Student Perspectives: School of Public Health

My name is Adam Kline and I am a senior from Lexington, Kentucky. Early on during my freshman year, my academic advisor suggested that I take one of the Introductory Public Health courses. Soon after, I knew it would be my primary major at Tulane. There were a ton of reasons—though most I didn’t discover until later—that public health was the right fit for me, but foremost was my belief that preventative health care works best. Public health builds on this idea by training students in-depth on different parts of the broad spectrum that is preventative health. This includes everything from epidemiology and biostatistics to infectious disease biology and intervention policy. These concepts are reinforced outside of the classroom by working in the New Orleans community through service learning and other health related organizations.

My sophomore year service learning project was with a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that was in the process of starting up in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. Our goal was to help finish the research of a doctoral student working with the FQHC which would be used to decide what services would be offered at the clinic. The research included breaking the area up into census tracts, surveying the residents in the area, and then analyzing the data to come up with suggestions. This experience taught me the importance of community input in health interventions, as well as a variety of valuable research skills—and it ended up leading to a paid internship a summer later.

I’ve had dozens of great professors throughout my time in the School of Public Health and many courses worth mentioning. One of my favorites is taught by Dr. Joe Keating, who now serves as the Dean of the Undergraduate Public Health program. The title Issues and Strategies in Public Health left me unsure what to expect from the course, but starting from day one Dr. Keating made it clear that the class would focus on practical ways to battle infectious diseases in different parts of the world. His style of teaching was rather unconventional in a good way: the PowerPoints consisted almost entirely of photos that he or colleagues had taken in the regions we discussed in class. This meant that instead of studying the abstracts of public health policy, we got to see how the interventions changed within the target regions and what risks still remained. A good example is during his discussion of Guinea Worm, Dr. Keating showed photos of four different regions where it was transmitted and had groups pick out the best intervention for each one and explain why.

The Undergraduate Public Health building on the uptown campus provides a great space to meet with professors,
our advisors, and other students from the undergraduate and various graduate programs!

The service learning project that I mentioned before was correlated with a course taught by Dr. Local Solutions to Global Problems. Dr. Gleckler is one of the most involved public health professors due to her conveniently located office on the Uptown campus. Her involvement in shaping the undergraduate curriculum is reflected in her ability to get to know the students individually. Many students (myself included) end up asking Dr. Gleckler to write their recommendations for post-graduate jobs and graduate programs because she teaches them in two or more courses and has just as much of an interest in getting to know the students as she does in teaching them. Although this is a reflection on the greater trend of small, interactive classes at Tulane, it is especially true for her classes—even the larger-sized ones. Thanks to Dr. Gleckler’s service learning class, I got the aforementioned internship with the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) where I organized and conducted direct research in the southeastern Louisiana region on immigrant worker health disparities. Since then I’ve presented the findings at conferences and to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Louisiana to further NOWCRJ’s advocacy.
Elisabeth Gleckler called

One last public health experience I’ll share that was made possible by Tulane was my role as a translator in Nicaragua. The trip, which I have actually gone on three times now, was with Dr. Brumfield, a cardiologist from my hometown of Lexington. I met Dr. Brumfield through a family friend when he asked me to help him with an upcoming medical mission run through Project Health for Leon since he knew I was bilingual. The brigade, which lasted for nine days during the school year, included clinic visits with dozens of patients and double digit cardiac device implantations—all of which I interpreted conversations for Dr. Brumfield with patients, nurses and other doctors.

Newcomb Tulane College is an entity that encompasses all five undergraduate schools and offers grants to students for research, travel and other independent or group projects. Applying for the grants includes writing a proposal and creating a budget, all of which I did for my trip, and they paid for the travel and housing expenses. Many students apply for these grants for a wide variety of projects, but they are especially useful for public health students who find international opportunities that may not otherwise be funded.

For all the freshmen out there undecided on what your major will be, don’t worry! There’s no way of knowing if something’s right for you until you try it. That’s why I always recommend that students who might be the slightest bit interested in the health sector take the introductory public health class to see if they like it. Most public health majors, like me, end up knowing right away.

Adam Kline is a Senior graduating in May 2016 with a Bachelors of Science in Public Health.

Be In That Number!

Community Service, Service Learning, and Advocacy at Tulane

As one of few universities that requires all students to complete serving learning before they graduate, it may come as no surprise that community service is a huge aspect of many Tulane students lives.

Aside from the Community Service Fellowship scholarship program and the two-tiered service-learning graduation requirement, there are many ways that Tulane students get involved with community service and/or advocacy based work on or off campus!

Swim 4 Success volunteers teach water safety skills and basic swimming
skills to local children at the Reily Recreation Center.

