MPH in Epidemiology Information Session
Description of the video:
00:05
hi i'm thomas diezinski i'm director of
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epidemiology education at the richard
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M. fairbanks school of public health
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here at iupui
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and i want to take this time to tell you
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a little bit more about not only our
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department
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but the world of epidemiology as it
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relates to our program and the masters
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of public health degree
00:28
so epidemiology itself
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is really the study of patterns and
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trends
00:33
within a population and it could be
00:36
disease that's what most people think
00:37
epidemiology is all about but it could
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also be about trends in health
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or access to care right so it's a much
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broader field where we're looking at
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trends in a population always associated
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with the population as opposed to the
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individual right
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so epidemiology is the science of public
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health right you have to think of it
00:58
like biology or chemistry well
01:00
epidemiology is that science piece as
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well because it informs and operates
01:06
within the other disciplines of public
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health right it helps inform social and
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behavioral sciences it helps inform
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environmental health it helps inform
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health policy and management and so on
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right
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obviously
01:20
you know especially now in a pandemic
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epidemiology plays an important role in
01:26
disease occurrence and surveillance
01:28
right trying to understand who's at risk
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for a disease um
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who's most likely going to suffer severe
01:37
disease as compared to somebody who
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doesn't right
01:40
so we're measuring disease impact
01:43
and disease transmission and causation
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of disease risk factors
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what tests work right so epidemiology
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can evaluate the testing methods or
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protocols that we're using to detect
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cases of disease
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and then as interventions go into place
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right so like wearing masks
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or vaccinations we can evaluate the
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effectiveness of those programs within
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the population as well
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and all of this goes to informed policy
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right so we want to use and we try to
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use evidence-based policy
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and legislation
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when we can but where does that evidence
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come from well it comes from
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epidemiology
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so our curriculum has been really
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redesigned over the past several years
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to be very
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or to mimic if you will what goes on in
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the real world um
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one of the biggest things that we've
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done uh as well as a lot of other
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schools in public health have is
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recognize that we don't operate in silos
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right we can't just operate in the
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epidemiology silo and then there's a
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social behavioral science silo or a
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health policy management silo or
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environmental health silo or
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biostatistics right we used to have
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individual core courses for all five of
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those disciplines
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and we recognize that's not how the
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world works right you can't take the
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people out of epidemiology in other
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words the social behavioral piece became
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really important in epidemiology as did
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the biostats piece so what we've done is
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do away with those five core courses
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and
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kind of mush them together into an
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integrated core classes so
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um the what you see here is the
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curriculum is a total of 45 credit hours
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for a master's degree in public health
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uh
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the first four classes that every mph
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students regardless of their discipline
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or concentration whether that be or
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social behavioral sciences everybody
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takes these four core classes right so
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the introduction to public health itself
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a lot of students don't necessarily come
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in with a public health background
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so we have to kind of get everybody up
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to speed
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uh in that first semester you'd also
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likely take comprehensive methods and
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application in biostatistics and
