In this episode of ‘Plugged In to Public Health,’ Lauren welcomes Harry Bui, a Master of Public Health student in epidemiology at the University of Iowa, to talk about finding your path in public health and why that path does not have to be linear.

Harry shares how he began college interested in science education and medicine before an introductory public health course shifted the way he thought about health and healthcare. He discusses his transition into epidemiology, his interest in clinical diagnostics and health equity, and how research helped him see the connection between community needs and academic work.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Lauren Lavin:

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Plugged In to Public Health. One of the hardest parts about being a student is feeling like you’re supposed to already know exactly where you’re headed. But as today’s guest shows us, sometimes the most interesting career paths come from being willing to change direction, ask questions, and follow the opportunities that spark your curiosity.

Today I’m joined by Harry Bui, a Master of Public Health Student in epidemiology at the University of Iowa. Harry started college thinking he might become a science teacher and eventually attend medical school, but an introductory public health course opened up an entirely new direction. Since then, his path has included epidemiology, community-engaged research, the University of Iowa Mobile Clinic, and the university’s Innovation Fellows program. He’s now exploring how public health medicine, technology, and diagnostics might come together in his future career.

In this episode, we talk about navigating a career path that is not always linear, finding mentors, getting involved in research, and why simply reaching out to people can open up more doors than a student might expect. Harry also shares his plans to apply for Fulbright and what he hopes to continue learning as he finishes his MPH.

I’m Lauren, and if it’s 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. So let’s get plugged into public health.

Plugged Into Public Health is produced and edited by students at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student host, guests, and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Thank you so much, Harry, for being on the podcast today. To start, can you just introduce yourself, who you are, where you’re from, and what you’re doing at the University of Iowa?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, first off, thank you for having me. My name’s Harry Bui, of course, and I am a second year at the University of Iowa doing my Master’s of Public Health in epidemiology. I’m from Sioux City, Iowa.

Lauren Lavin:

I’m from Sioux Falls, so Sioux City was never too far away.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I’ve been there a couple of times. It always seemed cool-ish, I think.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, we think we’re better than Sioux City, but you guys might think the opposite.

Harry Bui:

[inaudible 00:01:57] perspectives.

Lauren Lavin:

And where did you do undergrad?

Harry Bui:

I actually went here.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Harry Bui:

I came here about four years ago now, I think.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah.

Harry Bui:

And I started in 2023, and I did the undergrad to graduate program here. [inaudible 00:02:10] accelerate-

Lauren Lavin:

That’s what my next question was going to be, yeah, undergrad to grad, because that means you can do undergrad and master’s in five years total, right?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I think yeah you can do five years, but I had enough credits coming in that I was able to do it in four, which is fun. Yeah, so being able to graduate with all my friends still is a cool feeling.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, that is really cool. So what originally drew you to science ed when you started and then graduating with science studies, and what did you think you would do with that degree when you started?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, initially I thought I was going to be a science teacher in high school, and obviously that did not turn out like that. I still love teaching, and that’s kind of why I switched over to the science studies. It’s more of a educational degree, but without the certifications for a K through 12 endorsement.

Lauren Lavin:

Interesting.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, so I actually coming in was a science ed and pre-med. My thought was I was going to work as a teacher for a few years and then go to medical school.

Lauren Lavin:

Where is science studies housed in?

Harry Bui:

It’s a bit complicated. It’s advised through the College of Ed, but it’s housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. And then what are you supposed to do with that? Because you said it’s an education degree, but not with a K-12 endorsement. So what would be the end goal of people in it?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, so most people that are in it like to do something in teaching, not in the classroom. So whether that be working in museums or outdoor nature type of stuff.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, so that’s really cool. Getting just the broad educational pedagogy, the theory with that has been interesting and be able to apply that to future studies has been great.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. Okay, so you were science ed-ish and pre-med.

Harry Bui:

Correct.

Lauren Lavin:

And now where are you going to end up today and what was your thought process with that?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, currently I think I’m hoping to do a Fulbright for a year and do another master’s program, and then hopefully go to medical school. And after that, we’ll see where it takes me. But I’m interested in ophthalmology and being able to do stuff with tech, public health, more broad-based things that can help with specifically diagnostics.

Lauren Lavin:

There is even a lot to unpack there. Can you explain to listeners what Fulbright is?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, so a Fulbright is a national scholarship that allows you to go abroad for a year or more depending on what program you’re applying to. And within the Fulbright, there are teaching scholarships, there’s study scholarships, which is basically for you to go to get a master’s. And then, there’s also research where you create your own research study and do it abroad with a faculty mentor. So yeah, with that, I am looking specifically at the study program, hoping to do a Master’s of Science in Medical Technology at the University of Southampton in the UK.

