By Caroline Kusi, BA, MPH<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the many aspects I enjoyed about APHA was the Maternal and Child Health breakfast meeting with other students and faculty.\u00a0 I truly appreciated the set-up of the breakfast and how students could easily move from table to table.\u00a0 I felt honored to be able to engage in conversations with various faculty and professionals with different areas of research and backgrounds.\u00a0 I also enjoyed listening to other students express their research interests and ways in which they were actively pursuing their research and professional careers.<\/p>\n
One of the things I found very valuable about the breakfast was the advice that faculty members gave students about finding a balance between practice and research.\u00a0 I think oftentimes students like myself wonder how we can combine both practice and research in our careers and having affirmation that it is possible was refreshing. I learned that it is important to be receptive to doing things outside of your research interests.\u00a0 Further, I was very thankful to hear faculty stress the importance of diversifying our skills in order to be competitive for various job positions.\u00a0 I left the session knowing that I needed to enhance my data analysis, statistical software, and data interpretation skills in order to be a better professional.\u00a0 I also learned the importance of being flexible about positions I seek and attain in the future because every opportunity in public health gives you skills that can be used in other future contexts.<\/p>\n
I was privileged to be able to speak with a faculty member from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill about ways in which I can utilize my summers as a doctoral student in order to strengthen my research skills and gain practice experience with a potential international health organization I would hope to conduct research for.\u00a0 I was grateful to receive helpful advice based on her own experiences in working internationally both in research and practice.\u00a0 All in all, the breakfast was an invaluable experience.<\/p>\n
Caroline Kusi is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences. Her research interests include maternal and neonatal mortality, capacity building, and implementation science.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Caroline Kusi, BA, MPH One of the many aspects I enjoyed about APHA was the Maternal and Child Health breakfast meeting with other students and faculty.\u00a0 I truly appreciated the set-up of the breakfast and how students could easily move from table to table.\u00a0 I felt honored to be able to engage in conversations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[32,9,20],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-posts","tag-apha","tag-conference","tag-personal-development"],"yoast_head":"\n