As a pediatrician who is about to finish her last month of a 3 year fellowship in Adolescent Medicine, this course strikes close to my heart. I have selected to work with youth age 12 and up preferentially, but am most often in the one-on-one setting with them or in large group settings, e.g., classrooms. My office runs many workshops for teens, but I haven't participated in them as much as I would like. Therefore, I hope to gain the following 2 things from this course: 1) greater comfort facilitating non-judgmental discussions, in general; 2) an understanding of workshop principles, so that I can spot each technique in use during other workshops I observe. By nature of my training and job, I bring medical expertise to the world of adolescent health promotion. In particular, I have greatest experience with inner-city, African-American youth. In addition, I have a strong background in non-judgmental interviewing of youth about very personal issues, ability to assess readiness for behavior risk change, and practice with motivational interviewing techniques. I hope to apply these skills when working with other youth subgroups and in understanding the macro-issues of adolescent health promotion.
-Brooke Rosman
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Fraser's Initial Personal Reflection - Summer 2009
My recent research and work includes nutrition and physical activity promotion, especially among school-aged youth and adolescents, by encouraging individual responsibility in leading healthier lives and removing barriers to making healthy choices. However, I have only concentrated on the policy behind the health promotion, not the education and workshops that would actually spread the message to the target audience. For this reason, I’m interested in getting the real feel of how a workshop like this would run in a high school environment--especially one in DC where obesity and food insecurity are common. I look forward to pushing myself to be comfortable in this new environment.
In addition to learning more about how to run an effective health promotion workshop, I also expect to learn more about the adolescent learner and the techniques and strategies that make an impact for them. I want to use this knowledge to make the policies I suggest more impactful and successful for promoting the overall health and well-being of adolescents. Personally, I hope this information will help me understand my 19 year old brother and his past struggles better.
I'm looking forward to a short but great summer session!
Fraser Rothenberg Byrne
In addition to learning more about how to run an effective health promotion workshop, I also expect to learn more about the adolescent learner and the techniques and strategies that make an impact for them. I want to use this knowledge to make the policies I suggest more impactful and successful for promoting the overall health and well-being of adolescents. Personally, I hope this information will help me understand my 19 year old brother and his past struggles better.
I'm looking forward to a short but great summer session!
Fraser Rothenberg Byrne
Edelmira's Initial Post...
What interested me about this course?
Enrolling in this class was a decision that came to me both very quickly and very easily. Adolescence has always been a period of particular interest to me. It is the reason that I aspire to become a pediatrician, and the biggest driving force that led me to teach immediately after graduating from my undergraduate institution. I remember during that stage of my life going through several emotional ups and downs. I always felt that if I could just get through that awkward stage, that I would reach back and help others who felt misunderstood and/or out of place.
What interested me about this course was the opportunity to learn strategies to promote healthy living amongst adolescents. As a teacher, I always got excited when I was able to motivate my students to make a positive change. As a perspective public health professional, I anxiously await the day when I can get adolescents to make long-term positive changes to promote healthy living.
What do I expect to learn/gain from this course?
In this course, I want to learn how to communicate with adolescents across their wide age spectrum, in a manner that is both appropriate for their understanding, and effective in its approach. I hope to learn methods that have been tested and proven to work to best reach them. At very minimum, I hope to learn what not to do when trying to promote adolescent health. I wouldn’t want my ignorance to reinforce negative behavior within my interest group.
What do I skills/abilities to I bring to adolescent health promotion?
I am excited about the final project because it gives me a first-hand opportunity to use the skills/abilities that I have acquired as a teacher and current public health student.
As a former 7th and 8th grade science teacher in Prince George’s County Maryland, I come equipped with two years of experience working with adolescents ages 12-15. During my tenure, I gained a wealth of knowledge and skills that I trust will assist me in carrying out the activities throughout this course. These skills include, the ability to present information using a multi-faceted approach. I have found that adolescents are not all equal in their learning styles. Some students learn best through performing exercises, some are visual or auditory learners, while others may be a combination of the three.
Additionally, in my class I mastered the ability to get my kids excited about learning. It is my hope that this skill will transfer in the final workshop. The skill that took the longest to develop, and that which I am most proud of, was learning how to balance discipline and classroom order, while simultaneously building a caring teacher/student relationship with many of my students.
