From where I first started out during my Freshman year, I can confidently say that I am in no way the same person that I was before. During my freshman year, I had incredibly ambitious, but unrealistic dreams. I wanted to be able to become an entrepreneur, a doctor, a designer, all within the span of four years. I did not consider the surprises and the journey that life would provide me.
My emerging area of expertise is public health, more specifically how informatic systems can be used to better tracking, surveillance, communication and treatment of all people regardless of distance and socioeconomic background. My work within my honors contract in Sociology shows the integration of telehealth and social determinants, demonstrating how access to technology, education and stable resources can directly impact health outcomes. Through this work, I have realized the importance of technological innovation in healthcare. However, I also realized that healthcare is not simply about developing new tools, but it is also about making sure that these tools cater to public need, and also serve the communities that need them the most.
Paul Farmer once said “the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong in the world.”
This is a quote that I heard during my sociology class, and is a perspective that has helped lead me to my understanding of how public health inequities, especially in the evolving digital sector, can only further existing healthcare disparities. Through my sociological work, I was pushed to evaluate telehealth as something that could prompt justice and equality. Thus, my perspective shifted while working on this project, as I began looking at who benefits from healthcare innovation and who is often taken advantage of. By developing my interdisciplinary thinking and critical thinking, I started to see how nuanced and more community centered approaches could be made.
Another strong experience that has shaped my honors trajectory is my three biochemistry honors seminar experiences, where I understood not just what biochemistry was, but how it shapes the world around us. Though this experience is vastly different from my previous public health experience, it was still important in my scientific development because it introduced me to shift toward how biochemical knowledge is produced and used within the scientific world by active professionals. At first, the technical language and presentations seemed very intimidating. However, my regular attendance taught me that scientific discovery is something that takes time and a series of careful steps, not something that can be rushed and done quickly. This was something that I struggled with, even when I first came to college because I wanted to accomplish everything as quickly as possible. However, this experience taught me the importance of taking things slowly, as then I can better understand broader implications and connections to other topics, diseases or concepts that can help me become a better healthcare and public health defender. I learned that in order to become a better student and leader, I would need to see public health as something that is an ongoing conversation, something that only continually evolves.
These experiences have ensured my growth for success beyond graduation, as I now have developed a clear purpose of where I would want to be and the field that I want to pursue. Since I still have many diverse interests in both healthcare, public health and technology, my growing skillset can be used to analyze complex systems and become an advocate for those who are unable to speak for themselves.
I realize that unlike the broad and scattered goals that I had during my freshman year in H200, my goals now are much more focused on making a real world impact, rather than trying to be everything all at once. I used to measure success by how capable I was at running many different roles, not by the depth and effectiveness of the work that I completed. However, now I have shifted to embracing change and uncertainty, which has allowed me to become adaptable to changes. Overall, I believe my journey has shown me that growth is not about being able to do everything, but it is about doing everything within your power in making a difference in what you believe in!