SPH Annual Poster Session / Speed Dating Last Friday!

Michelle

So I have never actually been speed dating, but I believe this past Friday’s SPH Poster Session was a similar experience. It’s chaotic with lots of new faces, lots to talk about, and little time to convey everything you want to! Maybe you’re even seeing people you sort of know or recognize…waving at others from across a crowded room…and sipping on water any chance you get, in hopes not to lose your voice while blathering on about yourself..

Anyways, here are some modified speed dating tips to prepare you for your poster session next year, first-years:

1. Prepare a Profile. (My version: Maybe just prepare?).
Basically, work on your internship elevator speech! I’m not sure if I prepared enough beforehand since my conversations went off into so many different directions (might be due to having two posters) but it’s a good idea to just have some points about your internship that you want to get across when speaking to the first-years or others who come visit. Keep it short and sweet, about 1 or 2 minutes long, and highlight the positive aspects of your internship.

2. Have Questions Ready.
Have a set of questions ready to ask each person who comes up to the poster for after you give your elevator speech. You want to ask about their interests and see how they can align with what you have done in your internships – or outside of the internships too. You can ask about their current classes or if they have a work study position. Find a way to make it more of a conversation instead of a presentation.

3. Have Confidence.
Yes, it really stinks talking about yourself for two hours straight, but remember that you could have a lot to give the newbies and try your best to stay positive…

4. Be Positive.
When the poster session begins, you may think there is no one there will come to talk to you. Thinking this way before the session even starts is a recipe for disaster. Keep your mind open and smile. Though you want to be positive in the way you speak about your internships, you should be honest about the barriers/problems you encountered in your experience.

5. Don’t be a flaw finder. (My version: Just because someone’s interests don’t match yours initially doesn’t mean that you should have them move on to the next poster! Find some common ground!)
This goes hand-in-hand with being positive and having questions ready above. But also important to remember is that you’re not just there to talk to the first-year students, but also professors, fellow students from other departments, professionals, and more. I actually had a long conversation with a freshman student who had been told I was working at the Center for Managing Chronic Disease and we talked about her pursuing public health for the rest of undergrad and maybe graduate school.

6. Avoid bringing personal baggage to the table. (My version: Don’t get to negative aspects of the internship right away, but do be honest about them).
Like mentioned above, it is your responsibility to be honest if there were negative aspects to the experience that someone who is interested in following in your footsteps should be aware of.

7. Be engaging.
I’m keeping some of what the Millionnaire Matchmaker said initially for this tip–  “Patti Says: ‘The conversation should become a ping-pong match…Respond to questions with positive energy and enthusiasm, and stay on neutral subjects…Witty banter is very important. Ask interesting questions, be a good listener as well as an active participant.’”
Say hi to everyone who walks by, even if they do NOT look interested initially. You can change their minds! I also tried to have an interactive component to my presentation with the ribbons’ colors and cancer awareness..

8. Go easy on the booze. (My version: While going easy on the booze should be pretty obvious …. Have a nonalcoholic beverage on hand).
Luckily, Kau’i was the poster next to me and went to get water for us, essentially coming the rescue when we were both dying of thirst!

9. If you’re interested, show some interest! (My version: If you and an individual are truly finding your interests align, put a little more effort in to make their experience a little better).
I ended up having some wonderful conversations and gave information to first-years about certain professors’ research, particular classes, and job/volunteer opportunities.

10. Mind your manners. (My version: Look nice, act professional, and engage with your peers and others).

Thank you to everyone I got to speak with on Friday – it was so much fun, even if you were just at my posters to snag some candy.

From left: Reva Berman, Bethany Buschmann, Leah Gacioch, and I at the 2011 SPH Poster Session for HBHE

Also if we didn’t get a chance to talk, or you have any additional questions for me about my summer internships at the Center for Managing Chronic Disease or the Cancer Support Community, please feel free to contact me! Thanks!

Tips modified based on two very credible sources:
http://www.ehow.com/way_5230035_speed-dating-tips.html
http://www.bravotv.com/the-millionaire-matchmaker/speed-dating/tips

Internship at the Washtenaw County Health Department

Carrie Rheingans

You know you’re a public health dork when… you leave a two-hour meeting at your internship with your head buzzing about the possibilities of health promotion programs in your community. For my social work field placement this academic year, I’m placed at the local health department, Washtenaw County Public Health. On my first day of orientation to SPH, I remember hearing someone say that if you’ve seen one local health department, you’ve seen ONE local health department – meaning that each local health department is so different from the next that there aren’t many generalizations that can be made about them. WCPH is fortunate to be able to do many health promotion programs that are in addition to their mandated public health duties as required by state or federal regulations.