One of the main ways current students get involved is by joining one of nearly 50 organizations that fall under the Community Action Council of Tulane University Students (CACTUS). The CACTUS umbrella is a student-run resource council within the Undergraduate Student Government (USG). We receive funding and support from the university to provide transportation, logistical support, and other useful resources for our organizations to complete daily, weekly, and monthly service opportunities.

CACTUS organizations are divided into five affinity groups that work together to co-program, share ideas, plan events, and work with non-profits, governmental organizations, and other community partners around the New Orleans area. We have organizations working with and for youth in the city, health-related organizations, global service programs, serving to improve Tulane, and providing community support.

If you don’t see something on our list of active organizations, you can start one while you are here! All we ask is that you find 10 other current students that are also interested in being a member of the organization and a faculty or staff advisor! 

Tulane's first and only service dog program, TUSTEP, aims to raise and
train disability assistance dogs for Canine Companions for Independence. 

CACTUS has seen tremendous growth through the years, adding numerous projects and inspiring thousands of students to volunteer.

One of the most well known service initiatives on campus is the Outreach Tulane Day of Service. Outreach Tulane is a student-run university-wide day of service that provides ~1,000 students the opportunity to volunteer at dozens of locations around the city. It occurs on the first Saturday of each school year, welcoming students back to campus each Fall.

Check out the videos below to see what else the Tulane Center for Public Service and CACTUS do to support the local community!

What will you do to be in that number?

 

Decision Time; I've Been Accepted (Part 1)

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions; Sifting Through Your Admitted Schools List 

First of all, congratulations! Besides the upcoming deadline for depositing and therefore deciding your future at just one university or college, the hard part is done. I congratulate you for all of your accomplishments thus far. I remember, not too long ago, sifting through the universities I was accepted to, trying my best to imagine myself at each institution.

There are many aspects that come with being a Tulane student that have aided in my happiness here. While I cannot begin to list them all, I hope this list will help give you a better idea of what Tulane University is like from the inside so you can better picture if this is truly the place for you.

Academics 

I begin with academics, as the whole point of attending college is to continue your studies, broaden your intellectual understanding, and get a job, right? When you are accepted to Tulane, you are accepted into all five of our undergraduate colleges: Architecture, Business, Liberal Arts, Public Health, and Science & Engineering. This provides students the opportunity to truly take a variety of courses in a variety of disciplines before you hone in on a particular major (among the 75+ to choose from). In fact, Tulane undergraduates do not have to declare an official major until their second semester sophomore year. This gives most the opportunity to complete the core curriculum and find a niche they are passionate about. Roughly 1/3 of students have more than one major and around 75% of students pick up a minor along the way. Long story short, Tulane makes it easy to study across disciplines to ensure that all students are able to study what they want at any time during their undergraduate career. Tulane offers many academic opportunities inside the classroom along with research and study abroad possibilities worldwide. Our average class size is roughly 25 students, ensuring that all students get the attention they deserve from faculty and staff. I like to think of Tulane as the best of both worlds; we have many of the academic opportunities that large state schools have, but we take advantage of them in a small setting, much like many liberal arts universities and institutions.

When the weather permits, many discussion-based lectures are moved to the quad! 

Public Service and Pre-Professional Opportunities 

I group these into one category because I am a believer that our required service-learning component inherently provides students access to pre-professional opportunities outside of the classroom. On tours, I usually tell my groups that the Tulane service-learning component serves two main functions:

First, it allows undergraduate students, who on average travel over 900 miles to attend the university, the opportunity to explore the city of New Orleans, interact with working professionals in the area, and get at least a basic understanding of the unique culture, history, and vibe of their new home. Second, not only are students giving back, but the public service requirement is broken into a two-tiered system that aligns directly with undergraduate course work. The first tier is typically a 20-hour service requirement in any course completed freshman or sophomore year. 

My lab partner observes and takes notes
on the conditions at the Audubon lagoon.

For example, my first tier service learning was completed in my Cell & Molecular Biology course. In class, we learned about many various microorganisms and biologic & metabolic pathways; in the service-learning component, we then took what we were learning in class and tested the water in the lagoon at Audubon Park to measure its clarity, pH level, dissolved oxygen, etc. We then sent in the data we collected each week to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) so that they could monitor our results and research their effect on animals and plants.

The second tier is typically a 40-60 hour service component that can be completed through a non-paid internship, an independent research component, or a project done while abroad. My second tier service learning component was an internship that has continued into a paid position at a local startup working to implement a new electronic health record system into the LSU network across the state.

