300 HOURS CLOSER TO A BETTER TOMORROW
Interning with Southwest Utah Public Health Department
(21 September 2018 - Cedar City, Utah)
Madeline Gines completed an internship with Southwest Utah Public Health Department at the end of May. She plans to pursue a Masters in Public Health after graduating from Southern Utah University. As public health declines, there is a need to discuss her experience and how it fits into the bigger picture of improving the health and wellness within our local communities, as well as highlight the importance of providing young, energetic adults with opportunities that will give them an advantage when entering the workforce.
Public health is a dismal scene today. Obesity rates are higher than they’ve ever been, Diabetes is crippling our society, illnesses that were once considered dormant have appeared in local communities, and, to make matters worse, public health, as a field of study, has become obscure and vaguely forgotten. Many people don’t know where their local health department is, or what they do there. Little do they know that within those buildings lie numerous well-educated individuals with information that could really improve the lives of everyone in the community. Dr. David Blodgett said in his letter by the Health Officer in the Summer 2018 edition of HEALTH, the health department’s “Best of State” magazine, “It can be challenging, even discouraging, to sort through the wide range of opinions about what it takes to keep us healthy… our job is to stay current on research-based information that might come close.”
Young people like Madeline embody hope; hope that public health will improve at some point in the future. Having Madeline working in our health department brought great things to our community. In her short time there, she was able to bring the TopStar Program, a program sponsored by the state of Utah to teach obesity prevention in preschool and childcare settings, to three different childcare facilities in Iron County. She was also given the opportunity to be mentored by experts in public health, and gain insight and perspective from one of the last Health Officers that has both an MD and MPH degree, Dr. David Blodgett. She gave 300 hours of her time to learn about and experience Public Health in action and she reports that the experience was “absolutely invaluable.” Caring about the health of the public is sometimes discouraging and tiresome, but when there are young people looking forward to making tomorrow a better place to live, there is hope that things will get better. Young people should not only be encouraged to take advantage of opportunities like Madeline did, but employers, especially those who spend their daily lives serving those around them, should feel proud and excited about offering intern work to the young adults in their community. We all need to help each other work towards a better tomorrow.
This press release is sponsored by the EDGE Program at Southern Utah University. This program aims to provide students with experiential learning opportunities and encourages them to develop their skills in promoting themselves before graduating from SUU and entering the workforce.
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Contact Information
Madeline Gines
435-890-3791