Our division meeting included updates on a number of health promotion programs, from smoking cessation and healthy eating to biking to work and substance use prevention. It was reassuring to hear a lot of terms I’ve been learning in my graduate studies, and to see how health programs operate in my local community – instead of just reading about it from research articles. One staff member gave a report from a presentation at  statewide conference she had recently attended in which a health communication campaign out of Jackson, Michigan was discussed. I had heard about this campaign before in my health communication course last fall – it was a final project option for some of the students in my class! It was nice to see it come to fruition and be lauded across the state. You can learn more about it on their website – Most Teens Don’t!

Most Teens Don't Logo

Another major topic of the meeting was a big grant we’ve been writing for the last couple weeks for the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH). It’s been a fun process being part of this grant proposal. The MDCH has funded 16 community organizations and local health departments over the last year to do planning in their communities for addressing health disparities among various ethnic populations. Washtenaw County was funded to work with African-Americans and Latinos, and we just submitted our proposal for the next phase of the grant – implementation. Even if we don’t get funded, it was a great learning experience to be able to work on developing the programs for the Latino-focused part of the proposal, as well as the evaluation plan. I got to apply what I learned in HBHE 651 (Program Development) and what I’m learning right now in HBHE 622 (Program Evaluation), in addition to many of the theories I learned in HBHE 600 (Psychosocial Factors in Health-Related Behavior) and SW 502 (Organizational, Community and Societal Structures and Processes).

Field Placement Bringing my Dual Degrees Together

 

Carrie Rheingans

 

My current social work field placement is really bringing my two degree programs together. I’m a dual degree student – doing a Master of Public Health in SPH (in the department of Health Behavior and Health Education) and a Master of Social Work at the School of Social Work. I’m studying Community Organization and Community & Social Systems in social work. There are many dual degree options for students in public health, and it can be a really great investment if you want to work in multiple fields.

This is my third and final year of the dual degree program, and I’m happy that my courses and field experiences are really coming together in my learning. For my public health department, students usually do a 3-4 month field placement between their two years. I did a year-long placement at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center as an AmeriCorps member for the National AIDS Fund’s national direct AmeriCorps program in Detroit. For a social work degree, students can elect to do either two field placements (one each during each academic year) or one longer-term placement (from January – December of one calendar year). Most students elect to do the single placement, but I elected to do two.

This year’s placement is at the Washtenaw County Public Health department and I’m working with a number of community members to develop a Latin@ community center, Casa Latina, for Washtenaw County. I’m applying coursework in both schools that has covered grant-writing, program development, program evaluation, community participation, multi-level interventions, social marketing, survey design, materials creation, leadership development, and community organization and development. It’s nice to be able to apply what I’ve learned, and even combine some tasks at my field placement with current coursework. For example, for my program evaluation class, my final project is to create an evaluation plan for a health program – which is one of my tasks for a grant I’m writing at my placement. For another class, my final project is to create a community participation plan, which is something we need to do for Casa Latina anyway.

It’s great when I get to do public health practice during the semester and apply the things I’m learning in the classroom to the real world. Sometimes I wish there was a larger field component in public health, but there are definitely options for getting more real-world practice if you look for them.

I know what I did last summer…

Tiffany Yang

I don’t think I have ever had a summer go by so fast. One day it was final exams, then the frenzied preparation for the doctoral qualifying exams (I passed!!), then leaving the next day for Taiwan to attend my father’s wedding banquet. The rest of the summer was a blur: my field experience, my yearly jaunt up to the U.P. to visit family, untangling my academic life, among other things. And now classes have started again.

But first, let me tell you about my field experience. I was lucky to be offered a position with Head Start in Michigan to re-design their menus for four counties in Western Michigan. Head Start is a program that was developed to provide economically disadvantaged children with education, health, and other services. My job was to take the current 4-week meal cycle (that is, the menu repeats itself every 4 weeks) and turn it into a 2-week meal cycle that would follow USDA guidelines on calorie requirements as well as specific nutrients (iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and calcium) the children should receive each day.

This was a lot harder to do than I thought. I had restrictions that severely limited my ability to provide certain nutrients without resorting to heavily fortified foods such as cereals. My restrictions included: no cooking allowed, microwaving is only acceptable to warm non-meat dishes and melt cheese, no nuts of any kind, a very limited budget ($125/week after reimbursement to feed 328 meals/week), making sure that there was minimal prep time (so that the personnel wouldn’t spend time away from the children for too long), not being able to buy in bulk, and anticipating any food phobias or preconceived dislikes.

