Public health grad students stay busy in the summer with internships and practicum projects. This week Anya talks with Madelyn Lemons, Bella Reyes, and Haley Wilson about their their practicum experiences, what they’ve learned, and how they’ve prepared for their careers in public health.

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Anya Morozov:

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to From the Front Row, brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. I’m Anya Morozov, 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 outside the field of public health. Today, I’m here with a panel of students to talk about their practicum experiences this summer. I’ve got Madelyn Lemons, Bella Reyes, and Haley Wilson on the call. For background, the practicum experience is a graduation requirement for all Master of Public Health students in the college, and it’s meant to just be a way for us to apply our professional skills before entering the workforce. So with that in mind and without further ado, welcome to the show, Madelyn, Bella, and Haley. So to start, can each of you please just introduce yourself, maybe including your name, where you’re from, your current department, and just what drew you to study public health?

Madelyn Lemons:

Hello, my name’s Madelyn Lemons. I go by Maddie usually, and I’m from Des Moines, Iowa, so I didn’t have to go very far to go to Iowa City. I am in the occupational environmental health program and I was interested in public health because I wanted to be able to work in the healthcare field without actually having to do the healthcare as a doctor or a nurse. So I wanted to be involved in the health of communities in a more tangential manner than direct, if that makes any sense.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, I can relate to that. I was kind of the same way. All right, Bella.

Bella Reyes:

Hi, my name is Bella. I’m from St. Charles, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago, very far suburb of Chicago. I’m currently in the MPH program in the epidemiology department, and I actually didn’t know about public health until my undergrad, probably my sophomore year, and I was working at the biology undergrad labs and I was lab assistant there just helping set up and tear down labs, and my coworker was getting her PhD in epidemiology, shout out to Liz Jasper, if she listens to this.

Bella Reyes:

But she was really knowledgeable about public health and really told me about it, and then I ended up taking intro to public health class by Dr. [inaudible 00:02:29] and really loved his passion for public health, just really loved public health in general. I started off as pre-pharmacy and I was like, this isn’t really for me. I feel like public health was where I should have been and I had a lot more passion for it. So that’s where I switched into public health, even though I was a global health studies major at the University of Iowa, but yeah, I knew I liked more science and math, so that’s my route to specifically epidemiology.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. It’s always kind of a winding path for sure.

Bella Reyes:

Yeah.

Anya Morozov:

All right, Haley.

Haley Wilson:

My name is Haley Wilson. I was kind of a military brat growing up, but we ended up in Northwest Iowa in a town called Spencer, and I’m in the community and behavioral health department. What drew me to public health was initially in undergrad, I was doing international politics and anthropology and it was kind of like, I don’t want to say the marriage of those two, but public health really has a lot to do with almost anything that you study. So I was very passionate about politics, but I’m terrible at politics, it turns out.

Haley Wilson:

And then anthropology is super deep roots into public health, so it had just kind of seemed like the next step after I had started on a little bit of my career path, I was kind of like, okay, public health might be something to look into, and then as you’re reading books about all these different things, public health is a middle route to a lot of the issues that I was reading about, so that’s what drew me to public health.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. So we have someone who came to it from the social sciences and then a few people who came to it from the health sciences. So moving on, what have you all been up to this summer?

Madelyn Lemons:

Pretty much all I’ve been doing this summer is this practicum project. It’s a lot of work and that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve also been looking for jobs. I have just been writing up papers and collecting information and putting that information together and then writing it and rewriting it and all of that. So that’s most of my summer, nothing too interesting besides moving out of my apartment in Iowa City, which is just really sweaty work in this particular set of weather circumstances we got going on.

Anya Morozov:

So where are you doing your practicum?

Madelyn Lemons:

I’m doing it at the Polk County Health Department. I’m actually in Des Moines right now. My parents, they live in Des Moines, so it’s pretty easy to come back here for that. So it’s been very convenient for me.

Bella Reyes:

This summer, I’ve just also been doing practicum stuff and then also looking for jobs, I’m doing my practicum remotely with the Illinois Department of Public Health, which is also called IDPH and very confusing with being an Illinois resident, but then also being at the University of Iowa, but specifically at the state cancer registry, so that’s what I’ve been doing. Just lots of SEER*Stat data analysis, which if you’ve ever done that, it’s same old thing in and out and you’re just like, okay, what can I stratify by now? So yeah, that’s basically what I’ve been doing and right now, I’m back home visiting my parents and just trying to survive, get past this one last thing so I can officially be graduated.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. Yeah. I think the class where we talk about the cancer registry and epi, by my understanding, is next semester for me. So looking forward to learning more about what you do. All right, we’ll move over to Haley.

