Many of our students attended this year’s meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), held in San Diego, November 10 – 14. What follows is a post from one of these attendees.
By Catherine Kinsler, BA
This year, I attended my first public health conference, APHA, in San Diego. The experience overall was very enlightening and invigorated my passion for public health; however, I did find myself feeling overwhelmed at times due to the size of the conference center and the sheer number of people in attendance. It was great to be around so many people with similar passions and goals, who are identifying problems and collaborating to solve them.
My personal interests revolve around various topics in the MCH field: breastfeeding, substance abuse, infant development, and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. I would have loved to be able to focus on all my interests at APHA, but unfortunately due to time constraints I had to shorten my list. I also decided to go to a couple of oral sessions that I didn’t know much about, but thought were interesting topics that I wanted to learn more about.
The first day at APHA was the busiest day. We had the opening session, a networking session hosted by the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health (ATMCH), working at the Tulane booth, and happy hour for MCH scholars. The opening session reiterated to me how many people were there, but also how many important, accomplished people were in attendance this year at APHA. It really surprised me that people like the Surgeon General were there. Out of everything that happened this day, I really enjoyed speaking with other MCH students and people already in the field. It’s always helpful to hear something from another person’s perspective.
Over the next couple of days, I went to three main oral sessions that I found extremely interesting. The first, and my favorite, was an oral session on breastfeeding. The three speakers did research in regards to breastfeeding practices and social media; their findings were that mothers are creating a ‘village’ of support through things like Facebook and in many cases use it as an educational source about breastfeeding too. While it didn’t surprise me that women are utilizing these platforms in this way, this oral session did lead me to wonder how hospitals or health professionals can use this research in order to better serve their patients.
The other two oral sessions I went to were ones that I found interesting but previously did not know much about. The first was concerning human trafficking, and the other was about intimate partner violence. Both oral sessions were very informative and touched on topics I don’t hear about often. These oral sessions caused me to want to investigate more about the most effective preventive measures in these areas with adolescents.
Overall, my experience at APHA was very enjoyable and educational. I learned more about topics I already held an interest in, and I discovered topics that I previously did not know much about. I met MPH professionals and students alike, and loved hearing their views and passions. While my initial response to APHA was feeling overwhelmed, I left feeling accomplished as an MCH student.
Catherine Kinsler, BA, is a first-year MPH student with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health. Her planned graduation date is May 2020. Her interests include: epidemiology, substance abuse, women’s health, reproductive health, and infant development.