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epidemiology
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biostatistics and epidemiology really go
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hand in hand with one another
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and
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even if you're not
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an epidemiology student you still have
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to understand biostatistics and
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epidemiology in those other sciences as
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well
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we also then in the second semester take
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program planning evaluation and
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management right so how does all that
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information in epidemiology that we've
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uncovered and discovered
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how does it get applied right
04:32
application to the human population or
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its translation
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is really really important
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and then finally
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and i'm really excited that we added
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this course communication leadership
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we've never really formally taught
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leadership or communication in public
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health yet
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many of our students go on into
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leadership roles
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within their agencies so this this gives
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them a foundation of how to become a
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good leader and to communicate
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effectively
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so that adds up those four classes add
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up to 12 credit hours
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once you complete those four core
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classes you're eligible to do an
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internship
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all right and for epidemiology students
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this means that we want you working in
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some capacity as an epidemiologist
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we have you work about 240 hours uh with
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an agency
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um
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and there's a lot of flexibility as uh
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you know when those hours can actually
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occur because i know some people have
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full-time jobs or part-time jobs
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as well as going to school so try to
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work an internship in we try and be as
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flexible as we can
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one of the things we definitely do with
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our
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internship is we don't
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require you to complete it in a single
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semester uh that is a lot of work
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especially for those uh working uh
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professionals already so what we tell
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you is like you register for it in one
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semester
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and if it spills over into the next
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semester no problem we don't charge you
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again uh you just keep working the
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internship until you reach those 240
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hours
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once you complete the four core classes
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you're also eligible then to start
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taking some of the concentration classes
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in epidemiology so this is where
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the concentrations kind of separate
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right everybody takes those four core
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classes everybody does an internship
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but as an epidemiology student you're
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going to be taking other classes that
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the other students won't be taking so
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for example
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one of the biggest classes that we think
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is really important
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for our students is the fundamentals of
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data management right data drives the
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world these days
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uh and and where does all this data come
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from right well it could come from a
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multitude of sources so we have to
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figure out a way how can we manage all
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this data uh using a uh analysis system
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or a software system that will help us
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integrate that so we could analyze it
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right
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so data management really important uh
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second as a epidemiology student as i
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said previously biostatistics and
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epidemiology really go hand in hand we
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can't separate the two out so we're
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going to give you more advanced
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biostatistics
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we have a wonderful professor that
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teaches this
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he does an excellent job had spent many
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many years
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working for eli lilly in practice so he
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brings this kind of real world
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application into the classroom
