As a UW student, I stretch the confines of traditional academic disciplines. After starting college, I realized I wanted to make connections across ostensibly separate areas of study. My public health major courses have helped me identify problems that will require innovative solutions. For example, my course “History and Practice of Public Health” explored how infectious diseases can easily spread at refugee camps through fecal contamination of food. We discussed efforts to address these problems through advocacy efforts, education, and policy, which are all effective approaches to improving the long-term health of populations.

 

In my work, I want to solve these problems using an interdisciplinary approach that bridges engineering, design, and the humanities. My goal is to use user experience design to create new products that transcend the boundaries of specific schools of thought, and every class I take offers a new framework for solving problems.

 

My pursuit of Public Health is supplemented and informed by work in computer science, comparative history of ideas, and journalism. The humanities help me develop a broader framework for addressing problems in a novel way, and my STEM classes provide a robust understanding of the biological mechanisms of health and disease, and how they impact populations and individuals.