During my senior year of college I took a course called “Health Illness and Society” that sparked my interest in health disparities. I couldn’t wait to go to class, and I wondered how I could turn that passion into a career. After college I worked for two years with special needs middle schoolers and at a nonprofit that served vulnerable populations in Chicago. During that time I also took two public health trips — one to Mississippi, one to St. Lucia — where I saw extreme poverty. If you don’t go somewhere else and see it, you don’t really realize what it’s like.

I love public health because I can be part of a bigger picture by helping to change policies, provide equity to health disparities, and make sure people have access to healthcare and healthcare services. I want to be part of that change.

Through my degree program, I am focusing on the intersection between populations, specifically women and children, and how governments and communities can work together to protect and advance the health care of women and children across the world. I have a passion for educating and empowering women everywhere about reproductive health, combating infant mortality, and saving lives. I want to focus on complex health problems to improve the health delivery system through advocacy, research, and education.