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and i realized that you know sometimes
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math can
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really
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produce anxiety in students
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but i assure you that one our professor
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is great at explaining it
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uh too that there's always help
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available right uh either through the
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professor or a teaching assistant
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to kind of help you get through
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those assignments and make sure you
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understand the material
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you also take advanced epi methods in
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other words write that
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comprehensive methods in epidemiology
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and biostatistics is kind of the
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introduction of it but as an
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epidemiology epidemiology student
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we want you to go a little bit deeper
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into the material
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and getting more epidemiological
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training
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as part of your degree program
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also a new discipline in public health
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informatics
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is really kind of taking hold across the
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country many many health departments are
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now hiring informaticians
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so we recognize the importance of
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informatics so
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all the epidemiology students are going
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to be taking the foundations of public
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health informatics
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now the the last three courses listed
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there applied methods one applied
08:45
methods two and final project
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depends on which curriculum you're
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enrolled in if you're in the
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face-to-face curriculum we have you
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enroll in applied epi methods one
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um in like the fall semester and then
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you take applied epi methods too and
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those two courses represent your final
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project and they're actually courses and
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they were designed to mimic what goes on
09:07
in the real world
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in other words you're going to work on a
09:09
team right you're not going to do your
09:11
your final project alone you're going to
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be working with a student or maybe two
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other students that have a similar
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interest in a project with you using
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real world data to
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ask a researchable question and then
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research and answer that question using
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data
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so you build a proposal and applied
09:30
methods one and then you enact or you
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execute that proposal and apply methods
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to and produce a research paper and a
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scientific poster for your final project
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for those online students
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doing group projects can definitely be a
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challenge especially if they're
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scattered across the country
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so
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uh they do an independent final project
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where basically they're doing or you
09:53
would be doing uh all the work yourself
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right uh and this is the way we used to
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do it
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uh but again we've been changing the
10:00
curriculum to try and mimic what goes on
10:02
in the real world so these team
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approaches are we feel a little bit
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stronger approach and prepares you you
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know for for working in public health in
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the real world so these courses combined
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add up to 18 credit hours
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uh as part of the curriculum
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and then comes the fun stuff right uh so
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if you're in the face-to-face curriculum
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you get the choice of four electives uh
10:27
over your your career your academic
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career with us if you're on the online
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curriculum you actually get five
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electives because we replace one of
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those electives
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in the face-to-face curriculum with
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applied methods one
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so that's why there's a difference in
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that but you can see here and this is
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just an example of several of the
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electives that we offer within our
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school
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these are generally very interesting
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classes and we encourage students to
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take electives that are going to help
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them
10:58
in their future careers right so if you
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want to work in infectious disease we
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definitely want to make sure we get you
11:03
an e609 infectious disease epidemiology