Lauren Lavin:

Have you ever been to the UK?

Harry Bui:

I have not. I’m looking forward to it though. I’ve heard a lot.

Lauren Lavin:

I love it. It’s one of my favorite places. When I was looking for undergrad, I really wanted to go to Oxford. And I made it through a fair bit of the interview portions before I ended up back at University of South Dakota, but very cool educational system over there and it’s lovely. So that would be so fun.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I think talking with people there now, it’s been really cool. And I think I want to do something with teaching, too. So one of the components of the application process is proposing a community engagement piece, and I think it would be cool to go work in the K-12 system there and do something more outreach, science ed outreach. So yeah, even talking with them beforehand, they’re really excited about that and really want to do that. Knock on wood, if I get it, then hopefully I’ll be doing that in the future.

Lauren Lavin:

Would that be next year?

Harry Bui:

That would be next year.

Lauren Lavin:

Wow. Crazy. What a fun year to look forward to.

Harry Bui:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. So I read something that said that you mentioned, or in it you mentioned that the Intro to Public Health changed the direction you wanted to take academically. What was it about that course that clicked for you?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I think very basically just learning about social determinants of health was like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” I thought that… Actually, I don’t even know what I thought.

I felt like just learning about it in general was really cool to understand the underlying mechanisms of why people are falling into these traps in the healthcare system and overall just health in general. I think doing some projects and just being able to research, watch videos about a variety of different things that people are going through has been really interesting and how we can actually attack that to make the overall healthcare system better.

Lauren Lavin:

Public health definitely incorporates so many different aspects of health and so many different fields all under one house. If you are interested in a lot of different things, I think public health is very attractive as a field.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, and I think that’s exactly another reason why it drew me towards it. Because I changed my major a lot, I think, during undergrad. And even now, so I’m like, “Oh, actually this part of something might be a little bit more interesting.” I mean even going with the MPH, too. Originally I was a policy and then I switched over to epi. Very broad, very good application basis.

Lauren Lavin:

The fact that we make 18-year-olds pick what they want to do for their whole life is crazy to me, because we don’t know. When you’re 18, you just have to figure it out. And so, I think college is such a good ground for that. You can do that pretty safely and effectively if you want to explore lots of different things.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I think definitely having the right mentors has been great, being able to explore all the different options in college.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely. You went from discovering public health to deciding policy and then epi was the area you wanted to pursue. How did you decide between all of those things?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I initially went on epi because I really liked, obviously, the policy, being able to do stuff on a really broad aspect, working with law and being able to do that type of work. But then, I just decided I actually really like the research design, and I figured that if I could do the research design, I can also do policy as well. So we can implement both ideas into one.

So within epidemiology, I really like clinical care, especially clinical diagnostics. I think with the research I’ve been doing with community members, a lot of them are saying how they don’t understand a lot of these healthcare terms and conditions that they may or may not have. I think it’s been really interesting to be able to talk with them and try to see what study designs we can work with them to figure out how can we actually figure this out and get them diagnosed so that they can start getting the care that they need?

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. Epi can ask some pretty big questions.

Harry Bui:

Oh, yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

[inaudible 00:08:44] you find the answers. So what experiences outside of maybe the classroom settings helped confirm that epi was the right path for you for a master’s?

Harry Bui:

Two biggest ones I’m thinking of is research, of course. I worked with Dr. Martha Carvore and she was an infectious disease doctor who actually got her PhD here and her medical degree here as well in epidemiology. So I think she’s been great at being able to think of ways I can get more involved and think about the things I’m doing and how that can apply to my academic studies.

So yeah, I think the community engaged work that we’re doing right now has been really interesting. I think a lot of the community members that we work with have been great at really detailing their experiences and how they think the healthcare should be better. And so being able to combine both sides of more of the academic fields [inaudible 00:09:37] and the community members has been good.

And the second thing I think is the mobile clinic here. I’m pretty involved with the University of Iowa Mobile Clinic, which is a free medical clinic that we have 12 spaces around Iowa City and some satellite locations where we can just bring them care. We were able to do some diagnostics. We have a provider there. We have a variety of specialty services such as neurology, PT, exercise, et cetera. So that’s been really interesting, too, being able to give them the care because some of the things that we talk about in public health is transportation issues is a huge thing. Bringing the healthcare there has been great.

