Meet JHU_Jessica - Tenafly, NJ, Public Health Major, Env. Studies Minor

Hey everyone! My name is Jessica and I'm a junior public health (social sciences, emphasises: environmental engineering and sociology) major with an environmental studies minor. I'm originally from Tenafly, NJ where I attended Tenafly High School, but now a days I feel as though I'm spending more and more of my time away from good ol' New Jersey, which just means that I have a growing appreciation for every day that I do make it home. Currently I live on-campus in an efficiency room in Homewood, in the past I lived in Charles Commons and Building A.

I have a love for my major. Why? I knew since day one that it would be my major at Hopkins. My dad always joked that I kept looking for a school with a "save the world" major. And well, I think I found the closest thing to it. I knew I wanted a major that was interdisciplinary (I never had a favorite subject in high school) and I knew I wanted to incorporate my love for the environment into it. I also knew I didn't want to be a doctor, since in high school I began my history of fainting from blood, hospitals, and shots (yes, that includes fainting from a drunk driving movie in high school). I also visited Cambodia in my sophomore year of high school and ever since then wanted to commit myself to the poor.

I also have a love for Hopkins. Why? I knew I didn't want to go north from New Jersey. I do not like the cold (nor shoveling snow). So, geographically Hopkins was a fit. Additionally, I wanted a small-ish campus and was terrified of huge schools, but also didn't like schools with only a limited number of majors. I applied early decision and have no regrets in that decision. My mentor since 5th grade, Rachel Carson, also went to graduate school here, so that too made me love the school. Additionally, Hopkins has given me a whole range of opportunities that I hadn't expected before...

Firstly, I have been able to take a range of classes. The social sciences track of the public health major gives you a whole range of departments to explore, as you'll see from my schedule. I've given descriptions of some of my favorite ones:

Freshman Year:
-Calculus I: I'm pretty sure this is self-explanatory.
-Introduction to Fiction/Poetry I and II: Taught by a graduate student, this two-part course is full of examining well-known fiction and poetry and getting inspired to write (and workshop) your own!
-Issues International Development: Taught by a great professor. This course examined the study and practice, as well as the successes and failures, of international development through understanding the causes and solutions of underdevelopment.
-Freshman Seminar (Conversations with the Earth): Basically a beginning seminar to physical science...with fieldtrips!
-Biostatistics: One of the core public health courses. This course through using problem-based learning focused on public health topics, learned to describe and summarize data, make inferences regarding population parameters, and test hypotheses.
-Vaccine Development (Intersession): A super cool intersession course taught by a Hopkins alum...and featuring a case lecture by DA Henderson (a name associated with smallpox eradication). This course provided a brief overview of the field including history, types, and regulation of vaccines.
-Sex and Sexuality in the 17th Century (Intersession): I bet they don't offer this course everywhere. This intersession course really made me realize about how much our views on sex and sexuality have changed.
-Introduction Social Psychology: A great course at Hopkins, again, taught by a great professor. This course really made me rethink everything that I do.
-Climate Change: Science & Policy: I bet your parents didn't take this course. This course investigated the policy and scientific debate over global warming.
-Introduction to Public Health: I recommend taking this course as a good way to get an idea of what public health is. The course provided a survey of the basic principles of public health practice, including an introduction to the infrastructure and the analytical tools employed in public health
-Fundamentals of Health Policy & Management: One of the four core public health courses...but definitely an important one! In this course you develop a framework for analyzing health care policy problems, gained familiarity with current issues including managed care, Medicare, and the uninsured.