Enrolling in this class was a decision that came to me both very quickly and very easily. Adolescence has always been a period of particular interest to me. It is the reason that I aspire to become a pediatrician, and the biggest driving force that led me to teach immediately after graduating from my undergraduate institution. I remember during that stage of my life going through several emotional ups and downs. I always felt that if I could just get through that awkward stage, that I would reach back and help others who felt misunderstood and/or out of place.
What interested me about this course was the opportunity to learn strategies to promote healthy living amongst adolescents. As a teacher, I always got excited when I was able to motivate my students to make a positive change. As a perspective public health professional, I anxiously await the day when I can get adolescents to make long-term positive changes to promote healthy living.
What do I expect to learn/gain from this course?
In this course, I want to learn how to communicate with adolescents across their wide age spectrum, in a manner that is both appropriate for their understanding, and effective in its approach. I hope to learn methods that have been tested and proven to work to best reach them. At very minimum, I hope to learn what not to do when trying to promote adolescent health. I wouldn’t want my ignorance to reinforce negative behavior within my interest group.
What do I skills/abilities to I bring to adolescent health promotion?
I am excited about the final project because it gives me a first-hand opportunity to use the skills/abilities that I have acquired as a teacher and current public health student.
As a former 7th and 8th grade science teacher in Prince George’s County Maryland, I come equipped with two years of experience working with adolescents ages 12-15. During my tenure, I gained a wealth of knowledge and skills that I trust will assist me in carrying out the activities throughout this course. These skills include, the ability to present information using a multi-faceted approach. I have found that adolescents are not all equal in their learning styles. Some students learn best through performing exercises, some are visual or auditory learners, while others may be a combination of the three.
Additionally, in my class I mastered the ability to get my kids excited about learning. It is my hope that this skill will transfer in the final workshop. The skill that took the longest to develop, and that which I am most proud of, was learning how to balance discipline and classroom order, while simultaneously building a caring teacher/student relationship with many of my students.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Kevon's Initial Personal Reflection
What interested me about this course?
Honestly a friend and fellow colleague of mine informed me about this course and it seemed to be like an important class to gain a brigher perspective of adolescents. Before I came to GW I volunteered with the teen ministry at my church. During my time with the children I always wondered of different ways I could possibly reach out to them and relate to them. I have a heart for children and the adolescent years are so crucial in their mental, physicial, and spiritual development. As another classmate mentioned that it has been a while since she was a teen, I know its been a little while since I conquered that awkward time in life. But I also realize how detached I really am from the younger generation. I really do not know what to expect from this class but I am interested in the learning possibilities.
What do I expect to learn/gain from this course?
I am definitely looking forward to developing a workshop, I never did this before but I am excited. I want to learn the diverse social groups that seperate one adolescent from the other. Once again I must re-interate I feel like I am so detached from the youth, but to be even more honest, I felt detached from them even when I was one of them. LOL! All jokes aside, I want to emliminate any types of prejudice I might have against adolescents and just understand them a little better. I do know this might be too much to expect from a six week course but I do have high expectations.
What skills/abilities do I bring to adolescent health promotion?
I am very creative. As a youth leader at my church in Memphis, I planned several events for the teens. My communications skills are great, I like to talk but I love to listen more. I want to know what is on the young people's minds. What are their views of living healthy lives. As explained earlier, I have a heart for the youth especially adolescents and I intend on developing a public health professional career that focuses on them. I have experience in mentoring adolescents, so it is not too challenging for me to develop trusting relatiionships them.
Honestly a friend and fellow colleague of mine informed me about this course and it seemed to be like an important class to gain a brigher perspective of adolescents. Before I came to GW I volunteered with the teen ministry at my church. During my time with the children I always wondered of different ways I could possibly reach out to them and relate to them. I have a heart for children and the adolescent years are so crucial in their mental, physicial, and spiritual development. As another classmate mentioned that it has been a while since she was a teen, I know its been a little while since I conquered that awkward time in life. But I also realize how detached I really am from the younger generation. I really do not know what to expect from this class but I am interested in the learning possibilities.
