Student SPHere 2009-10

Well, that was quick. Can I cliché it up and say, "It seems like just yesterday when we were bright-eyed, energized idealists eagerly digesting the welcoming remarks during orientation"? Two years later and here we are. We now get to tackle the public health challenges presented during that orientation. Luckily, most of us are still bright-eyed, energized idealists. Sure, "reality" has added itself to the mix, but that hasn't soured our vision of what we can accomplish.

What's next for me? I leave for Uganda today and will be there for a few weeks. Like last year, I'll be traveling with a group of engineers--this time with UMN's Engineers Without Borders. (I'm going to keep insisting the public health-engineering partnership in international public health work is mega-important.) We'll be working on a modified stove project in a cluster of communities that have expressed interest in using a Ugastove, which burns fuel more efficiently and releases less particulate matter. Ultimately, the goal is to improve respiratory health. SPH student Amber and I will be training a group of secondary school students to become a "Clean Air Team." The Team will then teach its community members about the stoves and respiratory health. We'll be blogging on this site about the project; check it out if you're interested.

After Uganda, I'll continue working at the MN Department of Health (the hepatitis team is hiring! Check out the SPH jobs website for more info!). I'll also get the MPH thesis in order to be defended in July. Next, I'll move to Milwaukee where a two-year fellowship with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute awaits.

So, although graduation has now passed...this whole public health thing is only getting started.

Posted at 1:02 AM
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Last week I attended my last class as a graduate student. It was so strange actually! But I will not feel like I am finished until after I present my thesis and submit the final draft. My family is coming into town for the graduation ceremony and my boyfriend is hosting a graduation party this weekend! I am deffinately ready to be finished and celebrate with friends and family.
Last weekend I went to the HPM student and faculty spring party and it was so much fun! I wish more students went, but with it being finals week I certainly understand why they didn't. For me it was a much needed break and a fun time to socialize.
So my big news is that I have a job starting this summer at the CDC! I will be working in Emergency Preparedness and Response, which is my area of interest. I went to Atlanta for a group of interviews for positions in the CDC for returned Peace Corps Volunteers. I had to apply first, and only 50 applicants were accepted. When I returned I was asked to do a second interview over the phone. Because I was in Peace Corps, I have what is considered 'non-competative eligibility' and so the hiring process is not as complicated.
I will also mention that Career Services was a huge help to me. They helped me polish up my resume and gave me great advice on things I never would have thought of! Also, I did a practice interview, and can say that a lot of the same questions were asked when I was interviewing in Atlanta. I felt so much more confident and prepared after having a practice first!

Posted at 10:13 AM
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After an undefeated season, The Confounders ended the post-season after a controversial playoff game. The team, faced with gale-force winds and dust storms, entered a heart wrenching battle against The Decepticons. Without a single sub, the seven ultimate Frisbee fighters bravely played the entire game without rest. The fearless captain--Severin "Party Sevs" Gose kept his quick, crucial cuts strong even when everyone was exhausted. Eddie "Epsilon Delta" Kasner used his incredible vertical power-jump to gracefully grab the disc from the clouds. Casey "Case-Control" Gradick's Olympic speed put him in the right place at the right time--all the time. Tyler "Weber" Weber wouldn't allow a defender near him--his careful disc work put points on the board. Eddie "Sauce Wizard" Bendert consistently appeared out of nowhere to enter dense pack of players and skillfully exit with disc in hand. Pete "Mzungu" Daniels sacrificed his body to dive for incredibly critical end zone catches. And Kat "Coach K" Grande? Well, she did the best she could in the group of crazy guys.

The Confounders have become a School of Public Health legacy. While its alumni will certainly go forth to develop new vaccines, provide clean drinking water for the world, and improve the health of billions, the time spent on the ultimate Frisbee field will ensure we will solve problems quickly, gracefully, and powerfully. We'll probably also have a great time while doing so.

Eddie "Epsilon Delta" Kasner floats over the opponents (all photos by Melissa Lo)

Eddie "Sauce Wizard" Bendert, about to score one of his many points

Jeremiah "Placebo" Menk doesn't even give the opponents a chance at victory

Tyler "Weber" Weber gazes proudly at the field after a crafty Confounders play

School of Public Health Ultimate Frisbee Team

Posted at 4:33 PM
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The foot-thick ice sheets have finally melted. Minneapolis water is no longer flavored with meltwater-induced essence of fish. A walk to the bus stop no longer requires Gortex and snowshoes. Spring is here. And with that comes some special things. Notably, Minneapolis becomes a viable option for musicians to stop en route to the coasts.

Yes, indeed, the music scene really picks up when the weather opts to be un-miserable. Here are a few shows I've caught recently:

The Hackensaw Boys, a wild bluegrass-Americana group from Virginia, can't seem to get through one song without breaking a significant number of fiddle, mandolin, and guitar strings. And that is just fine because their contagious energy makes for a great show.

Galactic, my favorite jazz-jam band played at the Cabooze a few weeks ago. As usual, they brought their native New Orleans sound in full force.

