Summary
What are your plans after graduating?
After graduation, I intend on continuing my education into graduate school by next fall into the University of Nevada, Reno’s Master of Public Health Program, under the health and administration policy specialization, and in the meantime, working towards finding internships and volunteer opportunities related to public health. I am also looking forward to traveling internationally for the first time, in order to see the world and to expand my perspectives on life and others around me. After completion of graduate school, I would also like to become a peace corps professional volunteer, in order to support programs and efforts related to public health in other countries, and to also broaden my viewpoints of other cultures and countries in a professional manner. In the future, I plan on working within the public health field as a public health analyst in order to influence the programs and policies that are being put into place in order to support my community’s health and well-being, and to later on return to academia so that I can guide and support other students just like me in their career journeys.
What is the most important piece of advice you’d give to an incoming college freshman?
The most important piece of advice that I would offer to incoming freshmen is to go with what feels right to you. It's hard to ignore the pressures that you may have from others like your parents or peers to follow a certain path, but it's important to remember that in the end, you are the only one living your life, so why waste the limited time we do have on something that isn’t serving your sense of purpose? Another thing that I would offer is, to take courses in a variety of subjects that are new or interesting to you that you have never considered before. You may just find something you never expected that you can imagine as being your future career. When I first started my journey here at the University of Nevada, Reno, I was a double major in psychology and criminal justice with the intent of going to law school and becoming a criminal defense lawyer, but here I am just 3.5 years later with plans of going into the field of public health and pursuing a master’s and potentially a Ph.D. in the field instead. My point is, don’t limit yourself just to one idea or set career path from the very beginning. Life is messy, and the only way to grow and to figure out what you enjoy is to learn to try new things, and to also learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Where do you see yourself in fifteen years?
In fifteen years, I imagine myself as a completely different person from the one that I am today. Something I find beautiful about the process of aging is that you learn to grow and adapt to the person you need to be at any given moment. Thus, the person and habits that I am today won’t serve the person I would need to be as my 36-year-old self (wow that’s weird to think about) because that would mean that I haven’t learned from all of my life experiences up until then. In my personal life, I have intentions to build a family, with a dog and maybe a cat, and to also have a lake house somewhere surrounded by mountains, and with endless possibilities for outdoor activities. On a more professional scale, I imagine myself having received my master’s degree, and potentially a Ph.D. within public health, and working within the field as some type of health director or lead policy analyst and making great change in the health of my communities. Also, I see myself as either getting started or having written a book of some kind by then, as that is one of my major career goals. I think the possibility of having lived internationally is another goal of mine that I can see myself doing within the next fifteen years. Overall, a characteristic of mine that I value very highly, is to be a curious and involved lifelong learner, so I plan on making this a quality of my life and in my future career within the next fifteen years and beyond.