Chiung-yu (Cali) Chang

Master’s student, Department of Environmental Health

Coming from a medical family, Chiung-yu (Cali) Chang comments, “I see occupational safety and health as another form of medicine. People often develop some kind of disability or disease related to their work.” Cali majored in public health at Taipei Medical University, where she became interested in her current field. Until legislation to protect labor was passed, she explains, Taiwan was plagued by severely unsafe working conditions; even now, the country lacks sufficient data to monitor occupational diseases. After graduating from university, Cali worked in a laboratory at the Taiwanese Institute of Occupational Safety and Health on a project assessing the effects of cooking-oil fumes on restaurant workers. Encouraged by her supervisor, who had studied at HSPH, she applied to the master’s program in occupational health in the Department of Environmental Health. Cali is still early on in her program, but she has been struck by the differences between the Taiwanese and American educational approach: “The emphasis here is on your core knowledge rather than your grades.” She describes the students as “competitive in a good way. They are very helpful and make me work harder.” Cali will spend the summer in the lab of her adviser, Professor David Christiani. She plans to apply to the HSPH doctoral program in environmental health.