Birthdays, Forums and again Lunch!

Hello all!

So this past week (4 out of 15) for the semester was yet another busy and amazing week! I learned that Biostats, which is one of the core classes for the MPH is going to be a lot more time intensive than I originally thought, but with only one previous stats class I guess I could have seen it coming, haha. I was able to attend a lunch presentation by Chris Atchison, one of the Associate Deans of the CPH, clinical professor and director of the State Hygienic Lab in Iowa. The week then ended with a Birthday bash for my boyfriend Cody and his friends!

Lunch:

Chris Atchison, one of my favorite professors who also teaches "Intro to Public Health Practice" gave a lecture over the lunch hour related to Iowa policies that have been and are working towards meeting the goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). It was interesting and very informative to learn some of the laws and bills that are in action within the Iowa legislature and to learn about programs that have been successful in providing more coverage and better quality to Iowans. It also got me thinking of my future career after my degree programs here at Iowa. More and more I have been leaning towards state and local policy instead of at the national level, but I know my overall passion is obviously for public health and health administration. Even as graduate students, we are still indecisive about specifics of where in the country we want to end up and what exactly we want to do (i.e. policy for a private, local, state or federal agency...which one, etc.)

Forum:

At the end of the week there was a CPH forum with Dean Curry, which included all staff, faculty and students. It was a great time to get an update of the building which is still scheduled to be moved in during November 2011! Hopefully I will be able to experience some of the newness my last semester. In addition, she mentioned the "Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)" which is the accrediting body that is coming this fall to reaccredit our college. This is a very big deal for any college of public health and involves many hours of preparation and the support of faculty, staff and students, including yours truly.

CEPH is definitely a factor that made me choose Iowa and is something if you are a prospective student reading this that you should check into when searching for College's of Public Health. In addition of course to tuition, social life and overall experience :)

Birthdays:

The week ended on a Birthday Bash with my boyfriend Cody and his friends with the theme being "What's your Sign?" in terms of your zodiac sign, which his was Virgo's and mine is Libra. It was a great time and fun to see everyone trying to match their individual zodiac signs, there was everything from mother earth, feathers of phenix and madonna!

I can't believe it will already be week 5 coming up tomorrow...hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have a Great Morning!

Ryan

First Couple Weeks!

Hi All,

I hope you all read a little bit of my bio before reading this post, but just in case I am entering my 2nd year as a dual degree MPH in Policy and MHA candidate within the College of Public Health (CPH) at Iowa! I'm starting the third week of classes and so much has happened that I think I would need a couple book chapters just to fill you in on my life. For tidbit of my summer, I interned at TRICARE Management Activity in San Diego, CA which if you would like to know more, just write a comment on the blog and I'll make it my next entry :)

In the meantime, here are some of the highlights that have gone on:

CPH Picnic/Brothers:

This was my first year attending the picnic in which all of CPH is invited to lower city park for brats, burgers, hot dogs and veggie burgers too! It was great to see all the professors and deans in their picnic gear and to be able to meet some of their family members. Also, I always like going to these events because everyone is out of the classroom setting and everyone can kick back and have a good time. I took a lot of pics, which can been seen on our MPH Facebook Page

After the picnic, a lot of us that are in the College of Public Health Student Association (CPHSA) went downtown to a bar called "Brothers" for some drinks and to meet others who couldn't make it to the picnic. It was great to reconnect with friends that I hadn't had time to catch up with since we all got back and Brothers is probably one of my favorite bars downtown when I want to go out for the night.

Football:

So this past weekend was the first Home football game, which was against Eastern Illinois. We dominated them and I forgot how much fun a big-ten football game can feel. I celebrated with others in the program, which I am specifically from the Health Management and Policy (HMP) department within the CPH, but I found myself running into others as the game went on. I will try and post pictures up soon, but for now imagine a sea of gold t-shirts, 10's of thousands of fans all breathing and yelling for the Hawkeyes! I never was a huge football fan until I experienced the magnitude of how serious they take football here, it is definitely a culture ;)

I am looking forward to more fall like weather coming up so I can hit up the apple orchard and enjoy the season in which my birthday falls! I can't wait for this Friday, for the annual Iowa Student Association of Healthcare Leaders (ISAHL) Golf Outing at Brown Deer, which I will blog about in my next entry...until then Good Morning Good Morning, because there's always someone waking up around the world!

Ryan