I work to ensure that immigrants, including

Irecognized this moment as the first of many obstacles that not only Canadiansface but also immigrants and the helplessness and confusion that one is toovercome within an unfamiliar country.  My purposein undertaking graduate study in the Master of Public Health program at LakeHeadUniversity is to develop my skills and knowledge of epidemiology and populationhealth in preparation for a career as a field epidemiologist. There are severalcareer goals I hope to achieve upon successfully pursuing my MPH.

I want toresearch and implement intervention policies aimed at providing populations,more specifically rural areas, with direct access to health care services. Iwant to be able to link demographic groups, environments, behaviours/lifestylesand the determinants of health to risk factors and disease as well as othernon-communicable diseases. I also want to infuse health care concepts in individualsby integrating health awareness in education programs.

I want to focus on thestate of the health and wellness of the overall Canadian population. A healthypopulation will demand less acute care services caused by preventable chronicdiseases. With my masters, I plan to work to ensure that immigrants, includingthose who are undocumented, receive basic health care services.

Throughout my undergraduate education at UofT, I further developed my existinginterest in health promotion and epidemiology.  Although I began my undergraduate educationmajoring solely in biology, my first encounter with the course HLTB22,Biological Determinants of Health, made me realize that I wanted to focus onthe area where biology and population health overlap. I was able to learn theorigins and development of both infectious and non-infectious diseases in humanpopulations.  The courseHLTB17, Conceptual Models of Health, has prepared me to to use my team work andcritical thinking skills in an assignment which required a team to develop aconceptual framework for the Ebola outbreak in Guinea in 2014. I chose tocombine the Life Course Health Development approach and Ottawa Charters forHealth Promotion to make the outline of the framework. Something that I learnedfrom this assignment that I will carry with me in my future career, is the needto treat health development as a long- term investment and the focus onbuilding a strong primary health care system.  I began tofurther explore the concept of health promotion during ANTC68, DeconstructingEpidemic.

It was here that I was introduced to the field of Epidemiology. ANTC68required us to assess priority action areas required to mitigate the negative effectsof a future influenza pandemic and to develop disaster management programmingand policies. I was able to apply the principles of globalization, social,economic and ecological factors to develop education and resources forpotential planning prior to an influenza pandemic. After graduating from UofT, I completed a post- grad certificate program atCentennial College in Workplace Wellness and Health Promotion.

All the coursesI took during this program has prepared me to study a MPH, particularly thecourse Program Planning. I have developed the management skills required todevelop, plan, implement and evaluate health programs in any settings. In onespecific assignment, based on an integrated workplace health promotion model wewere to analyze assessment date and create an action plan based on that data,and then evaluate the resulting workplace wellness program. I am now able tocreate logic models which is the core of planning and evaluating program. Thiswill help me with my career specific goals in creating health educationprograms for rural communities to create their overall well-being.

  I alsorecognize that strong partnerships equal strong care. Working with the Toronto CentralLHIN fostered my ability to build relationships with multidisciplinary healthcare professionals, community and government agencies, and most importantly,caregivers and families. My time as a program/proposal writing assistant forthe non profit organization, Heritage Skills Development Centre alsocontributed to a deeper understanding of the challenges vulnerable groups faceregarding health care access, the importance of social support networks, andhealth education.

I was able to help in writing a research proposal to getfunding to facilitate healthy lifestyle workshops, which included mental healthand stress management. This helped develop the self-esteem of participantsthrough social unity.   This courseSTAB22, Statistics, presents the basic statistical methodology used in manyfields of application. It emphasizes concepts and techniques and will be usefulin gaining an understanding of the use of statistics in their own fields. Ourultimate goal is to gain understanding from data, going from data collection toanalysis to conclusions. The grade I attained was a B+. Another statisticcourse I have taken is ANTC67, Foundations in Epidemiology. The grade Iattained was an A-.

This course examined such issues as: types of control,methods of sampling, analysis of data and investigation of epidemics. I wasable to foster my ability with numerical skill building and empirical analysis. I have conducted a chi-square analysisfor the research question: Is there a significant relationship between thosewho smoke and the odds of developing a child with a low birth weight.

I alsoused stratified analysis to explore and adjust for a confounding factor,education. We used a test called the Mantel – Haenszel Odds Ratio to computeweight average of the estimates of the odds ratios across the strata. I haveacquired problem solving skills, locating and using information effectively andanalytical thinking skills.

The grade I attained was an A-.I would beprivileged to be able to continue my studies at your institution, as a MPH willbe a great extension to my academic interests. With my MPH, I want to fight tomake sure individuals in all underserved communities have equal opportunitiesto prosper, and to be part of eliminating any injustices I come across.