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Outside of the service component, the opportunities to find research positions, internships, and other pre-professional opportunities are limitless. Recently, Forbes named New Orleans the #1 “Brainpower City.” As a student, I agree with that wholeheartedly, as the innovation occurring all around the city is a huge benefit for all Tulane students. After graduation, many students go directly into a Tulane affiliated graduate program or stay in New Orleans to work professionally. As one famous quote goes, "you can live in any city in America, but New Orleans is the only city that lives in you." -Chris Rose

About the Author

Trey Holmes

Class of 2016 

Major: Public Health 
Minor: Business 

Involvement: GWA, Greek Life, CACTUS, Community Service Fellowship, USG 

Volunteering at Tulane: planting seeds of hope

Guest blogger: Wil Crary

Tired of the Boot?  Looking for some meaningful group activities that don’t involve Maple Street? Don’t let New Orleans fool you!  The amount of ways to engage yourself in the community that don’t involve debauchery and imbibement might knock your tipsy socks off.  With activities ranging from monthly events to daily commitments, both your casual volunteer and service-extraordinaire will find something to satisfy their interests.  Ophir Haberer, one of my main partners in crime (and by crime I mean community service), remains a close friend and a constant inspiration.  Constantly engaged with the greater New Orleans community, Ophir pushes himself and his peers to achieve their true potential in order to better the lives of others. 

Ophir’s community-driven mindset here at Tulane all started with a day-trip to the Lower Ninth Ward Village, an eccentric community center with a variety of characters and sources of entertainment. In the fall of 2010, Ophir saw the opportunity for a partnership with the director of the community center who was stoked to begin a solid relationship with some enthusiastic Tulane students. After being drawn to the dilapidated raised-garden beds, which the director informed Ophir were necessary due to the contamination of the post-Katrina soil, and informed of the eminent food desert resulting from the lack of available fresh produce in the area, it became clear to Ophir which direction he wanted to kickstart his endeavors.

And so began our saga (excuse the theatrics).  Ophir spearheaded funding through the university alongside his equally inspiring twin brother Dor (yes, there are two of these incredible creatures crawling around our campus), while I rallied a team of excited and fairly unequipped volunteers, a motley crew of our close friends (and not-so-close friends) and classmates.  After tossing around a variety of possible names, Ophir made the executive decision to bestow upon us a name that concisely states our mission and purpose: The Hope Gardens Project.  The Lower Ninth Village community center’s quaint little garden was full of concrete, glass, weeds, and more agricultural nightmares, but all hope remained.

To make a long story short, we were too hopeful. Damn. However, the disorganization of the community center didn’t deter us.  We knew our focus had to stay on the beautification of the educational, healthy-lifestyle conducive gardens.  Tulane, with joint support from CACTUS and Hillel, provided us with the resources. Our 20+ volunteers showed us their commitment, while Ophir, Dor, and I never lost hope.  We said our goodbyes and parted ways with the Village because our goals didn’t quite match up, and so our search for a community partner continued.

Then came the Sankofa Community Development Corporation, an organization with a name reminding all of us to “move forward while looking backwards”.  Sankofa’s unique goal of re-instilling the values of urban agriculture and available fresh produce to the lower ninth ward drew us to them immediately.  The community gardens were beautiful, the farmer’s market was lively, and the neighborhood seemed to rally around the idea of coming together to stamp out the crippling food desert.  

Every Saturday, we would take our volunteers down to KIPP Renaissance, a charter school in the area, to maintain their on-campus garden, renovate the unutilized space, work alongside students, and learn about the importance of fresh produce.  We also were pivotal in starting Sankofa’s blueberry farm, which was nothing more than an empty lot when we arrived (well, not counting the overgrown weeds, piles of trash, and debris). We had a solid year of commitment, but again we felt our resources were being misused and that our wonderful volunteers were being under-appreciated. On to the next one, we declared!

We felt that we were capable of being a more autonomous group, having proved our gardening efficacy on campus through the Wall Garden (which everyone should check out!) which flourished with carrots, kale, herbs, beets, radishes, and more.  Likewise, we work hard to introduce a culture of composting and conscious food disposal. Ophir and I both went abroad last semester, but fortunately Dor and our good friends Melissa Makous and Zoe Swartz courageously took charge. Our new projects are flourishing, but there is always work to be done. We’ve got two big projects on the way and are always looking for more dedicated volunteers who want to learn about urban farming or who just want to spend a beautiful Saturday morning outside instead of writhing around in bed fighting off an inevitable hangover.  Send us an email at tulanegardengang@gmail.com, or get directly in contact with Wil Crary, Ophir Haberer, or Melissa Makous through our Tulane emails.

See you in the gardens (hopefully),

The Hope Gardens Project