Haley Wilson:

So for this summer, it started off in a bit of a whirlwind, and I’m sure Madelyn and Bella can relate to this. After graduation, there wasn’t really a break. You literally started your practicum the very next week. So there wasn’t a time to take a breather. So I was working two jobs initially and then doing the practicum, and then I realized that, I mean, we just don’t really have time. You’re supposed to do 20 hours a week with your practicum and then at my other job, I was doing 20 hours a week, and then at my other job, I was doing 20 hours a week. So I’m like, oh, I should probably decide where to cut the cords. So the job that I left, I was a meat cutter at Fareway, which they’ve been great with the weekly paychecks and stuff.

Haley Wilson:

But it was definitely a job that has something to do with public health because everything has to do with public health, but not really. I was vegetarian for eight years, so I was like [inaudible 00:07:11], but so I ended up giving my two weeks to that job, and then my other job is at the university and with disaster prep wise, it’s like an emergency preparedness CBH job, trying to get elderly people to feel motivated and empowered to prepare themselves for a disaster, should it strike, and so that’s been really wonderful, and then the other part of my summer has been with my practicum, which is with RVAP, which is Rape Victims Advocacy Program.

Haley Wilson:

And they actually live right across the street for me. So I could be remote, I could not be remote and either way, it doesn’t really mess with my daily schedule. It’s been really wonderful, especially since I cut down on my hours because you think that you can handle it and then you slowly start to realize like, oh, I’m a human and I should care about my own health. That’s been what I’ve been up to. So definitely, don’t overestimate your ability with your practicum. You are going to need to put in that work. It’s going to feel like you’re going to a job for sure.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. I think the requirement is 200 hours over the course of your experience, right?

Haley Wilson:

Yeah. So it’s around 20ish hours a week.

Anya Morozov:

If you do it in the summer. Yeah. Well, Haley, I’m glad that you have learned the lesson to take a little more time to be a human. Can you all talk, just for our listeners’ background, a little bit more about the process of doing a practicum from finding one to actually doing the experience and fulfilling all of the requirements?

Madelyn Lemons:

All right. So at least from way I remember it, the first thing you do is you attend this informational seminar. That’s what I did. I actually attended it twice, but you do that and it goes through everything that you have to do for it, and then once you’ve done that, then you can start… Her name’s Jeanie Kimbel. You have to start contacting her about all the types of steps you need to go through. There’s so many of them, I actually forgotten some at this point. You have to get the list of previous sites. You can also go other sites that aren’t currently on there, but you got to get in contact with one of those people, have them agree to work with you, and then you have to get them approved, and then you have to draft a proposal. You have to figure out what you want to do.

Madelyn Lemons:

And there’s a specific set of steps you have to do to get this proposal put together. It’s all on ICON if you want to find it, and you put together the proposal and then you get it approved, and then you can actually work on your project. At least for the summer, my dates were May 17th, July 15th. So you got a set amount of time to finish it, and then once you’re done with your project, you also have to do a report that’s about 15 pages, not including the appendices you attach to it, and then you turn that in the 25th, at least for us, and then you also have to do a poster presentation in front of a lot of different people. So you have to put together this massive poster, detailing exactly what it was you did as your project. You two, please tell me if left everything out because it’s a lot.

Haley Wilson:

No, that was awesome. For me, I think I had a maybe more path driven. So while I was in the master’s program with more of a regular class schedule, I was very used to being a part of the community volunteering for things, or just hanging out with people who are very passionate about volunteering for specific things, and because it was COVID, it was really hard to get involved in those things and since I lived right by RVAP, I had seen the sign up a million times walking to and from courses or just walking for my mental health, I’d see it and I’d be like, okay, noted, and then eventually, I became a volunteer as an advocate there and talking with the volunteer coordinator, who’s actually my co-preceptor, Storm, they had mentioned that there had been a practicum done at RVAP previously.

