A Late Start

Although I've missed three of the last four sessions for this Social Entrepreneurship class, I was still graciously allowed in--much to my excitement! It's interesting how paths change, especially in so little time. Just a couple years ago I was searching for THE perfect graduate program that would allow me to do a Peace Corps stint while getting my Masters'. Back then, international health was THE only way to go for me. I had traveled, studied, and worked abroad and I was so in love with the notion that I could combine my professional and my personal interests of exploring and traveling all in one nice little package. However, my direction was changed when trying to apply for paid fellowships/internships abroad. I realized that most people receiving these positions either had a Masters' or a Bachelors' with a lot of work experience. Unfortunately for me, I had neither since I was just coming out of undergraduate study. So then began the search for the perfect graduate school since taking more than one year off from undergrad was not something I was interested in (nonetheless, it was a fantastic year off!).





Fast forward a few years and here I am now at UCB finishing up my degree in Health Policy & Management--basically, the farthest concentration from preparing one for an international career. My rationale, however, was very much a pragmatic stance on how to best prepare myself for my professional development: did I want to focus solely on international health to the exclusion of learning more about our domestic health and health care situation? I realized that in order to become a manager/leader in health and health care abroad or here in the US was that I would need to develop very practical, 'hard' skills. Thus, the reason why I only applied to Health Policy and Management programs (although I would say I'm more 'Health and Social Behavior' for those in the know of Public Health concentrations).





So with one year under my belt (time feels like it has flown!) I'm deep into the domestic health care system, but it's funny because I really enjoy it. Although I'm not focused on the marginalized populations abroad, I'm basically working in the same arena except for the fact that I now focus on marginalized populations within the US. Nevertheless, I'm excited to continue to learn and discover about innovative ways to hep alleviate the suffering of the impoverished because I believe that the knowledge and skills used abroad could very much apply to the domestic sphere as well. I envision my professional career to develop in such a way that I will get the opportunity to work abroad and return to my initial public health 'roots'. I look forward to eventually translating my domestic learnings to the international sphere.