Fellow SPH student Eddie introduced me to Charlie Parr, a groovy folky Minnesotan who can really play the guitar.

Cadillac Kolstad and The Flats featuring Cornbread Harris. Stumbling upon these guys was a serious time warp back to the 1950s. There's crazy piano playing, an upright bass, a single snare, and an intense amount of awesomeness. The best part is, this is a local band--they're not just passing through town. Incidentally, keyboardist Cornbread Harris turns 83 today.

So, take a break and see some live music. It'll probably help you write your Master's thesis.

Galactic at The Cabooze

Posted at 12:31 AM
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Hi yall!

I haven't written in bit, March just flew by. I'm in the last 4-5 weeks of classes before I graduate and I couldn't be more excited! Today I am at the CLARION National Case Competition. I am the Public Relations Co-Chair on the CLARION Board and this weekend we are hosting teams from all over the country to compete for a lot of money! Today should be long, but fun!

I went to Chicago for ACHE in March. ACHE is the American College of Healthcare Executives. I went last year as a student member, but this year I went as a staff member of the University of Minnesota. I was representing the MHA and Executive MHA, Ph.D., and other Health Policy and Management programs. I had a really great time and I enjoyed Chicago a lot! It is such a fun city! I have pictures to come of my trip!

I had a student who interviewed for the MHA class come up to me yesterday and thank me for writing in the blog. I had forgotten how important it is to continue to share my experiences in grad school. I will try to do better for the last few weeks of my grad school career.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has given me positive feedback on the blog. It's nice to hear, but it's mainly just nice to know it's making an impact.

Amanda

Posted at 11:29 AM
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There seems to be so many great opportunities these days to see interesting speakers and events through the School of Public Health! The problem is, I am in over my head trying to complete my thesis that I am missing out on a lot these. Today there was a roundtable with Al Frankin about the new health reform bill that I could not fit into my busy schedule. I have also put off getting my hair cut indefinitely.

I have managed to do a few interesting things though. I attended the fund raising gala for student scholarships, which was awesome. I also went for happy hour at a place in downtown called Palamino that had great food specials. Finally, I spent Easter with a friend and her family over brunch.

Posted at 12:42 PM
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I attended the SPH Alumni & Friends Scholarship Gala last week. The event, held to raise money for public health student scholarships, was excellent...especially because the keynote speaker was a total rockstar. Dean Kamen, inventor of robotic arms, in-home dialysis machines, and--oh yeah--the Segway, addressed the room of public health folks with energy, humor, and honesty. What relevance does an inventor have in addressing the public health community? Can his inventions eliminate global health disparities or develop a malaria-HIV-TB combo-vaccine or cure corrupt governments or solve other wicked problems? Perhaps not. But, he is working on something pretty cool.

Enter the Slingshot. A cube about half the size of a refrigerator that can accept any type of water with any type of water problem--arsenic, crypto, turbidity, cholera--and, from it, produce water cleaner than Minnesota tap water. This device can process 1000 liters of water per day and it can run on biofuels like cow dung. The machines are still a bit pricy to sell to areas that lack clean water, but these miracle water cubes are slowly making their way into such communities. We ooh'ed and ahh'ed for a bit before reality settled in. And how does Mr. Kamen plan to get these systems into communities? How will the objects be accepted? Who will take responsibility for them? How will people pay for them? What's to keep people from stripping the machines of their raw materials to sell at the market? Will this be a sustainable solution to the water problem? And that's where the inventor turned to us.

Dean can engineer most anything. In fact, the inventing is the easy part--it's the public health work that comes next that's the tricky part, he says. We get to figure out the answers to the above questions. And to do this, Dean says, it would be a good idea to start forming partnerships between the engineers and public health. And it'd be nice to have some sort of engineer corps, similar to Peace Corps. Since I couldn't agree more, I approached Dean after his talk to let him know that we're working on it. I suggested that Engineers Without Borders sounds like the organization he wants to see. I also informed him that a growing number of public health students are infiltrating--ok, partnering with--the EWB student chapter. He was happy to hear it. Now if only I could get one of those million-dollar water cubes donated for EWB's Uganda project...

Posted at 1:25 AM
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As a biostatistics major at SPH, I have learned through numerous in-class excercises and common sense examples that more information means more power to predict outcomes. With respect to the popular genome-wide studies, gathering more information usually requires gathering more participants.

The accuracy and efficiency with which clinically relevant outcomes can be predicted is perhaps the most salient concern on the projects facing most biostatisticians. Yet, this recent article on CBS news raises some equally valid concerns.

Should Firms Be Able to Own Your Genes?

Today, intellectual property can be the driving factor behind the profit margin of some of the largest companies in the world. Among the many questions that have faced public health professionals for years is a quiet concern that has only recently joined the pack. With all that drive toward discovering the most lucrative and life-changing genes perhaps it is just as important to answer that new question: Who should own your genes?

