BSPH in Community Health, 2017
I chose the Bachelor of Science in Public Health—Community Health program because I wanted to understand health from a world-wide perspective. Community health focuses on our own communities’ health, as well as distant communities, and it allows us to better understand how other cultures address the problems we also face.
I also had an interest in actively improving the health of others. While following a pre-med curriculum can help accomplish this in the long-run, the BSPH-CH program allowed me to gain first-hand experience with helping others from day one.
I first learned about the community health degree at the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health by looking for elective classes on the IUPUI registrar. Once I contacted someone within the school, I quickly learned a lot more about the degree program and the vision the school has for its students.
One thing I really love about the field of community health is that it requires a broad understanding of different subjects to achieve a very specific objective. For example, if you want to focus on reducing the incidence of HIV spread in rural Indiana, you must understand the history of the area, the demographic of the citizens, and the social/political institutions at the state and local level. This thought process can be applied to almost all problems even when they seem unrelated to public health.
The BSPH-CH program has instilled in me the desire to be inquisitive in looking at real-world problems. This makes it much easier to network with professionals because I can ask in-depth questions and show a genuine interest in the work they do.
Through the research experiences I had, I acquired highly marketable skills such as grant writing, graphic design, and program planning. This not only made me a more competitive applicant for medical school, but also allowed me to join a few quality-improvement programs at Riley Children’s Hospital.