By Ana Bales, BS
This year was my second opportunity to attend APHA, and despite feeling more prepared entering into the experience this time, I learned a lesson that I was not expecting: APHA is not for me.
Let me explain. APHA is a wonderful conference, especially for students trying to get their bearings on what public health has to offer and where they belong in the field and for professionals trying to build and maintain broad networks of contacts. The former is both why I enjoyed the conference so much last year and why I feel that APHA is not for me, at least for the time being. Since last year, I have become much more focused in both my degree and career trajectory after realizing my passion for child abuse prevention.
Since my path to a career in this field is in its fledgling stages, I think I would benefit the most from attending smaller conferences focused solely on my interest so that I am able to maximize my time learning from and networking with established professionals in my field. This was reinforced by the general lack of sessions dedicated to child abuse prevention at APHA this year. Though this forced me to think critically and be creative in my search for sessions that could be applied to my desired field and resulted in my seeing several interesting presentations I might have otherwise missed, at this stage in my education I think I would have benefited more from sessions directly addressing child abuse prevention. So, for the time being I plan on seeking other conferences that will help me grow as a young professional until I am established enough to return to APHA with something of my own to contribute.
Ana Bales is a second-year MPH student and MCHLT Scholar, concentrating in Maternal and Child Health. She plans to graduate in December 2015. She works on projects focused on child abuse prevention.
