Do you ever feel like you’ve just walked into a spider web when you enter a room full of amazing professionals that you want to get to know? Have no fear. You, too can be a Spiderman or Spiderwoman and create your own web of connections.
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| Creating connections: Student Committee Program Liaison Aneesah Akbar-Uqdah (left) with new Student Committee Communications Liaison Dawn Alayon. Photo courtesy Dawn Alayon |
Every year the APHA Annual Meeting has an Exhibition Hall that is often a main attraction for young professionals. The exhibit room is full of intensive positive energy that inspires conference participants to engage in conversations with those who are serious and passionate about the work they do in public health and explore the many facets of public health. This kinetic energy has a way of defusing the anxiety that is often felt by young professionals that inhibits us from engaging in dialogue with more experienced professionals.
The CHPPD Section is very enthusiastic about keeping students involved and valuing our voice. One of the many ways the Section shows their dedication to student leadership is by allowing students to partner with a senior member of CHPPD to volunteer at the booth in the exhibit hall. By partnering with a mentor, students are able to learn more about the CHPPD Section and encourage interested guests to actively participate in the Section. Because the exhibition hall is a main attraction for all conference participants including the younger attendees, you often find yourself speaking with ambitious students.
Volunteering at the booth gives you a feeling of empowerment and also allows you to practice your networking skills. It gives you the opportunity to widen your circle of public health professionals both young and old. The most important thing to remember and truly believe is that your involvement and personal interests in public health is a significant contribution to the field, even if you are not sure what direction you want to pursue in the field of public health. Sometimes, we forget that what we are doing as students is just as meaningful as what experienced professionals are doing. In fact, our engagement and leadership is what will drive the development of health care nationwide.
A professor by the name of Dr. Tracey Hucks instilled in me that knowledge is fluid. Remembering this will help dissolve and eliminate barriers constructed to make our search of knowledge difficult. Continue to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave; it will keep you forever young. The CHPPD Section is proud of student involvement, and you should be, too. Sign up to volunteer at the booth at next year’s APHA Annual Meeting!
By Aneesah Akbar-Uqdah, aakbaru@sph.emory.edu, CHPPD Student Committee Program Liaison and Student Committee Chair-Elect