By the time I had reached my third year at UW, I had completed all of my nursing pre-rec courses. I was admitted to the Public Health major, and so I filled my schedule with public health coursework. Now that I was actually taking classes in a major, the I noticed that the culture had changed. It was no longer unfriendly and competitive like the nursing pre-precs had been. People engaged in the subject matter, and for the first time I really felt like I was involved in a collaborative learning environment.
Global Health 101
During winter quarter of my junior year I took an introductory to Global Health class. Although this was an intro level course, I found it to be a significant amount of work, which to be quite honest caught me off guard. However, despite the initial shock, I managed to do quite well in the class, and remain engaged and in synch with all the copious amounts of reading. At the end of the quarter we were tasked with writing a 3,000 word Global Fund grant proposal. I spent countless hours brainstorming, drafting, and finalizing my proposal. Having the opportunity to create such a large body of work gave me an insight into what many public health workers engage in on a daily basis. |
SPH 491
In the winter quarter of my junior year I also started my Public Health (SPH 491/292) capstone course. At the end of the first half of this two quarter course, we were required to write a literature review about a current public health problem affecting the population in which we are working with in our service learning groups. Since I volunteer with chronically homeless men at Seattle Union Gospel Mission, I choose to focus my literature review on the disproportionate prevalence rates of hepatitis C in homeless individuals, and the diminished health outcomes which subsequently occur. I had never written a literature review before, and found it to be more challenging than expected. However, I am quite proud of my finished project. |