to try new things and try a lot of things. Obviously, be careful not to overwork yourself. I think that’s a cautionary tale that many people have to live when they go to graduate school. On another more Epi specific point of advice, I would say to try to get two sides of it. Like Megan said, you can get more of the scientific, the biology, the pathology, et cetera side of things. But I would really encourage you to mess around with the more computational or biostatistical side of things and really grow those strings because I think that’s a part of Epi that moving forward after you graduate will make you really stand out if you know how to work in R and SAS and things like that. I’d say focus on both sides, but don’t overwork yourself. Maybe it’s a catch 22.

Alexis Clark:

Going off of that, hindsight’s always 20/20. Is there anything that either of look back and wish you would have done throughout graduate school or maybe wish that maybe you hadn’t done?

Megan Pospisil:

I wish that I would have gotten involved a little bit sooner, which I don’t know, it’s kind of weird, but I think when I started my first year of grad school, I was like, “Oh, I have time. I have time.” But everyone at orientation and everyone who’s a second year told us it goes by really fast, make sure you take advantage of every opportunity. I mean, I wouldn’t say I have regrets. I don’t feel like I missed out on a ton of things, but I would definitely encourage people to just take, have a balance, but take as many opportunities as you feel like you can, because you may not get them again.

Luke Sampson:

I would say, if I could go back in time, I would be a little bit more involved in things within the college. I think I would probably try and attend more of Spotlight sessions and things like that. Just because I realized a little bit too late, that those things are actually super unique and you aren’t going to get those once you leave academia unless you continue on and pursue a Ph.D. or something like that. Something else, and this goes back to my other answer, I wish I would have done a little bit more on the computation side. I feel like I have a really good understanding of biostatistics and certain more hard science and methodology and everything like that and study design. But I think in something I’ll be working on a personal level is messing around with those statistical programs and being able to do that will hopefully be beneficial. But I would say if I could go back, I would probably maybe try and take one more programming course.

Alexis Clark:

Those are both great reflections and brings a different level of insight opposed to advice. But going back to advice, do you have any advice for future From the Front Row team members?

Luke Sampson:

I can take this one first. I would say don’t be afraid to just jump into it. I remember my first episode, I was so nervous. I co-hosted with Steve so it was nice to have somebody who is very comfortable next to me. But generally, I would say don’t be scared to start developing your own questions and finding your own people to reach out to. If you have an idea, share it and work on it because it’s a very open environment. It’s a very welcoming environment and your ideas are always welcome here.

Megan Pospisil:

I feel like I don’t have very much to add to that, but I definitely feel like that’s true and accurate as well. I would say, don’t worry, just go for it. I do think that the people here are very receptive to ideas, even if you’re like, I want to do this type of episode. They’ll be like, okay, cool. Let’s make it happen. I think for sure, just putting yourself out there. I don’t know. I was always the kind of person that was like, “I don’t want it to seem like I’m trying too hard.” But that doesn’t really matter in real life.

Alexis Clark:

I think it’s such a unique platform that not every College of Public Health is offering their students an opportunity with. I definitely feel lucky to have met people like you and people that are just as passionate at public health as I am. Megan, our last question is what is one thing that you thought you knew but were later wrong about?

Megan Pospisil:

I’ve thought about this a lot. It’s a pretty personal answer, but I mentioned a little bit briefly here. I thought I wanted to go to medical school for my whole life until the end of college and then changed my mind. I think you see a lot of people who want to go to medical school, don’t get in, do an MPH and then are still trying to apply and I obviously don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but I definitely am not that person. I definitely do not want to do that anymore. That is definitely something that I was wrong about. But I think I would say, just advice-wise, if you have something that you think you want to do, just go for it. If you change your mind, that’s okay. If it doesn’t work out, that’s okay. It’ll still be okay and you’ll have really good experiences to talk about from it.

Alexis Clark:

I really like that answer. Luke, what about you? What is one thing you thought you knew, but were later wrong about?

Luke Sampson:

Maybe this is a cop out, but I’ll extrapolate everything. I’ve found out that in more ways than one, when you think you know something or you think you know it all, think again because you’re about to learn a whole lot more. That kind of feeds into, I guess, for me personally, and I guess this is kind of also advice. I’ll do what Megan did as well. Imposter syndrome, it’s real and honestly it’s okay, and it’s part of learning if you recognize that maybe you don’t know everything, then you’re going to be a little bit more receptive to learning more. That’s something that I think I’ve developed and learned all throughout graduate school and in college in general.

Alexis Clark:

All right. Well that concludes my questions. I wanted to thank you both for being so involved in From the Front Row. We have been so lucky to have both of you on the podcast and congratulations on graduating. I’m excited to see where you both go off to and do wonderful things.

Luke Sampson:

Thanks, Alexis.

Megan Pospisil:

Thank you so much.

Alexis Clark:

That’s it for our episode this week. Big thanks to both Luke and Megan for coming on the show with us today. The From the Front Row team would like to congratulate all of the 2021 graduates. This episode was hosted, written, 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 Podcast, 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.