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I became interested in public health because I always had a fascination with infectious diseases and their pathogenicity. So when I was looking for MPH programs, I wanted a program that had an excellent research reputation, faculty whose interests aligned with mine, and also a program that really had a strong student-centered focus. The MPH program really broadened my horizons to the entire public health field. I developed very strong research and analytical skills that I can use in my future job to hopefully develop effective, evidence-based policy.

There's a very strong diversity of students here. Everybody has such different backgrounds, health-related, non-health-related. And so being here just really develops different perspectives that you're able to use, both in academic terms and in the real world also.

The Master of Public Health degree is very, very relevant to the medical profession. Having a dual medical and public health degree really opens your eyes as a physician to kind of see things at a different perspective. And also allows you to identify factors which may contribute to your patient's health that may not otherwise be so obvious. How the hospital is set up, how the health care system functions, and how to draft community programs or form coalitions are all very important aspects. I think is vital for, really, any physician to understand, regardless of their specialty.

Penn State understands the importance of public health. With the new curriculum, now, there is more focus on public health infrastructure and the basic principles of public health. And also, you get a lot of opportunities to do research with many of the professors here.

Here, everybody knows your name. They say hi, they smile, they ask how you're doing in conversation. The school has actually been really great to bring in a lot of the professionals here, at the Department of Health, to do sort of seminars and talks to us as doctoral students.

A lot of the work that I do here actually intertwines with what I learn in the classroom. And a lot of times when I'm hearing what they're saying, is it actually matches. How do I want to address public health issues? How do I want to, once I get out of here, affect change?

Education can get in the way sometimes. We always want to do something for the tests or get to this point. But it's really the people that invest in you that you find out later on in life that those are the people that are going to help you get to the next level.