High school students get taste of public health

Ameina Mosley, second from left, is considering a career in public health

April 16, 2015 — Ameina Mosley, a student at the Community Academy of Science and Health (CASH) in Boston, has wanted to become a doctor ever since a family member died of diabetes at a young age. And after attending a day-long program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she now is interested in exploring public health as well.

“I can honestly say that I am considering a career in public health,” said Mosley, who aspires to be a pediatrician. She enjoyed hearing faculty and students discuss career choices and research areas in public health, including conditions such as obesity and diabetes that affect entire populations and disease-prevention strategies such as tobacco control. “We should be getting information out to people to choose life over death by not smoking,” she said.

Mosley was among about 100 high school students from Boston-area schools who attended the third “Let’s Talk Public Health: Youth and Public Health Conference” on April 10, 2015. The program, organized by co-chairs Virgie Fields, SM2, ’15, and Erin Comerford, SM2,’16, fellow students, and the School’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, included lectures, interactive activities, and campus tours.

Meredith Rosenthal, associate dean for diversity and professor of health economics and policy at Harvard Chan, welcomed the students. In her keynote address she said public health is about addressing health inequalities, social justice, and improving the life of communities. Career choices range from working in a research laboratory, studying obesity trends, to helping improve care for women and children. “Using our science, quantitative ability, and commitment to social justice is what drives us,” she said.

High school students tour campus
A Harvard Chan student leads a tour

Faculty member John McDonough gave the students a taste of public health when he pointed to a U.S. map showing colorful variations in heart disease rates. He asked the students what region appeared to have the highest heart disease rate. “The Southeast,” the students called out. “Why?” he asked. Hands went up and students shouted out that poor food choices, like grits and gravy, might contribute, and perhaps a more sedentary lifestyle due to more hot weather was to blame. “This is the stuff of public health,” McDonough told the group. Public health is more prevention-oriented (and community-oriented) than clinical medicine, which is geared to treating one sick patient at a time, said McDonough, professor of the practice of public health and director of the Center for Executive and Continuing Professional Education.

Leslie Garcia and Lissarenny Ruiz of Lynn English High School were surprised to learn from a talk by Jukka-Pekka Onnela, assistant professor of biostatistics, that cell phones can be used to gather health data. “The phone is like my life,” said Ruiz with delight. Onnela described using cell phone signal patterns to identify crowded areas where infectious diseases could break out and to monitor the health of Parkinson’s disease patients. “Data will drive medicine and public health going forward,” Onnela said.

Julie Joyal, executive director at HMS MEDscience, who brought Mosley and her classmates from the CASH school to the event, said, “We had a wonderful day today and the students were so engaged and thankful for this experience.” She said many of her students are interested in medicine but don’t necessarily want to become a traditional doctor or nurse but want to make a difference in the world, and need to know what the other options are for them. “It is exposure to excellent programing exactly like this that changes kids’ lives.”

Marge Dwyer

photo: Emily Cuccarese