What do I expect to learn/gain from this course?
I am definitely looking forward to developing a workshop, I never did this before but I am excited. I want to learn the diverse social groups that seperate one adolescent from the other. Once again I must re-interate I feel like I am so detached from the youth, but to be even more honest, I felt detached from them even when I was one of them. LOL! All jokes aside, I want to emliminate any types of prejudice I might have against adolescents and just understand them a little better. I do know this might be too much to expect from a six week course but I do have high expectations.
What skills/abilities do I bring to adolescent health promotion?
I am very creative. As a youth leader at my church in Memphis, I planned several events for the teens. My communications skills are great, I like to talk but I love to listen more. I want to know what is on the young people's minds. What are their views of living healthy lives. As explained earlier, I have a heart for the youth especially adolescents and I intend on developing a public health professional career that focuses on them. I have experience in mentoring adolescents, so it is not too challenging for me to develop trusting relatiionships them.
Christina's Initial Reflection - Summer 2009
What interested me about this course?
Adolescent health promotion was my original impetus for joining the MPH program. Because behavior - hinged on decisions and choices - accounts for so much of the morbidity and mortality in this age group, I thought it would be the area where health promotion / education could achieve the greatest impact. Having now completed more than half of the MPH program, my interests have expanded, but I still believe adolescent health is where we can achieve the greatest good... if we can figure out what messages, experiences, visual cues, etc. will actually motivate young people to engage in the behaviors and make the choices we recommend, which brings me to...
What do I expect to learn from this course?
My dilemma about health promotion for adolescents really comes down to this: How do I persuade them to make sound choices and engage in healthy behaviors when I, at their age, completely ignored or even countered those same recommendations? What will resonate with them? What will break through? What will be relevant and credible for them? And how can we communicate health risks - persuade them of their own mortality - while still encouraging them to take creative risks, academic risks and other risks that will spur them to transition successfully to adulthood, dream big and achieve? We want to encourage them to think for themselves and learn through experience, but we don't want them to suffer in the process. What can we say or offer that won't sound hypocritical or out-of-touch?
So, what skills / abilities do I bring to adolescent health promotion?
I like to think I bring empathy, respect, a willingness to listen and decent communication skills to the task... but last summer, when my 19-year-old nephew was arrested for marijuana possession, I confess I was at a loss for words... what words will resonate? What will break through? What will be relevant and credible?
Adolescent health promotion was my original impetus for joining the MPH program. Because behavior - hinged on decisions and choices - accounts for so much of the morbidity and mortality in this age group, I thought it would be the area where health promotion / education could achieve the greatest impact. Having now completed more than half of the MPH program, my interests have expanded, but I still believe adolescent health is where we can achieve the greatest good... if we can figure out what messages, experiences, visual cues, etc. will actually motivate young people to engage in the behaviors and make the choices we recommend, which brings me to...
What do I expect to learn from this course?
My dilemma about health promotion for adolescents really comes down to this: How do I persuade them to make sound choices and engage in healthy behaviors when I, at their age, completely ignored or even countered those same recommendations? What will resonate with them? What will break through? What will be relevant and credible for them? And how can we communicate health risks - persuade them of their own mortality - while still encouraging them to take creative risks, academic risks and other risks that will spur them to transition successfully to adulthood, dream big and achieve? We want to encourage them to think for themselves and learn through experience, but we don't want them to suffer in the process. What can we say or offer that won't sound hypocritical or out-of-touch?
So, what skills / abilities do I bring to adolescent health promotion?
I like to think I bring empathy, respect, a willingness to listen and decent communication skills to the task... but last summer, when my 19-year-old nephew was arrested for marijuana possession, I confess I was at a loss for words... what words will resonate? What will break through? What will be relevant and credible?
Kafui’s Personal Reflection- Summer 2009
Since entering GW in the fall 2007, I knew I wanted to focus on Adolescent Health. Unfortunately when I entered GW, I never had the opportunity to actually take a course primarily focusing on youth, a population in which I plan to serve and work alongside with in my future career. As an alternative option at GW, I made sure that many of my class projects I worked on had some sort of focus with youth. In addition, I made sure to gain further “outside” experience with youth by volunteering with organizations that primarily work with them within the Washington DC area. I initially wanted to take this course in the spring but my schedule did not permit it and now I am excited that I have the opportunity to take this course this summer.