Lauren Lavin:

The mobile clinic sounds really interesting. We should probably do a podcast episode on that. There’s student involvement and then provider involvement from the university?

Harry Bui:

Yeah. So everybody that’s a part of the clinic is all volunteer basis. I think right now our list is up to 200, 300 volunteers.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh my gosh.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, it’s huge. So that’s been really cool. But we have faculty providers within family med, emergency, OB GYN sometimes. And everybody just volunteers their time because they want to help the people around our community.

Lauren Lavin:

Incredible.

Harry Bui:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

That sounds like a really unique experience to be involved in. A lot of students like the idea of being involved in something like research, but maybe don’t know where to start. So how did you get involved in research, and what have you learned from working in that environment? And do you have any advice for students who want to get into research as an undergrad?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I think first step probably was just cold emailing. It’s scary, but that’s kind of what has to be done.

Lauren Lavin:

The worst that can happen is they say no or don’t respond, right?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, it’s fine. You have a template, you send it out, but you also want to be more specific with what professors you want to do stuff with. So originally, I started off in a biochemistry lab actually in the first couple years, and I decided what lab probably isn’t for me. And then I wanted to find something else more applicable to public health, so that’s where I found my PI. And again, that was just cold emailing. I had interest in health equity, health policy, health epidemiology, so I just emailed her and she was like, “Yeah, let’s have a meeting. Let’s talk.”

So that was really cool. And I think maybe some tips to actually get involved is, specifically if you’re a first gen student, there’s a first gen website where we have faculty mentors and within the mentor network, I think that, again, it’s a pretty big network. It’s upwards of 100, 200-ish of faculty and staff that would just want to help any first gen student. So if you just email them saying, “I’m a first gen student, I want help in…” whatever it may be, that’s one great way to do it. But also just look up what are you interested in, trying to find out what are some topics or some things that people are doing around campus that you might want to get involved in, and just email them.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah.

Harry Bui:

Sometimes, even showing up to their office, though I would [inaudible 00:12:28]

Lauren Lavin:

No, I think that’s really great advice. And I think our students, sometimes we know that there’s so many people around us that are willing to help, but we forget that they are willing to help and that there are so many opportunities if you just reach out, whether you’re first gen or you have a certain culture or ethnicity, there’s lots of groups around that or a specific career goal. There’s so many different groups that would be willing to connect you to where you want to go if you reach out and ask.

Harry Bui:

Yeah, and I think that’s kind of why I fell in love with Iowa. Everybody was just so nice and just wanted to talk. I think that really made my first and second year here really fun and really a great learning experience because everybody wanted to talk.

Lauren Lavin:

So now you’re also an innovation fellow. Can you talk about what that role involves and how it fits into your longer term plan?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, so the innovation fellow is through the Office of Innovation, and that is a group of graduate students, whether it be PhD fellows after medical school, also master’s programs. But within that, we have workshops every month, and with that we get to meet a lot of the lead innovators within the state, but also just nationally, too, and see what type of things they’re doing in order to improve and even start up a business. So we had a two-day workshop right before school started. That was really cool. And then we have another two-day workshop coming up in the winter where we’ll learn how to make a pitch deck and actually pitch something to the Office of Innovation who are obviously in the weeds of this.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. I also was an innovation fellow, and I really enjoyed that experience. It connects you to a lot of people and it gives you a lot of really practical skills like that winter workshop that you’re talking about. So how did applying for the innovation fellows and now doing it, how does it serve your greater career goals?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, I think I’ve really had a better understanding of entrepreneurship in business. Because before this, I knew nothing about it. I took no business classes, none of that realm of things. So at first, it was confusing learning about what are the different, even just the terminologies within that.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, it’s like another language, some of that.

Harry Bui:

Oh, yeah. Some people are talking about IPOs and, “Yeah, okay.”

Yeah, no, that’s been cool. But I think overall, I would be able to apply this to a future career, being able to be an innovator, be able to create something that really could help the patients that we’re trying to serve. And again, my big thing is diagnostics, so being able to create a technology that hope it can get something done in the fields would be great. I really like point-of-care devices. Again, being able to go to them and do stuff there rather than them having to come to a clinic and take their time out of their day.

Lauren Lavin:

Incredible. Okay. So as you’re looking back, what were the moments along your path so far that have felt maybe uncertain or non-linear?

Harry Bui:

All of it. I mean, I think it was hard because coming into college, I was more of that person that really had a five-year plan already coming into my freshman year. And I was like, “This is what I’m going to do. I cannot stray away from this or else my life is going to be messed up. I’m not going to be able to get into medical school after I’m done with teaching, et cetera.”