The whole experience was enlightening—it allowed me to learn how to design menus and work within constraints. I gained valuable experience in dealing with food policy as it pertains to government-funded programs and I unfortunately learned how hard it is to feed “healthy” food to a large group of people on a limited budget. On a personal level I felt like I was betraying my own food values by feeding canned, packaged, and processed foods. The truth is that while packaged goods are not necessarily cheaper than whole foods, it is a lot less time-consuming to open up a can of beans or microwave some frozen vegetables. On the other hand, I’m happy that I was able to improve on the old menu and provide them with a meal in as healthy of a way as I could. My hope is that food policy moves in such as way that fruits and vegetables are subsidized to an extent where they are cheaper than their processed counterparts and would be the more economic way to go.

One can only hope!

My Last First Day of School

Carrie Rheingans

Today’s my last first day of school and it’s been a great one so far! It’s sad to think that this long journey will be over in eight short months, but I know I’ll be happy to be done and start applying all the wonderful knowledge and skills I’ve learned in my two degree programs, public health and social work.

I always feel so optimistic at the beginning of a new semester – like maybe this time I can actually do all the reading! I’m very excited about my two public health classes this semester (EHS 500 – Principles of Environmental Health and HBHE 622 – Program Evaluation in Health Education). The environmental health class interests me because of the material and my background in the biological sciences, and the program evaluation class because it’s a valuable and transferable skill in the field(s) in which I’ll be working upon graduation.

I’m also excited to start teaching again. Last semester was my first being a graduate student instructor (GSI), and I really learned a lot, both about being a teacher and about being a student. I gained a lot of patience and improved my skills for speaking publicly and making sure people are following what you’re saying. I also learned how to better manage my time as a student, as well as what amount of work goes on behind the scenes in the classes I take. I also learned that while teaching is fun, grading is NOT fun. The worst part is that my midterms are at the same time as the ones I have to grade – which doesn’t make it easy to study for my own classes.

The other exciting development this semester is my field placement for social work. I’m working with the Washtenaw County Public Health Department to help develop a Latino community center for our community (Washtenaw County, the county in which the University of Michigan is located). Currently, there is no such organization that caters to people of Latino/Hispanic ethnicity or Spanish speakers.

I hope to write posts this year about my public health and social work classes, my field placement, teaching, and my passion, HIV and AIDS. Stay tuned!

International Travel Doctor Visit

Carrie Rheingans

Since I’m going abroad for a social work internship this summer, I needed to make a travel health appointment to make sure I have all the vaccinations and immunizations I need to stay as healthy as possible while I’m traveling. I had my appointment last week (my third in five years…) and got my first-ever anti-malarial medication prescription.

As a current student, I have access to the services at the University Health Service (UHS). They have a travel & immunology clinic, and it can get pretty busy during certain times of the year (before spring break and summer break). They ask you to take an online basic travel health training in order to make an appointment. It doesn’t take long and is a good review of water and food safety, sun and bug issues, and what to do in a health emergency.

It’s best to go prepared to the appointment and know exactly where you’re going in your travels. Malarial areas can get pretty trick in some places, so it’s best to know what cities or villages you’re going to if possible. The appointment is pretty quick and includes a review of health issues in the locations where you’re traveling and some immunizations and prescriptions as necessary. My favorite part is getting ciprofloxacin to treat diarrheal illness. It’s helped me out in the past! UHS can also dispense many of the prescriptions right there in their pharmacy.

There’s a price list on the travel health page for planning for what immunizations you might need. If you don’t have insurance coverage for some of the requirements, it’s easy to go to the Washtenaw County health department as well.

$$ for International Internships

Carrie Rheingans

Finding funding for an international internship or field placement is probably the most daunting task of the whole experience. Most international placements cost a few thousand dollars, the largest part of which tends to be airfare. Be sure to talk with your academic advisor and your department to see what internal funding sources are available before expanding your searches.

There are a few steps that you’ll want to take before applying to the various campus offices for funding.

1. Make a list of all things you need to pay for
2. Determine how much each thing costs
3. Transfer this information into a budget
4. Find funding applications, due dates
5. Get letters of recommendation for those applications for which they are required
6. Get letters of invitation from host agencies for those applications for which they are required

Here’s a list of some things to consider for your budget (most funders won’t allow you to use their funds to pay for U.S.-based expenses while you’re abroad, like car payments, rent, etc.). Here’s a tentative budget I’ll be using for my work this summer in China and Bangladesh.