Haley Wilson:

And that there’s probably certainly a need for one now, just because there is a lot of grants that were put in hold. They got the grants pre-COVID, then COVID hit and now things are picking back up. So I was like, all right. I think I want to do it with this organization that I’m already familiar with. So part of the work is already done and we got it approved by Jeanie and she was very excited about it, and it does take a little bit longer if you have an organization in your head that might not be pre-approved or might not be already on that list, or the person who was a preceptor in previous years are no longer there and they need to get someone approved again. So I think Jeanie had said, if you’re planning on doing your practicum in the summer, start making moves in February-ish just to touch your bases and make sure everyone who’s going to be involved is aware that they’re going to be involved.

Haley Wilson:

But it sounds a little bit intimidating, but it actually moved decently fast and I am always the last person to turn anything in, the last person to meet the deadline, and it still happened for me. So if you’re one of those people, it’s going to be totally fine. I think it was a good process and everyone in the university for the public health college, I feel really wants you to succeed and wants you actually have something that you want to be doing. So it’s not like they’re going to put intentional barriers in your way. They’re not going to be like, no, you can’t work for RVAP. No, that’s a great organization. We definitely want to be a part of it.

Bella Reyes:

So for my practicum, I actually am the first practicum student that they’ve had, at least from the University of Iowa since usually, they partner with probably more local schools like UIC in the city. I actually was going to do it at the state hygienic lab because I’m getting a certificate in infectious disease epidemiology and was going to do it there, but then I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that because it just felt like a safe option or maybe explore my options a little bit more because I was working at the cancer center at the hospital as well, just as a student clerk there. So I was like, okay, I definitely have the infectious disease experience, but maybe I want to explore cancer a little bit more because I was doing clinical trials, which is interesting, but not quite public health.

Bella Reyes:

So I was talking to my advisor, Dr. Charlton, and obviously, she’s huge in the cancer world and she’s like, Hey, Illinois Department of Public Health, they are just getting their feet rolling in the cancer registry with SEER*Stat and whatnot because for a while, it was just Iowa and the Midwest and now Illinois had recently joined. So she connected me with someone at the cancer registry in Illinois and we got talking. We met a couple times just to see, okay, what does a practicum require, what they’re looking for. So kind of like what Haley was saying, and just to reemphasize what everyone has to go through, definitely start the process early if you have a new person and even earlier than you would probably with someone who’s done it before, just so that they really make sure that they know expectations for what I have to do, what the preceptor has to do.

Bella Reyes:

And each deliverable and all that fun stuff, but it ended up working out really well and obviously, we learned SEER*Stat in the epi program, so that’s definitely something relevant and my preceptor is a cancer epidemiologist and he’s super knowledgeable and just really awesome to work with. So it was a process just to make sure everyone was on the same page because I met with the director of the cancer registry, but then she wasn’t my preceptor in the long run. So just making sure that not only is she aware, but also the cancer epidemiologist, and then making sure that they fit everything that Jeanie requires, and yeah. So everything worked out well and it wasn’t like, oh my gosh, we need to get this done or you’re not approved or whatever. It was smooth sailing definitely, and Jeanie helped out a ton and she met with me a bunch too, which is super helpful, but yeah, so it was a lot of little things here and there basically.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. So it sounds like all of you actually had a slightly different path to the practicum that you ended up with, but it was kind of tailored to you. Now, can you each talk a little bit about how your previous experiences and working towards your master of public health degree connects to what you’re doing now in your practicum experience?

Madelyn Lemons:

All right. So my project is about West Nile virus in mosquitoes. So for quite a few years, actually, they’ve been, I think it’s up at Iowa State, the entomology department. They’ve been monitoring mosquitoes to see if they’re infected with different types of viruses, not just West Nile, but other ones.

Anya Morozov:

We actually just did an interview with them.

Madelyn Lemons:

Oh, really? That’s cool. That’s an interesting coincidence, but yeah, the levels were higher than usual and that prompted my project because when I spoke to my future preceptor, she had four different ones I could do. She offered me a choice. I could have done that one or water quality in an area of Des Moines and all sorts of different things. So I just picked the West Nile virus one because I thought that the mosquito borne illnesses were the most interesting because in my most recent class, global water and health, it’s over a whole variety of different topics, but one of my most interesting topics in that class was mosquito and other insect borne diseases. They’re kind of horrifying to look at pictures of them.

