By Ali Talan, MSc
Attending a large conference in any field can be overwhelming: the sea of people, the sheer number of sessions, the enormous space. But as the opening general session at this year’s APHA conference was coming to a close and Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was speaking passionately about the importance of equity and inclusion in education, I felt like he was talking directly to me.
I had just come from a four hour workshop on leadership in public health and had spent much of that time thinking and sharing my beliefs about the importance of mindfulness in public health practice. How to be mindful of your own actions, how to be mindful of the actions of your colleagues, and how to be mindful of the past, present, and future experiences of those you are serving and the communities you are working with.
Towards the end of his speech, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski summed up what I had been feeling with these words: “Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.”
Being present and mindful isn’t always easy. It felt incredibly important for Dr. Hrabowski to share his words with the thousands of attendees at the start of this conference. A conference that has the ability to shape and influence the course of a young person’s passion, interests, and future career. I carried his words with me while I attended various oral sessions, poster presentations, business meetings, and socials. I found myself more engaged during presentations and more attentive to others in social settings.
Looking back on this conference, I connected with interesting and inspiring people at the MCH social hour, became policy chair of the LGBT caucus, and was able to relate much of what I was hearing in the oral sessions to my own work and interests. I found the whole experience to be rewarding and attribute a lot of what I got out of the conference to being mindful of where I was and what I wanted to learn from being there.
Ali Talan is a third-year DrPH student in the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences. Her research interests focus on risk behaviors during adolescence and the transition into adulthood, as well as health disparities in sexual minorities, HIV prevention, and the relationship between mental and sexual health.
