We are Doers | LLU School of Public Health | Student Blog

Many people have a very different perspective on a masters in public health. Ideas of heavy stacks of papers, old musty books for literature reviews, debate and philosophy must come to mind. The crazy thing about the program is that we do these things to an extent, but in reality, we are all about today, community, and what tomorrow holds. Ethics are important, as is having knowledge of existing programs and being able to express what you need to do via a project proposal but action comes shortly after. The MPH is a professional degree (the reason why we pay for it rather than get paid to go to school), resulting in a life full of both implementation and research (if one desires). We are not philosophers, we are doers. We have learned how program plan and evaluate, analyze data, work in the field, communicate, and notice everyday public health issues.

Recently, my neighbor, an older gentleman, told me that I should take a survival course if I want to work abroad. I said something along the lines of, ?Sure, sounds great,? as I just wanted to go cycling, but he continued to give an explanation: ?Those people won?t listen to you. They will do their own thing if you don?t know what to do.? I understood what he was saying but I wanted to ask him why he thought that I didn?t know how to do that (but I wanted to cycle more). At school, we learn what to do within a community/culture/region that is unfamiliar or different to us.

I chose an MPH rather than another masters or PhD because I wanted action. I wanted to do something. I wanted to be a part of something bigger, right in the thick of it. Just because it is a masters program does not merit us to be snobby or pretentious. We can do normal tasks like think of how to get clean water or prevent cholera outbreaks. We do research, writing, speaking, implementing, program planning, evaluation, advocacy, healing, resource management, grant writing, publishing, and much more. We are doers.

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