Sophomore Year:
-Global Public Health Since WWII: One of my favorite courses that I have taken at Hopkins. This history course explored the impact of globalization on public health in the developed and the developing nations since 1945.
-Population, Health and Development: A course taught by a great SPH faculty member. In this lower-level course I learned about world population changes in the past, contemporary, and future through investigating rapid population growth, decline of death and birth rates, mortality transitions, contraceptive use, population aging, urbanization, and HIV/AIDS.
-The City in Time and Space: Historical Sociology of the Urban World: A Dean's Teaching Fellowship course (meaning its taught by a graduate student). In this course we cross-analyzed cities and studies what a city really means and how they develop.
-The Environment and Your Health: Another core public health course. In this course I learned the basic environmental health sciences, current public health issues, and emerging global health threats.
-Environment & Society: Towards Sustainability: Taught in the Env. Engineering Department, this course examined sustainability, with a focus on identifying and implementing solutions for a world of increasing needs and limited resources.
-Medicine, Media, Markets and Motherhood: Health and Infant Feeding in America (Intersession): What other intersession course do you get to watch Family Guy? This course, taught by a graduate student, investigated how medicine, media, markets, and motherhood have impacted health and infant feeding.
-Sociology of Disability: A Dean's Teaching Fellowship course...and a great one! This course critiqued traditional notions of disability, explored how societal institutions influence the classification, significance, and experiences of disability.
-Medical Sociology: Another course taught by a SPH faculty member. This course applied the sociological perspective to health and health care. Major topics included stress, social epidemiology, and the social organization of health care.
-Population/Community Ecology: An Earth and Planetary Sciences course (with field trips!). This course really made me appreciate the world around me from questioning why the world is so green to better understanding the competition in the natural world.
-Fundamentals of Epidemiology: One of the core public health classes. This course explored the principles and methods for investigating infectious and non-infectious disease within human populations contributing to an understanding of etiologic factors, models of transmission, and pathogenesis.
-Oral Presentations: A great course just for general good life experience. In this course you learn the principles of developing and delivering effective oral presentations, including developing clear structure, engaging the audience, and designing visual aids.

Junior Year (so far):
-Elem. of Macroeconomics: Again, pretty self-explanatory.
-Gender and Development: It employed a comparative perspective to examine how gender affects and is affected by the theories, experiences, and policies of international development.
-Introduction to Global Health: A course for juniors and seniors taught by a SPH professor. Covered approaches used by various countries in solving their health and medical care problems, and the role of major international health organizations.
-Water Resource Dev.: A course taught by the infamous Professor Wolman. The course reviewed utilization and development of water in diverse environments beginning with early irrigation systems revealed by archeology.
-Independent Research: On various tuberculosis and smoking studies (see below).

My favorite course? Probably Global Public Health Since WWII it really got me thinking about the different views in development and develop my own. That plus the fact that I loved my professor, Professor Galambos. My classes this semester are turning out to be great as well.

Other opportunities? Well, I've gotten myself in a range of extra-curricular activities. Being on work study, I knew I wanted to start working my fall of freshman year. I started working in the AMRII Housing and Dining Office and then switched jobs to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Currently I work at the Center for a Livable Future (CLF) at the Bloomberg School of Public Health for 10 hours a week as a research assistant, which is part of the environmental health department. My work there deals with national envrionmental issues (especially modern agriculture) through promoting the work CLF has done.

I have had additional research experience this summer as a MERCK Global Health grant recipient. I wrote a grant proposal with Dr. Jonathan Golub who oversaw my research in Brazil which was working on an HIV/TB co-infection paper at a university in Vitoria, Brazil in the infectious disease office. This was definitely a learning experience not just academically, but also culuturally since I basically didn't come in face-to-face contact with another American for nine weeks. I am continuing as a research assistant this fall (for credit) with Dr. Jonathan Golub where I plan to help him work on the numerous tuberculosis studies he currently handles from developing forms to editing articles.

On-campus I have been involved with Student Admissions Advisory Board since freshman year (the group that runs this site). I also am currently the co-president of Public Health Student Forum, a group that is overseen by the public health studies program, this group is meant to unite the public health student body and to promote public health. I am also an Admissions Representative, meaning I interview prospective students on-campus (hey, that could be you!) In years past I was involved with Circle K and Club Soccer.

This spring I also seizing a study abroad opportunity in Geneva, Switzerland. Although I'll miss having a spring at Hopkins, I'm excited to be able to immerse myself in yet another culture (and to be able to get a public health internship).

Please feel free to reply to this thread with any questions. Really, I'll answer anything from where I got my XL-twin sized sheets freshman year to where I see myself in ten years.

Also, please check out my blog entries:
Freshman Year: http://hopkins.typepad.com/freshman/jessica_k/
Sophomore and Junior Year: http://hopkins.typepad.com/shared/jessica_k_/

I hope to hear from you soon,

Jessica

This post has been edited by JHU_Jessica on Nov 16 2009, 08:53 PM

Meet Me Threads: Archives
Here are a few of the questions that I've been asked on the forums...

