Public health is universal. As an incoming freshman I entered the University of South Carolina as a Biological Sciences major. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, but I wasn’t quite sure what field, and I knew that I loved the topics discussed in biology in high school, so it seemed like the logical choice of major. However, in attending and admitted student’s day in the summer leading up to my freshman year of college, I sat through a presentation on the international service-learning trip led by Dr. Hickey to Nicaragua each year, where students had the opportunity to provide primary health care to drastically underserved populations in rural communities. The prospect of this trip ledads me to meet with Dr. Hickey the first week of my freshman year, and soon after I had changed my major to Public Health, following our discussions of the shortcomings of the health care systems in Central America.

 

My public health education up to this point had emphasized the importance of external health factors, reminding me that not all public health was based in clinical medicine. I had also learned of the top public health problems that existed in the United States, namely obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and a whole host of other problems that were directly related to public health. These issues I learned were caused, not by any a specific vector or pathogen, but by life choices and habits. That is what public health is all about, the environment that can lead to exceeding health or exceeding sickness.

 

I was a student, and clinic leader on the Capstone Service Learning Trip my sophomore year. At this point in my college career I had experience interpreting office visits for Hispanic patients who didn’t speak English as well as shadowing experience in the operating room in Columbia. These experiences gave me exposure to the different sides of the healthcare system in the United States and gave me an idea as to what could be expected in this country. I was also able to witness first-hand the sicknesses that I had studied in my public health curriculum. I was surprised to find that when I traveled to Nicaragua I encountered many of the same diseases. The living conditions were drastically different amongst the two countries, and one could expect this to have an effect on the common diseases, and it did in its own right. However, the obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and likely heart disease were all constants. This affirmed for me that public health is universal, and that I had made the correct decision to switch my major as a freshman.