Yeah, I think it’s hard, but I really had to take a step back and really try to learn about what I actually like doing, what I actually want to do. So within that, I really explored different majors. I explored different pre-professional pathways, too, and it was hard. There were some weeks actually where I was just in a slump. I was like, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m stressing. I’m spending all this money on school and for what?”

But I think, again, having really good mentors has been really good at grounding me and figuring out that I am here to learn and that’s what I should do.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. I’m on my fifth year of my PhD and ninth year of then post-high school education, and I sometimes still feel like that, “What am I doing and why am I still here?”

I’m glad that you can work through that, and obviously I have, too. I just want to remind students that it’s very normal to feel that at whatever stage, and even just sometimes you just have a few days where that feels like that’s just where you’re at.

Harry Bui:

Yeah. Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

What advice would you then give to students who are interested in public health but maybe don’t come from a traditional public health background?

Harry Bui:

I sound like a broken record, but just reach out to the professors. I think just having a small talk with them, small interview with them about why public health, why epidemiology, why policy, why environmental health, that’s the best advice I’d be able to give. I think learning from the people who are directly in the weeds of this, who are actually practicing has been great.

I think when I first took the Intro to Public Health class, or is it Fundamentals, whatever the undergrad level one was, that’s the only class I took in public health before I committed to the M`aster’s of Public Health, which was scary. But I was like, “I really do think this is going to be great,” and full [inaudible 00:17:30].

So I sent the application in, got in, so that was great. But yeah, I think talking to Tricia Kitzman, who was the professor for that class, was also… It was just great to learn about and see why this actually fits into my career and how she really likes it. Yeah, I think that’s probably the biggest thing I can give.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, no, I think that’s great. I agree. It’s just reaching out to people. If you find a nugget that you’re interested in, try to just dig a little bit more and see what’s behind it, because I think that’s how you can find people and change your path.

Harry Bui:

Yeah. And I think public health is so broad that you can do literally anything within it, even thinking-

Lauren Lavin:

It touches everything.

Harry Bui:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Whatever you want to do, there’s a public health aspect to it, I can almost guarantee.

Harry Bui:

Yeah. I’m thinking about my background, I’m like, “Oh, I’m more of a science person.” You can literally do metabolomics within public health. I was like, “Oh, that’s cool. Not my cup of tea, but that’s cool.”

Lauren Lavin:

I don’t even know what that is, but I know a lot of policy stuff and that can be part of public health, too.

Harry Bui:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely. Okay. Final question to wrap up today. What are you hoping to explore in this last year with your MPH, your fellowship, and I don’t know, in the coming years?

Harry Bui:

Yeah, overall, hoping to just learn. I think I want to take a year or so to just learn about what I like doing, what are the things that are actually needed within the community, within the world, and hopefully travel maybe. I think that’d be fun. Hopefully if I do the Fulbright, I’m sure I’ll learn a ton from there. And getting into med school, I think that would also be a great thing to learn about how to actually take care of the patients.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely.

Harry Bui:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

I think you have a couple of fun years coming up regardless of what you do. Thank you, Harry, so much for taking time to chat with me today. I really appreciate it.

Harry Bui:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

And I’m excited to hear how this rest of the year goes for you.

Harry Bui:

I’ll keep you updated.

Lauren Lavin:

Thank you so much.

Harry Bui:

Of course. Thank you.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s it for our episode this week. A big thank you to Harry Bui for joining us today. One of my biggest takeaways from this episode was that figuring out exactly what you want to do does not necessarily mean choosing one path and sticking with it. Harry’s experience shows how exploring different interests can actually help build a career that connects all of them together.

In his case, that meant bringing together science education, epidemiology, medicine, community engagement, and innovation with an interest in improving access to diagnostic care. We also heard a piece of advice that came up again and again throughout the episode, reach out. Whether you are interested in research, public health, a particular career, or just trying to figure out what your options are, talking to faculty, mentors, and the people around you that know you can be one of the simplest ways to find your next opportunity.

And perhaps most importantly, it is okay for the plan to change. I say this all the time, and I think it’s really true, and Harry brought it up again today, college and graduate school are places to learn not only about a field, but also about yourself and the kind of work you actually want to do and what you want your life to look like.

So this episode is hosted and written by Lauren Lavin and then produced by Lauren Lavin. 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 our podcast, please share it with your colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. If you 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 as always, take care.