Madelyn Lemons:

So I wouldn’t recommend that, but West Nile came up quite a bit in a lot of my other classes and I find the more science-y classes of my public health degree the most interesting. So I thought I would go for a topic that’s a bit more infectious disease science-y than perhaps a different type of project. So basically, I took my experiences for my favorite classes. Jeanie Kimbel actually recommended that you think about what classes you like the best and what parts you like the best of those classes and use that knowledge to pick a project that’s most in line with what you like, so that was what I ended up doing.

Anya Morozov:

That’s good advice.

Madelyn Lemons:

Yeah, definitely.

Bella Reyes:

For my classes, going back again, Dr. Charlton’s public health surveillance class probably best align with this. I am obviously getting all my data from SEER*Stat. So SEER stands for surveillance, epidemiology, and end results program. So it’s a program that collects data on cancer incidents and then all cause of mortality data. So you can get any cancer data from cancer registries that are part of SEER*Stat. So you can look at different types of cancer, you can look at cancer rates by race, ethnicity, you can look at survival. It’s a really great tool for cancer data analysis, and then also for the mortality data, it’s actually all causes of mortality. So not only cancer, but you can look at accidents or violence, injuries, all sorts of stuff like that. So it’s really cool and it’s really user friendly. So you can click a little button for doing rates and then you just pick, oh, okay.

Bella Reyes:

I want to look at Illinois specifically and then from this timeframe, and then it will produce tables for you in the end and then you can easily import that information to Excel and do all sorts of fun things with your data, but yeah, it’s a really great program for specifically cancer incidence data and also just mortality in general. Going back to the classes, Dr. Charlton’s class, we talk a lot about surveillance and different registries. So not only the cancer registries, but all sorts of registries and obviously, data is just everywhere and tons of places collect it. So I thought I really wanted to do something with data analysis because I’ve taken some coding classes, and this last semester, I took Dr. Carnahan’s coding class for SAS and R and that really, it was a hard class, but it really made me interested more in that data analysis sphere.

Bella Reyes:

So I kind of was like, okay, well I have that infectious disease background already, so why don’t I do cancer and make it along the lines of something that has to do with data analysis. So for my project, we’re doing an epidemiology report, which they’ve previously done other reports on, and I do have a background in more social public health and CBH public health doing immigration research. So I also wanted some health equity version to the epi report, so I did screen preventable cancers, specifically breast and cervical to look at how different subpopulations are not getting the screening that they need.

Bella Reyes:

So if certain subgroups have higher rates of incidence for cancer, then maybe other groups aren’t getting the screening that they’re needing, even though they have low incidence rates. It could mean that, Hey, maybe they’re just not getting it and that’s why it’s so low, and then looking at mortality data for breast and cervical then, seeing like, Hey, they have a low incidence rate, but a high mortality so clearly, there’s a disparity there. So that’s where I wanted to tie in my background from research where I’ve done health equity research, and then still get that data analysis and working with data as well from the surveillance class and coding classes as well, so a little bit of everything.

Anya Morozov:

Sounds like a really rewarding and important practicum experience too.

Bella Reyes:

Yeah.

Anya Morozov:

That’s awesome. Haley, what about you?

Haley Wilson:

So prior to doing my master’s degree, I was actually in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa. I completed my two year tour and then just got hired on to do a third year, and then five weeks into that, COVID hit and I was like, oh, this is going to go away in three months so I was like, I’ll just go back to Senegal. The government does not take a long time to fix all this stuff, and then I was very wrong. Left Senegal and was back living with my parents and panicked at my next steps, and then since I was in the health sector for the Peace Corps and it was largely based in community and behavioral health with mostly maternal and childcare, going to get your kiddos taken to get vaccines or going to your prenatal visits prior to giving birth or giving birth, a station that has a skilled birth attendant there.

Haley Wilson:

So I was like, all right, I think that I have a decent amount of experience, at least in the behavioral portion of this part of community health, so I applied to the University of Iowa and got in, and then for my courses, a lot of them really continue to hit the point in different directions several different times to help you understand that there are so many different hurdles for people receiving healthcare other than just lack of money or lack of awareness. There’s all these different, complicated, intersectional issues that we have that get people to intentionally not want to seek healthcare. So for my practicum with RVAP, it’s working with the grant that I was talking about and it’s working with a micro community within Iowa City. It’s the LGBTQ+ population who identify as Latinx and they’re one of the demographics that have the lowest numbers of seeking healthcare post essay.

