Guess who’s back, back again. We are back for another summer of blogging by our Master of Public Health students working in public health practice! Last year our students had to pivot to all things remote due to the pandemic and you followed their journeys. This year, we still have most of our students working remotely, but do have a couple students abroad.
As the semester winds down and final assignments are being turned in, you can practically hear the collective sigh of relief from Gillings students over our Zoom calls. Though it does not look like class formats will be much different in the Spring, it is still a relief to have our first all-remote semester under our belts. And of course, next semester we will not have the added stress of election season, and hopefully the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines will help instill the optimism that has been waning over the last few weeks as case counts soar. But for me, there is yet one more reason the end of this semester stands out from others: I finally get to double down on my practicum with the National Institute of Environmental Health Science’s Disaster Research Response Program (I’m still trying to fit that into an elevator pitch. Any suggestions are welcome.) I am currently finishing my first deliverable, an asset and needs mapping report for the ASEAN region, and will soon be getting started with the second, a program plan for disaster research response.
I remember hearing from a second-year student last fall that she had started her practicum quite late and was still working on it. “That definitely won’t be me,” I remember thinking. Well the joke is on me. That is exactly what happened, although the circumstances were somewhat different and involved a pandemic.
That said, having an extended practicum has actually been, for the most part, a fantastic experience. For any first-year student reading this who is weighing priorities and struggling to make decisions, keep this in mind:
A longer practicum:
– Gives you more networking opportunities
– Allows you to apply even more skills that you will be learning in your third semester
– Gives you time to absorb more
– Gives you the option of taking on bigger projects
– Looks better on a resumé (Disclaimer: I don’t have a job yet, so take this with a grain of salt)
Keep reading, though. Before you open a new tab to start booking that summer trip to Australia that you have been dreaming of every day since March while waiting for your sourdough to rise, keep the following points in mind.
Coupling a practicum with class coursework can:
– Make it difficult to juggle additional extracurricular activities
– Challenge your sleep schedule
– Cause you to doubt whether there are actually 24 hours in a day
– Make you forget that all your classes are in the same time zone
Partially completed “checklist” of tasks to keep me motivated while working on the assets and needs mapping report.
Juggling both coursework and a practicum has been difficult at times. I’ll admit, there were nights I did not get quite as much sleep as I should have, and on a couple assignments I started reciting the age-old wisdom, “Ps get degrees,” something you never would have heard me utter nine months ago. But the benefits have outweighed the costs. I came to my MPH program thinking the practicum would be the most important part of my time here, and I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity. What better way to take full advantage of it than to make it three times longer than intended? I have had the opportunity to attend far more meetings, meet more professionals, do more research, and take on much larger deliverables than I could have done in the standard 5-week practicum. I have learned how to juggle completely different but simultaneous responsibilities, and to communicate openly when a suggested deadline just did not seem feasible. I have devised little tricks for keeping myself motivated, such as breaking up tasks into ridiculously little sub-tasks and posting them on my wall like one enormous checklist. And I have finally learned how to set aside “me” time.
While the semester has been great and I have enjoyed all my classes, I cannot wait to submit that final assignment so that I can truly focus on my practicum. With the extended winter break, it will be great to have something to occupy my time, and I look forward to taking advantage of even more benefits now that I can dedicate my attention to my work with my preceptor.
As I sat down to write this blog, it really hit me that it is already the end of September. It’s been over 6 months since this pandemic started and about 5 months since I began my practicum. Reflecting back, I entered this pandemic with feelings of uncertainty. Transitioning to classes online seemed fine at first since it was already classes we were used to. Since North Carolina cases were not as bad initially, I still saw my close friends safely and following guidelines. Nothing felt like an extreme change.
However, as time went on, the pandemic began to take its toll on me as it inevitably has on everyone else. Even simple things like going to the grocery store became a whole fiasco of timing it so the store isn’t crowded or being wary of grabbing takeout. As we began to bunker down even more strictly, it became hard to not feel frustrated at times.
Needing a break from North Carolina, I ended up going back to my parent’s place for a bit in New Jersey. When I relayed these feelings to my mom, she made a point that I hadn’t considered before. For the first time in over 6 years, I was actually home for more than one week. I had never considered it given that I talk to my family frequently but once it came to my attention, I thought back to how much I’ve missed in my family life.
Daily walks with my mom and brother.
Thinking about this in terms of my practicum, if I had gone to Zambia this summer, I would have missed the time I spent with my family. Don’t get me wrong, I still would have loved to do my practicum in person. However, missing one opportunity allowed me multiple other ones. If I had gone to Zambia, I would’ve spent maybe a couple months then and returned. Despite the challenges that came with doing the practicum remotely, I had the privilege of seeing my project from start to finish. Remote work also allowed for continuity with the project so despite my practicum officially ending soon, I’ll be staying on a while longer to help finish papers. Even though the study I worked on was not the original study I had signed up to do my practicum with, I developed qualitative data analysis skills that I really feel are an assets to future work. Importantly as well, I developed friendships and networks through Zoom, something which I thought would be very difficult.
Learning how to cook different cuisines this summer!
As I wind down on my official time with this practicum and work on my deliverables, I am really thankful for the opportunity to work with the Zambia hub. My practicum was everything I had wanted it to be and I got more out of it than I had expected from remote work. I’m grateful for both the community here at Gillings and in Zambia for making this summer a great one!
Guess who’s back, back again. We are back for another summer of blogging by our Master of Public Health students working in public health practice! Last year our students had to pivot to all things remote due to the pandemic and you followed their journeys. This year, we still have most of our students working remotely, but do have a couple students abroad.
