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Effective Public Health Communicator
Throughout my academic career I have had experiences that have lended themselves to developing the skill of effective communication with others. This is an essential skill for all areas of life, both personally and professionally. The experiences below have been essential to my development, both as a student and as a person.
Throughout my academic career I have had experiences that have lended themselves to developing the skill of effective communication with others. This is an essential skill for all areas of life, both personally and professionally. The experiences below have been essential to my development, both as a student and as a person.
Framingham Heart Study Presentation
As part of an Honors Contract for Principles of Epidemiology, I completed a research paper and presentation about a major epidemiological study, the Framingham Heart Study. After completing the project, I was invited by my professor the following semester to be a guest lecturer for the new cohort of students about the study. In this way, I was able to articulate my research in an educational setting to a group of my peers. In doing so, I had to properly communicate ideas found within peer reviewed research to undergraduate students. This required an in-depth understanding of the topic as well as an ability to communicate complex ideas in such a way that anyone is able to understand them. The presentation that I developed alongside my lecture is given below.
FHSPresentation.pptxYMCA Internship
In the fall of 2025 I was able to complete an internship with the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis. As part of this internship I was responsible for communicating with local Indianapolis residents about the chronic disease prevention programs offered by the YMCA. This included attending community events like health fairs in order to bring interest to the programs that are offered. In attending these events I was able to speak with many different types of people from many different walks of life about their health and how to improve it. I had to communicate both the programs that the YMCA had to offer as well as how they can improve one's health. The image to the right shows one of the flyers that I passed out in order to promote our Moving For Better Balance program which was aimed at helping reduce the risk of falling for those who were more prone to taking falls. I generated lots of interest in these programs and was able to encourage people to sign up for them, which was only able to be done through effective communication strategies.
the.pdfHonors Luddy Showcase
As another Honors Contract, I developed a research paper on the differences between the programming languages C++ and Java. I was invited by my professor to present my research at the Luddy Capstone Showcase in December 2024. In this presentation, I explained my findings and my own experiences with these languages to other students, faculty, and family members of other presenting students. Because of this, I had to appropriately communicate my research to a wide range of people with varying levels of programming experience. I had to find ways in which I could relate to my audience and help them to understand my presentation, regardless of their beginning level of understanding. This was one way in which I was stretching myself and my skill of effective communication. The presentation that I developed can be seen below.
CapstonePresentation.pptxReflection
Overall, throughout my experiences through my academic career I have been able to improve my skill of communicating with others. I have seen the value in understanding one's audience and being able to effectively connect with them regardless of differences in background. Everyone comes from a different place in life and has different lived experiences. As a result, communication between people looks different based on context. I have used all of these opportunities to learn more about how to communicate with others, especially when taking advanced or unfamiliar topics and explaining them to others in a way that they are able to use the information that I am providing to them. Without these three experiences, I would not be the communicator that I am today.
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