1. Passport/Visa costs – be sure to check WELL in advance if a visa is necessary, to ensure you have enough time to get one
2. Immunization costs – the University Health Service at U-M can help you determine this
3. Housing in your host country – will it be provided? Apartment? University housing? Living with a friend/family member? Host family?
4. Transportation in your host country – will you travel inside the country? What’s your daily commute?
5. Airfare to/from your destination – check a variety of locations to get a good average, and be prepared for it to change as the departure date gets closer.
6. Food in your host country – will you be eating out all the time? Cooking at home? Can you pay a flat rate, like if you’re with a host family or in university housing?
7. Internet/Phone in your host country – many students find it comforting to buy a local cell phone; check prices and how much minutes/plans cost. Will you be paying separately for internet at your host agency/home?
8. Allowable internship/project costs – some funders allow you to include this, some don’t. Will you need to make copies? Buy disposable cameras? Pay for an interpreter? Pay for your internet use?

There are many places on campus that provide funding, and if you decide to apply to many, it might be helpful to create a spreadsheet to keep all the requirements straight! Here’s what I’m using for my summer work in China and Bangladesh as an example (beware – this spreadsheet is a bit ugly with the long links…).

1. your home department in SPH
2. Center for Global Health
3. International Institute
4. International Center
5. Ross School of Business
6. School of Social Work
7. Ginsberg Center for Community Service & Learning
8. Nonprofit and Public Management Center

Please leave comments about your experiences with finding funding or with suggestions of additional places to look. We’re all in this together – although it may seem like we’re competing, consider the fact that we’re all going to be colleagues shortly and we’ll all benefit from working with the best-trained colleagues we can possibly have!

Leave any tips you have for others in the comments below!!

Michigan Community Conversation for a National AIDS Strategy

Carrie Rheingans

Michigan got its chance to give feedback to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy on Wednesday, 18 November 2009. From across the state, providers, people living with HIV, and people affected by HIV came and gave their recommendations, suggestions, and demands on video tape and in writing.

I was the statewide organizer for this event as part of my social work internship at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center (HARC). This experience was the perfect combination of public health and social work that I hope to gain from my dual degree program (MPH/MSW). When the nationwide community conversations were announced, many people across Michigan wondered why we didn’t have one scheduled near us, especially considering the fact that some zip codes in Detroit have higher HIV prevalence than some countries that receive emergency money form the United States government. The Campaign to End AIDS contacted me after hearing from a few outspoken Michiganders and we did a lot of grassroots organizing in a few short weeks to pull off this successful event. See the Between the Lines article and the Michigan Messenger article for further coverage.

The conversation was only two hours long, and the majority of the time was occupied by community members speaking about what they wanted in a National AIDS Strategy. The night started with welcomes from Craig Covey, Ferndale mayor (Ferndale is the city where the event was held) and longtime staff member of the Michigan AIDS Coalition, Christine Campbell and Larry Bryant of the Campaign to End AIDS, and Charles Pugh, President-elect of the Detroit City Council. Charles also moderated the event.

Below are some of the things people told the White House:

“When is the last time we got together as a community of loving, living people when funders weren’t making us?”

“We need quality healthcare for LGBT people living with HIV and AIDS – we need to strengthen doctor-patient relationships because people are not comfortable coming out to their doctors”

“Viagra and Cialis have aided in the resurgence of sexually transmitted infections in senior housing complexes. We need more education and prevention in these locations”

“The church, rid of stigma, denial and fear, becomes a change agent”

“my barrier [to being an AIDS advocate] is childcare”

“I wanted post-exposure prophylaxis and the nurse didn’t even know what it was!”

“We need the same laws coast to coast – enough with a patchwork of different laws about HIV”

“I missed class tonight to be here on my birthday to tell you that we need rec centers for our kids to have something safe to do after school”

“Michigan prisons don’t hand out condoms or test for HIV when people are released – but we know that people are still having sex and they need to get tested because they might need to get right into care”

It was great to hear people from as far away as Kalamazoo, Flint and Lansing gathering to speak out about such an important issue.

