As I moved from administrative to research assistance roles throughout my undergraduate career, I finally focused on one mission. My focus pushed me to explore how we can best support communications professionals in public health departments.
While pursuing a strategic communications role this summer, I had to create engaging content. That not only helped someone learn something new but also provided readily shareable resources for their communities.
This takes me back to my high school self, who was lost navigating college admissions alone. As an immigrant, I was worried about my ability to get into my top colleges. What I lacked was resources in my own community.
At that moment, I knew that if I hadn’t started pushing myself to reach out for support and resources, I wouldn’t have gotten my college acceptances today. Over time, I found books that provided step-by-step guides to winning scholarships. By that time, I was already attending webinars that provided a college application guide. With every resource I was finding, I was getting closer to reaching my goals.
Just like that, I was appalled when I saw a health communications officer crying from joy at discovering PHCC Academy courses. From that moment on, at the NACCHO 360 Conference, I met many officers from different state health departments. Each person who came up to PHCC’s information booth had implemented the communications guides in their offices. They also had forwarded our resources to other health communicators.
Witnessing these moments at my internship made me realize how information-hub-based programs are very impactful to individuals. Meeting career professionals who want to learn from each other and follow along with PHCC content was a rewarding way to see my work have a positive effect.