Question:

Answer: I myself am not a psychology major (although I did enjoy the psychology class I took freshman year) and I have not studied abroad yet...although I'm heading to Geneva soon. I am looking forward to it. Studying abroad is rarely linked to a specific academic major unless a student is studying language/cultural studies or engineering. Even so, you don't have to be in one of these programs even if you're in the major associated with them. I think this is beneficial because it really allows you to go to anywhere that interests you. Many natural science students choose a study abroad site that interests them and then take a breadth of programs...JHU_Michelle is a great example of that. Check her out on Hopkins Interactive to learn about her experience. She's a neuro major who went to the UK to focus on theater. Because Hopkins doesn't have a core curriculum, there is not much of a stress to take certain classes (unless of course you're planning for med school), but most people are able to fit in a semester worth of non-required major courses. I hope you can tell that Hopkins is flexible in not only it's curriculum but its study abroad options.
Check out the study abroad website to learn more about options: http://www.jhu.edu/~advising/StAbd.htm. The study abroad office is open to freshmen, so they can advice you in choosing the right program, one that will suit your interests. This past year Dr. Citti, the director, did a study abroad information session just for freshmen.
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Question:

Answer: I do not know too much about the med school process. However, I believe the pre-med requirements are:
-A year of Chemistry along with the appropriate laboratory courses
-A year of Organic Chemistry along with laboratory courses
-A year of Biology along with laboratory courses
-A year of Physics along with laboratory courses
-A year of English
-A year of Calculus or other advanced math classes, including Statistics

Major requirements/checklists can be found on the Hopkins advising site (http://www.advising.jhu.edu/) The public health (social science) requirements include a year of biology with laboratory courses (which I AP-ed out of), a year of english, and Calculus I and Biostatistics. However, they do not include organic chemistry, intro to chemistry, or physics. Additionally, students that are planning to go to medical school usually take more advanced science courses like anatomy, developmental biology, biochemistry, cell biology, etc. Additionally, pre-med students frequently take classes like Calculus II. With that being said, those that are looking for a public health major and plan to go to medical school frequently are public health (natural sciences) majors, since the major requirements meet and go beyond the pre-med requirements. I do not know of any public health (social science) student that is on a pre-med track, although no one is stopping someone from doing it, the natural sciences track just fits so perfectly with the pre-med requirements, that that would be the more obvious choice to make.

I must say that there are certainly people that are social sciences majors and are "pre-med." Public health (social science) is not the only major considered social sciences--Anthropology, Economics, International Relations, Political Science, Sociology, etc. are also social sciences majors at Hopkins. There are plenty of people that major in one of these and also are fulfilling pre-med requirements. If you have an interest in social sciences there is no one holding you back from majoring in a social sciences major and also fulfilling pre-med requirements, instead this shows that you can do more than just science...which is awesome!

I hope this helped! Feel free to ask me anything else!
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Question:

Answer: To answer your question simply... definitely!

Why? Well...
1) You already know what you are interested in majoring in. Many people spend their entire first year exploring classes that may not even end up counting for the major that they end up deciding on (this is definitely not a bad thing and there is time in college to do this). I definitely recommend exploring classes, but the public health major is SO interdisciplinary that you can explore while fulfilling major/minor requirements.
2) Public health majors do not have distribution requirements like most other majors. This is because the major (especially social sciences) is again SO interdisciplinary that there is really no reason to require other classes.
3) Hopkins doesn't have a core curriculum so while at other schools you may spend over a year fulfilling core requirements, at Hopkins you have this extra time to explore classes of interest to you while taking time to fulfill major/minor requirements.
4) The two minors you are interested in are very interconnected to the public health social sciences major (see the major/minor checklists here: http://www.advising.jhu.edu/checklists.html). For example, the bioethics minor requires general bio (a pre-req in PH SS) and Bioethics seminars which are usually S-discipline classes (S simply means Social Sciences) that you could even count, with advisors permission, to your S-credit public health courses. And the WGS minor also requires upper level WGS classes which are usually S-credit classes. Before you assume that you can cross-list courses, definitely double check with your advisor.

To look at classes for the fall semester, click here: http://www.jhu.edu/registr/course%20schedu...edule_Ugrad.pdf

Anyway, the simple answer is that you definitely can do this andddd at the same time explore during your freshman year. Don't feel obligated to fulfill minor requirements, because most likely your minor requirements will hopefully be fulfilled simply by taking classes you are interested in. But definitely check out Intro to Bioethics (or another Bioethics course) and a WGS course and see if you like them and then continue from there.
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As you can see, I love to answer questions. Feel free to ask me anything! (Well, maybe not anything...)