Haley Wilson:

So that’s what we’ve been working with and something that I love where my Peace Corps background and my academic public health background have collided is just making sure that you go into it knowing that you have no idea why, especially me being a person who’s completely on the outs, I’m not Senegalese, neither am I Latinx. So going in knowing that you are going to be seeking out relationships with people who are a part of that community has been super huge. I think that actually might be my biggest takeaway is that even if I have read a bunch of articles on a specific issue, I am not an expert on that issue and a lot of people’s voices do not get published. So hearing people a part of those communities, that’s super important, but also still participating definitely from the back burner, not being the center voice or anything, but participating and engaging and making sure that if something I have to say is relevant, say it, but…

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. That’s super awesome. It sounds like you’ve all learned a lot from your practicum experiences and it’s tied into your previous experiences and hopefully, you’re able to take this experience and also tie it into wherever you go next. So I’m actually, just because we’re low on time, let’s just go straight to where are each of you going next, or if you don’t know yet, you’re not sure yet, where do you hope to go and what are you looking for in the job search?

Madelyn Lemons:

All right. Well, I hope I’m going somewhere next. My plan is to just get a job. I have a relatively promising interview last week at Des Moines University, which is a local medical school as a research assistant. So I thought that would be a pretty good job to do because I quite like science, not necessarily into the admin side of doing jobs as much, but obviously, if that works out. If not, I’m not sure I’ll keep looking. The Des Moines job market’s not great. Some of the science jobs you’re looking at pay you $15 an hour. So I’m looking at seeing what I can figure out. I mean, hopefully I don’t have to go back to school and do more schooling to get a job somewhere, but that’s possible as well. So I guess just wish me luck on finding something.

Anya Morozov:

I do wish you luck and I believe in you.

Madelyn Lemons:

Thank you.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. Even if you don’t find something right away, I’m sure that if you’re persistent, you’re going to get where you want to be.

Madelyn Lemons:

Thanks.

Bella Reyes:

I also am not in the job market quite yet. I’m looking around definitely trying to get out of Iowa, just because I’ve been here for the past six years in school and hoping to maybe get out in more Western areas, just trying to hopefully get a job at Colorado State Department. That’s one of the places my partner and I really want to move, but obviously, staying flexible to wherever there’s a good opportunity. I do want to try to stay in either local or county public health and try to do something specific within infectious disease or just in epidemiology in general, but obviously, sometimes those epidemiology jobs are slim pickings. They might only have one or two positions open and if the position is good and they’re going to stay in the job until they’re retired. So yeah, just hoping for the best. I’ve been applying here and there and some back near home and other states as well, but just I’m chugging along.

Haley Wilson:

So I can relate to you so much. I feel that. I have actually kind of told myself that… So I’m currently in the process of searching for jobs, but like I said, towards the beginning of the summer, I was working two jobs and doing the practicum and I recently left the meat cutting job that I had, and so I’m still, I think I’m in an exhaustion recovery state almost, but my plan is to not stress myself out too much about the job search, looking for a job that I’ll be satisfied with for two years instead of thinking I’m going to find my career job because it does sound like things are a little bit in flux right now. I know that there was supposed to be a bunch of jobs coming out in July and I’m still looking forward to the job postings, but I’ve decided to make sure that I find something that I can be content with and take a lot of the stuff that I’ve learned in the master’s program from that job.

Haley Wilson:

And then if it’s a good job, if I’m very content and I feel like I can move up, progress, and continue to develop and reflect on everything that I’ve learned at the University of Iowa, that’s fabulous, and if not, that’s okay. Anyone can do anything, almost anything for two years, and so I’m looking forward to that too because that’s just something else that you can throw on your resume and I can do a job that I don’t like that much for two years, and I think that’s important too, but I am definitely very confident that both of you guys can find jobs because I’ve had both of you guys in a lot of my classes and you’re both very impressive. So I know that you guys are going to find a position that’s really good.

Anya Morozov:

Well, that’s some really good advice too, I think just for the job search that I’m going to keep in mind when I’m looking one year from now. It is definitely a scary point to be looking, but I don’t know. When you actually talk to people who are further down the path in their career, a lot of them, I feel like went through this period where they weren’t entirely sure where they were going next.

Haley Wilson:

I don’t know if you guys know Amber, but she just got a job and she’s so excited about it, and I was helping her prep for her interview and her mock intervention that she had to formate before they had their meeting and she got the job, so I keep on thinking about that.

