We are proud of the MPH students who represented the program at the 2021 APHA Annual Meeting held in Denver, Colorado and online. Our MPH students: Dina Ajami, Maya Burgard, Mackenzie Connell, Kristian Rice, and Judy Ranger were recipients of the MPH Student Grant Award (SGA). The SGA provides MPH students with funding for MPH program scholarly activities and is funded through the kind donations of Dr. Ann M. Lewicki, MD, MPH.

The SGA recipients attended a wide array of sessions, including, Maternal Child Health, COVID response, Student Assembly, and HIV prevention. After the annual meeting each student completed a reflection piece highlighting their experiences at the conference. Excerpts from their letters are below:

Dina Ajami

Since this was my first time, I was unsure what to expect, but as the conferences discussed numerous important topics, it reminded me of how crucial public health is. I am very grateful to have been a part of this. Being in Denver, surrounded by thousands of individuals who are just as passionate about public health, felt inspiring to me.

Maya Burgard

It was very validating to attend this panel along with fulfilling to hear from the guest speakers during the taping of the podcast “America Dissected”. There they discussed the issue of getting everyone in America vaccinated and why it hasn’t been working as we’d like it to. The whole conference was so insightful and it’s an experience I will not forget.

Mackenzie Connell

Due to the pandemic, I was not able to attend a conference like this in my junior and senior years of undergrad but it was truly worth the wait. At APHA in Denver this year, I was able to attend over 10 great sessions full of interesting talks that were applicable to both my education and my job. I was also able to do some great networking and meet and collaborate with people from the student assembly that I have been working with virtually for quite some time.

Judy Ranger

The path forward to make change in our communities and nation is through idea and knowledge exchange, and this conference truly makes this an achievable goal. Collaboration between public health professionals around our country can raise the bar of what we might have achieved alone