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if you want to work in cancer uh we want
11:09
you in the global cancer epidemiology
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right or if you want to work in genetics
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so on right so there there are plenty of
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uh elective opportunities here uh and we
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recognize that you know or you also need
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to recognize that we don't offer every
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elective every semester so it's going to
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be really important to work with your
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advisor to kind of map out your
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curriculum to make sure that we get
11:30
those electives that you want
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when they're available
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so here's a sample curriculum so let's
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say for example you start in the fall
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you would take your p510 into public
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health and p511 uh comprehensive methods
11:48
in epi and biostats uh as well as then
11:52
b552
11:54
data management right so
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that's a full-time schedule so in
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graduate school three three courses
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represents full-time
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i would definitely not advise students
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to take four classes in that first
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semester
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especially if you've never been in grad
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school
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it's going to feel a lot like undergrad
12:14
in the sense that you'll be sitting in a
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classroom or watching lectures you'll be
12:20
taking notes and reading books and doing
12:22
assignments and such uh so it's going to
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feel a little bit like undergrad and you
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think well i can manage i took you know
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18 credit hours as an undergrad why am i
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only taking nine i can get done faster
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the challenge here is that the
12:35
expectations in grad school are going to
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be higher right the work is going to be
12:39
a little bit more intense uh the the
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quality of the work has to be better
12:45
so
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let's at least take that first semester
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and not do more than three courses in
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that first semester just to get your
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feet wet in graduate school if after
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that you think you want to take on four
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courses again speak with your advisor
13:00
prior to enrolling in four
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and then spring year one you take the
13:06
other two core classes planning
13:08
management evaluation and communication
13:10
leadership as well as advanced
13:12
epidemiology right so this comprehensive
13:14
methods and biostats in epi is kind of
13:16
introduction to dappy and then you get
13:18
advanced epidemiology uh in the summer
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of year one you are now eligible to
13:24
start an internship right so you've
13:26
completed the four core classes
13:28
um
13:29
so you can do an internship and if you
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want
13:33
two electives right so here are great
13:35
opportunities to pick up a couple of
13:36
electives in the summer
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so that coming into fall of year two you
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take biostats two
13:42
you take applied methods one and another
13:45
elective
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and then spring of year two uh you could
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take applied epi methods two
13:51
public health informatics and another
13:53
elective and basically you would
13:55
graduate in five semesters as a
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full-time student so it's a really
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really
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fast curriculum
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like i said getting through in five
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semesters as a full-time student
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totally possible easily done
14:10
as long as you're dedicated and engaged
14:13
during the semesters
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so there we also have this wonderful uh
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opportunity to have a dual concentration
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so you you
14:23
want epidemiology but maybe you want
14:26
social behavioral sciences as well right
14:29
well the nice thing about our school is
14:31
that we can pair up
14:33
these two concentrations yes it's going
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to take you at least one more semester
14:38
of course work but you actually come out
14:40
with two different concentrations right
14:42
so for example social behavioral science
14:44
or informatics or health policy and
14:46
management with epidemiology right so
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what that does is uh we double count
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several the courses like the core
14:54
courses
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uh but then you take at least the nine
14:57
additional credit hours in that other
14:59
concentration right so if you're going
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to do epidemiology and informatics for
15:03
example
15:05
there's three other courses that are
15:06
strictly informatics that are going to
15:08
be counted towards your
15:10
um
15:12
towards your total credit hours so we
15:14
know this is going to add at least one
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semester
15:18
here's the nice thing about this though
15:20
is you can add this dual concentration
15:22
anytime during your academic career you
15:25
just have to be cognizant of the fact
15:27
that again not every course is offered
15:29
every semester so the later you add it
15:32
in your academic career the more
15:34
challenging it might be to get it done
15:36
within your time frame right instead of
15:39
one semester it might actually take you
15:41
two semesters to complete it so
15:43
um the other thing to remember is if you
15:45
start it you realize that's not really
15:47
what i want to do it could also be
15:49
dropped right at any time so there's no
15:51
harm or no foul in terms of adding or
15:55
dropping the dual concentration just
15:58
recognize that it's going to add more
16:00
time
16:02
to your academic career
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and
16:04
that we may have to add more semesters
16:07
simply because of when course offerings
16:09
are
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but instead of 45 credit hours
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under a dual concentration you end up