Posted at 12:36 PM
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Last week I went to Chicago for my internship with the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic Rochester. As I described in a previous blog post, we are collaborating with a group of design graduate students from Illinois Institute of Technology to conduct in-depth user research for the development of a remote asthma management system. The students hosted a SPARC designer and I for a day-long workshop to brief us on their research findings and to engage us in the synthesis process. I was very impressed with their research methodologies and findings and it was interesting to actively participate in the synthesis activities.

I had the opportunity to stay in Chicago through the weekend to tour the city and spend time with a few friends. Our friends gave us a great walking tour of the city, which ended at Millennium Park. On Saturday evening we went to an improve comedy show called Whirled News Tonight at the iO Theater. The show is an improvised comedy performance based on news clippings cut out by audience members prior to the show. I really enjoyed the show!

Below is a picture of us in front of Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park.

Posted at 3:47 PM
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What a brilliant birthday weekend! I got to play outside, hang out with friends, and eat delicious food. Waaay better than that one birthday long ago where the neighborhood bully threw a pile of snow in my face. As you can see from the photos, the snow is gone...but the meltwater certainly is not. Check out the nearly submerged picnic tables!

In public health news, the SPH ultimate frisbee team, The Confounders, began Spring Season on Sunday with a major victory.

Also, next week is National Public Health Week. I'm excited for the SPH Film Festival!

Checking out the Spring flooding (below)

Birthday gathering at McGovern's Irish Pub in St. Paul

Posted at 10:05 PM
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Since the earthquake in Haiti I have wanted to do something to help out (I even considered going there over spring break, but that did not work out). As a student there is not a lot I can do financially, so I was so excited when I heard about an organziation called "Feed My Starving Children" where you can prepare and package food to be sent to countries in need. I organized a small group of co-workers from MDH to go for a two-hour shift. If anyone is considering doing some kind of volunteer work, I highly recommend this organization! It was a lot of fun, meaningful work...and everyone who was there with me wants to go again. I know a trip was planned for the school of public health, I was not able to go to that one, but I hope others went!
Other than that its been a busy time working on my thesis and trying so hard to learn stata. I will say I made some progress today with stata, which is very encouraging.
This week will most likely be very busy, but I am up for the challenge...at least I say that now :)

Posted at 8:45 PM
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A flurry of articles and blog posts today are mentioning a press release and research paper that implicates high-fructose corn syrup in obesity.

As usual, Ars Technica provides an excellent and measured review of the paper. It has a caution that every journalist ought to include with reports on new research:

"It would be wise to reserve judgement until the work is replicated."

Too often, science-articles are merely summaries of the university's hyperbolic press release, not the paper itself. The result is that most popular reports are twice-distilled versions of research with no critical commentary on the content. It's refreshing to see publications like Ars put out quality science coverage.

Posted at 6:37 PM
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The end of spring break for me marks the time to rev up efforts to complete my master's project and to continue work in my demographic data course. I have the data (yeah!) for my thesis and am exicited to start the analysis.

It would be nice to be rested and refreshed, but that is not the case for me. I'm not complaining (although it sounds that way, right?). I travelled to Atlanta for interviews, which I think went very well, so I am feeling happy about that. When I got back I went out bowling in a group, and after we sang some karaoke. It was a lot of fun.

Resting will have to wait until sometime after graduation. Until then, back to work!

Posted at 4:53 PM
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Spring break 2K10 comes to a close. The week was a great one. After spending much of March getting about three hours of sleep per night to meet various school and non-school deadlines, I was definitely ready for a break. So, my man and I hopped in the car on St. Patrick's Day and drove to Red Lodge, Montana. After fifteen hours, hundreds of South Dakotan Wall Drug billboards, miles of amazingly smoothly paved roads, and plenty of i-pod game playing, we'd arrived in the land of mountains. The weather was a tropical 60 degrees Wednesday evening, which was great for the Irish revelry, but a bummer in skierville. Fortunately, the luck of the 17th seeped into the 18th, plummeting the weather to chilly temperatures and delivering plenty of snow. Then, on Friday, it snowed a foot and a half of fresh, delicious pow pow. I literally couldn't stop laughing during the first run because it felt so awesomely ridiculous to float in snow down the mountain. Skiers everywhere were yelping with joy. Oh was it great to really ski again! Only once did I fall in such a way that required Craig to actually dig me out of a mound of snow after I impressively buried everything except my head. The awesome day ended at the base of the mountain where Craig and I met two Red Lodge locals. Life stories were shared, photos were taken, and invitations to Minneapolis and Red Lodge exchanged. Part of the nightlong drive back to Minnesota was devoted to reminiscing about characters Craig and I had met on each of our various travels. Isn't that what makes travel so joyful--meeting interesting folks from around the world? And one doesn't need to go far, either. Who have you met on your travels, near and far? Give 'em a mental shout out!

*For help with skier slang translation, visit this dictionary.

Montana skiing

Craig and Kat after a day of intense skiing

Posted at 8:45 PM
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There is a nice essay over at idlewords.com about the slow accumulation of knowledge about the cause and treatment of scurvy, after James Lind's famous experiment.

Posted at 5:01 PM
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