Larry Bryant from the Campaign to End AIDS introduces the event as moderator and President-elect of the Detroit City Council Charles Pugh looks on

Finding an International Field Experience or Internship

Carrie Rheingans

I learned a lot during the process of finding my international field experience/internship in Peru last year. Although most funding sources don’t require you to submit applications until January and February, it’s a good idea to start looking for international placement options now (November). Most public health departments require an internship, and some programs require an international internship. I’ll be doing a social work internship in China and Bangladesh this summer. The Office of Global Activities at the School of Social Work has some programs that students can apply to, which is how I found the internship in China. I found the internship in Bangladesh through a friend whose family works in the field of microfinance in Dhaka. The organization is the Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women. I’ve communicated a couple times via email and Skype with my Bangladeshi preceptor/supervisor, and we’ve determined the main projects I’ll be working on.

Some steps for finding an international internship (NOT necessarily in any specific order):

• Think about what skills you want to learn or develop. You can base this on your department’s competencies, theories you learned in class that you now want practical knowledge of, or skills outside your academic training – maybe skills outside your department. Your internship is supposed to be the practical/skill-based portion of your academic degree.
• Think about a region or culture you’d like to learn more about. Do you see yourself working in a specific region upon graduation? Do you have language skills you want to develop – or do you want to learn a new language? Do you need a placement in which you can speak English? Remember that while it’s summer in Michigan, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere. Consider major holidays that take place in certain regions of the world – for example, Ramadan will start either 11 or 12 August, depending on the exact location. This could affect your internship in some countries.
• Think about what contacts you have in global locations – family, friends, colleagues. Your professors are a major asset here, and from my experience, they want to help you, so contact them! Talk to your adviser about his/her specialty/ies and see what suggestions s/he has. Contact speakers you might have heard and found interesting on campus.
• Visit the many campus offices and websites (many listed below) that might have any contacts. Consider working through a volunteer organization (though these often aren’t as flexible for academic purposes and have set programs to offer).
• Consider your budget and the amount of time you will be able to spend applying for campus and other funding. Most students get mostly funded, but it does take time to apply. I’ll write another post later about funding your international field experience/internship.
• Contact potential international sites. Discuss with them what you are hoping to gain from your experience and what you hope you can contribute to their organization. Remember to be patient and flexible when contacting potential sites. Also remember to be mindful that the skills you want to develop may not be feasible at some organizations. For example, some organizations may not have computers with SPSS – or even have computers!

Students who’ve already done international internships, please leave other tips below in the comments. Students seeking international internships, please leave questions below in the comments!

Some Potential Resources:

• U-M Center for Global Health
• U-M International Institute
• U-M International Center
• SPH Career Services
• SPH student group Students Engaged in Global Health – blog
• Field Experience Office in Health Behavior and Health Education – contact Armando Matiz
• Global Health Field Experience
• Health Behavior and Health Education Competencies
• Practice Office preparedness competencies
• Global Health in Health Management and Policy
• Examples of previous international internships in Health Management and Policy (scroll to the bottom)
• Public Health Genetics Internships
• Department of Epidemiology International Health Program
• Center for Global Health Research and Training Internship and Research Placements

U.S. One of Twelve Countries…

Carrie Rheingans

The United States is one of twelve countries that ban people living with HIV from entering the country. This is on my mind because I am writing a paper for my social work class about welfare policies, and I recently heard a story on National Public Radio about the topic. I’ve worked with the Campaign to End AIDS for the last two years to try to get this ban overturned.

Originally, when AIDS was first discovered (1981, then called the highly-stigmatizing GRID, or gay-related immune deficiency), there was great fear of it in this country. The US made its entry policy in the late 80′s (1987), when the fear was still going strong. To this day, we still have the same restrictions (with one amendment to make it a more streamlined process), and people can even be deported or denied citizenship if they become infected with HIV while here as an immigrant. The historic claim is that the ban protects the public’s health by not unnecessarily increasing the number of people in this country living with HIV (and the US has restrictions based on many other diseases too). Section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act reads, in part:

(a) Classes of Aliens Ineligible for Visas or Admission.-Except as otherwise provided in this Act, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:

(1) Health-related grounds.-

(A) In general.-Any alien-

(i) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) to have a communicable disease of public health significance, which shall include infection with the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome

My problem with this is that the people I know living with HIV aren’t planning to purposefully go around and infect others, and in fact, take great care with the health of their partners. Additionally, there are other, much more virulent and transmissible, diseases that do not bar entry, such as the novel H1N1 flu or tuberculosis. This act also specifically mentions the “etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome”, which is known to be HIV. I’m glad that the U.S. is working to remove HIV from the list of diseases that are considered “dangerous contagious disease[s]”.