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with 54 credit hours
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so there are other opportunities as a
16:21
graduate student as well
16:23
the core so the core is actually a
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program that was started here in our
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school several years ago
16:29
in the department of epidemiology and
16:30
now has expanded to the other
16:32
departments as well but this is a group
16:34
of volunteer students that can be called
16:36
upon
16:37
by other agencies in time of emergency
16:40
or when they need extra help so in other
16:42
words
16:43
the state department of health may reach
16:45
out to us and say we need three students
16:48
to assist in an outbreak right
16:51
while these generally are unpaid
16:52
opportunities uh they offer tremendous
16:55
real world experience uh for the
16:58
students as well as provide uh much
17:01
needed experienced assistance
17:04
to those agencies like state health or
17:06
the county health departments
17:08
so signing up for that uh is really a
17:11
nice opportunity if you have the ability
17:13
to do so
17:14
we also look to our graduate students to
17:16
be teaching assistants especially in our
17:18
some of our undergraduate courses
17:21
so we've started a new undergraduate
17:23
degree in epidemiology
17:25
and many of our grad students become
17:27
teaching assistants and help us with
17:29
those undergraduate courses
17:31
those are paid opportunities through our
17:33
school
17:34
and we use a lot of them throughout the
17:36
semester
17:38
we also have
17:39
the ability or we have opportunities to
17:42
be a research assistant so let's think
17:44
about
17:45
what our school represents we are in a
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major metropolitan area we have five
17:50
major hospital systems we have the
17:53
largest health information exchange in
17:54
the country uh right here literally
17:57
across the street from us we have a
17:59
comprehensive cancer center on our
18:01
campus we have the state health
18:04
department down the street we have the
18:06
largest county health department
18:09
in the state
18:10
and we have relationships with all of
18:12
those
18:14
so the the opportunities
18:17
uh to work with one of those agencies or
18:19
within one of those agencies
18:22
is tremendous
18:24
the internships right i always tell my
18:27
students make sure you treat the
18:28
internship like a 240 hour job interview
18:31
uh because when i worked at state health
18:33
department uh there are many students
18:35
that i eventually hired because i knew
18:37
them from their internship right i knew
18:40
the kind of work they did and and the
18:43
their ability to
18:45
uh
18:46
work in that environment so
18:48
if you really like what you do in your
18:50
internship treat it as a job interview
18:52
you never know what's going to come from
18:53
that and then final projects the final
18:55
projects themselves uh are varied across
18:59
um
19:00
our school uh and are limited by one the
19:03
data that's available and and the
19:05
student's imagination right uh but
19:08
we're at the point where some of these
19:10
projects are now getting published right
19:12
so there's an opportunity maybe to get
19:14
published in a research journal as well
19:16
the final opportunity i want you to at
19:18
least consider
19:20
is the possibility of going on and
19:22
completing a phd within our school so
19:26
while our phd program in epidemiology is
19:29
fairly competitive
19:31
we've never taken a student that doesn't
19:34
have a masters of public health already
19:37
the nice thing about completing a
19:38
master's in public health within our
19:40
school
19:41
is that possibly up to 30 credit hours
19:44
of your master's degree can be
19:46
transferred into the phd program so it's
19:48
about a third
19:50
of your phd program right there by
19:52
completing a master's degree so uh it's
19:55
gonna save you time it's gonna save you
19:56
money down the road
20:00
where are some of our graduates working
20:01
so there on the left you see the
20:03
agencies like iu health community health
20:05
network eli lilly marion county
20:07
franciscan alliance right even here at
20:09
iupui
20:11
and they're doing
20:13
a whole host of jobs right
20:16
from
20:17
injury epidemiologists infection
20:19
preventionist data analyst
20:21
data manager project coordinator
20:24
so
20:25
they're not always considered
20:26
epidemiologists or the physician isn't
20:28
always considered epidemiologists but
20:30
the epidemiology degree has prepared
20:33
them for these careers so i always
20:36
encourage students who are looking for
20:37
positions don't just look for a title
20:39
that says epidemiologist right look for
20:42
like data analyst project coordinator
20:46
infection preventionists
20:48
all of those
20:49
uh positions uh have hired epidemiology
20:53
students in the past
20:56
so how do you be successful in our
20:58
program first
20:59
become and stay engaged the engaged
21:02
student
21:03
actually does better in our programs
21:05
right
21:06
you're getting a master's degree that
21:08
means you're going to master a field
21:11
well how do you do that well you have to
21:12
become engaged you have to read the
21:14
material you have to be present in class
21:16
you've you've got to do the work in
21:19
other words
21:21
you've got to do the readings and then
21:22
some right we want you to go beyond just
21:25
the assignments we want you to become
21:26
inquisitive everybody's going to
21:28
graduate from our school with a masters
21:30
of public health well what's going to
21:31
set you apart from everyone else well
21:34
it's staying engaged getting engaged
21:36
doing the work and diving a little bit
21:38
deeper
21:39
there are tremendous resources available
21:42
through our school and on our campus the
21:44
faculty themselves many of our faculty
21:47
have real-world work experience such as
21:49
myself working
21:50
in public health for many many years
21:52
before i came to the school so i have a
21:55
lot of connections and i know a lot of
21:57
people and i know how public health
21:59
works in the real world
22:01
ask and i'd be happy to share some of
22:03
that experience with you as many of our
22:06
other faculty as well
22:08
we have a writing center on this campus
22:10
you think well writing isn't that as
22:12
important anymore oh it's even more so
22:14
important in public health and that when
22:16
we assessed our community partners as to
22:19
what skills do they want our students to
22:20
walk out with
22:22
writing good writing was always at the
22:24
top of that list right so
22:27
the writing center is something that's
22:28
free of charge for you once you're an
22:30
enrolled student
22:31
that will help improve your writing
22:34
and as a graduate student you get
22:35
preference over the undergrads at the
22:37
writing center
22:39
your own fellow students so uh many of
22:41
your classmates are gonna come from a
22:43
variety of backgrounds right uh and
22:46
interests uh so make sure that you get
22:48
to know them and talk with them about
22:50
what they've done already or what their
22:52
plans are we have study abroad
22:55
opportunities as well
22:57
prior to the pandemic
22:59
we were going to places like london and
23:02
sweden and
23:03
china
23:05
central america
23:07
to do public health work
23:09
or to understand some of these systems
23:11
in these other countries and compare
23:13
them and contrast them to the u.s system
23:16
so those opportunities we're hoping will
23:18
be existing again soon
23:20
as soon as we get out of the pandemic
23:21
and as i've said before location
23:23
location location we have so many
23:25
resources on this campus
23:28
and in the school itself
23:31
we really want you to take advantage of
23:33
those
23:34
and enhance not only your education but
23:37
then maybe your future career as well
23:41
so
23:42
with that uh if you have any questions
23:45
please don't hesitate to reach out to
23:47
myself or someone within our school and
23:50
we'll be happy to answer those questions
23:52
for you