Anya Morozov:

That’s awesome. Congratulations, Amber. Okay. So last, we’re going to ask the question that we ask of all our guests on From the Front Row. What is one thing you thought you knew, but were later wrong about?

Madelyn Lemons:

I thought that going into epidemiology was a good idea. I actually started the MPH in the epidemiology program. I made it a year and then I realized I don’t like math and I’m terrible with computers, and at that point, I was just like, okay, this is probably not a good idea. So I briefly tried get into community health, but then somebody came by and very wisely told me that’s not a good idea either. You should do something that’s interesting to you. Which class was your favorite, and I said the global health class, I really liked that one. I thought it was fun, and she said, you should probably just go to the occupational environmental health program and I look through the classes on there and I thought, well, there’s interesting classes in there. So that’s why I’m in this program. So I’m technically half epidemiology, half occupational environmental health.

Anya Morozov:

I do feel like a lot of the departments do have little bits of overlap, and I’ve heard people who are in epi, but then get a community behavioral health related assistantship or something. So I think that is fairly common. Breaks my heart a little bit that you left epi, but I am glad you found your place in occupational and environmental health.

Madelyn Lemons:

Well, thanks.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. All right. Bella, one thing you thought you knew, but were later wrong about.

Bella Reyes:

Yeah. So one thing I thought I knew was that getting a master’s would be, not the end all be all, but I’m definitely going to know so much information and this is going to be more about learning stuff and getting the knowledge base of public health, but I feel like I’m really wrong and that it just teaches you how to learn and how to use resources to make yourself a better public health professional and that you’re going to be continuously learning no matter what, especially when you’re dealing with infectious diseases, for example. There’s always new information coming out, even just with COVID. You’re constantly learning new things. There’s new developments all the time.

Bella Reyes:

So you just have a really good toolkit to utilize and make yourself be that good public health professional, and I really thought going into it, I’d be learning just knowledge and just using that. Yes, you still do that, but it’s definitely a lot more and you’re always going to be learning. You’re not going to come out of grad school the perfect public health professional. You’re going to be learning all the time and you’re going to mess up and you’re going to keep learning and people are going to be like, Hey, this is a better way to do it and it’s okay.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. You put it into words really well and I feel the same way. When you’re into the program, it’s become more of a primer and a stepping off point than necessarily the end all, be all of I’m a public health expert now. You have people who are decades into their public health careers and they’re still learning new things, but I do think the masters is definitely has been a good primer and still is for me.

Haley Wilson:

Kind of going off what Bella said, it’s almost like you realize how much you don’t know. I’m CBH, I’m community and behavioral health so I assumed that I would be the master of that specific sector, but going into that sector, you need all of the other sectors to actually understand whatever’s being presented. So you have to have an interprofessional relationship with an epidemiologist, with a biostatistician. You’re saying that you’re getting a master’s, but really, you’re getting a lot more questions and then a lot more colleagues to ask those questions to, who might have a better understanding of whatever piece that you’re not understanding because I also am bad at math.

Haley Wilson:

I am probably the worst at math. I can look at a results portion of an article and I can be like, all right, I see that this tested very well in proving this, but a biostatistician can absolutely rip that to shreds and explain to me why the study wasn’t valid or any of those super important parts of public health. So I think something that I was not expecting was the amount of help or the amount of introspection or conversations, or just getting pulled into those different Zoom groups in the core classes that we all have to take where not everyone is going to be in CBH. They’re bringing different thoughts to the table and I was not expecting that, but I’m guessing that’s what happens when you’re in your job. You’re going to be leaning on your teammates a lot more than you realize.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. Especially in public health. I think it’s a very team oriented and community oriented field. So I would almost be worried if you feel like you have all the answers because you should be constantly learning from your colleagues and from your community to do the work that you’re doing. All right. Well, that is past time. Thank you all so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today and thank you for sharing this very honest piece of your learning journey. I really look forward to where you all go next. I’ve learned things from this conversation, so that means you all have great things to share in your future careers. So thank you so much.

Madelyn Lemons:

Aw, thank you.

Bella Reyes:

Yeah. Thank you.

Haley Wilson:

Thank you, Anya.

Anya Morozov:

And that’s it for our episode this week. Big thanks to Maddie, Bella, and Haley for joining us today. This episode was hosted, written, edited, and produced by me, Anya Morozov. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook and 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, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode was brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Until next week, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.