My expectations for this course range from learning about the diversity that exist among adolescences to effective ways in working with youth on solving major health disparities. I am also excited to learn about the various insights and experiences that my colleagues who are also enrolled in the course have about this specific population. In addition, through the lectures and any assigned readings I hope to gain further knowledge that I did not have prior to the course.
For this course and any future plans with adolescent health promotion, I plan to provide my honest and genuine passion for youth through my assignments, projects, services, and, etc. I plan to apply what I have learned outside the classroom to inside the classroom and vice versa. I also intend to reflect back on my past experiences, receive constructive criticisms where necessary, and find ways to enhance them for the future.
My expectations for this course range from learning about the diversity that exist among adolescences to effective ways in working with youth on solving major health disparities. I am also excited to learn about the various insights and experiences that my colleagues who are also enrolled in the course have about this specific population. In addition, through the lectures and any assigned readings I hope to gain further knowledge that I did not have prior to the course.
For this course and any future plans with adolescent health promotion, I plan to provide my honest and genuine passion for youth through my assignments, projects, services, and, etc. I plan to apply what I have learned outside the classroom to inside the classroom and vice versa. I also intend to reflect back on my past experiences, receive constructive criticisms where necessary, and find ways to enhance them for the future.
Erin's Initial Personal Reflection (Summer 09)
After earning a degree in Community Health / Secondary Health Education, I have spent the last 5 years educating high school students in Prince George's County in the areas of health and personal wellness. This course peaked my interest because it is my goal to move from the class room into a more community based setting after the completion of my program this summer.
From this course - I hope to "get my feet wet" in the realm of community based adolescent health education / promotion and also gain a real life / application view of how I can successfully merge my skills as a classroom educator with my skills as a public health professional. Although I am sure there are similarities, I am sure there are many differences in community based health promotion that I have yet to discover.
I am hopeful that my years as a classroom teacher will come in handy when trying to think of creative ways to engage participants. I also believe that other skills such as program planning, discussion facilitation / questioning, and organization will also be helpful. Although these are useful and very critical skills when working w/ teens, I am also looking forward to being involved in a "free-er" setting than the classroom where there are a lot of rules - that are not necessarily implemented or welcomed by the instructor - but being able to connect w/ teens about their health without SO many of the regulations and set-backs that come w/ being in a traditional classroom.
I look forward to working with everyone in the coming weeks! HAPPY SUMMER!!!
From this course - I hope to "get my feet wet" in the realm of community based adolescent health education / promotion and also gain a real life / application view of how I can successfully merge my skills as a classroom educator with my skills as a public health professional. Although I am sure there are similarities, I am sure there are many differences in community based health promotion that I have yet to discover.
I am hopeful that my years as a classroom teacher will come in handy when trying to think of creative ways to engage participants. I also believe that other skills such as program planning, discussion facilitation / questioning, and organization will also be helpful. Although these are useful and very critical skills when working w/ teens, I am also looking forward to being involved in a "free-er" setting than the classroom where there are a lot of rules - that are not necessarily implemented or welcomed by the instructor - but being able to connect w/ teens about their health without SO many of the regulations and set-backs that come w/ being in a traditional classroom.
I look forward to working with everyone in the coming weeks! HAPPY SUMMER!!!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Lalida's Initial Personal Reflection
This course is actually one of the courses I was looking forward to the most this summer (I'm also taking biostat, policy, and another 209 topic course). Not only would it fulfill my credit requirement, but it also is something I'm very interested in. I find myself intrigued by the actions teenagers decide to take (my younger brother is 17) and baffled by the idea that I was also once a teenager myself. Although I'm relatively young, I feel so displaced from that time in my life and find it difficult to comprehend why teenagers choose to do the things they do, even though I am aware of the mental processes behind their decisions. I'm hoping this class will allow me to become more familiar with the reasons for teenagers' actions as well as ways to promote healthy behaviors amongst the population. In regards to the skills I bring to adolescent health promotion, I have previous experience as an undergrad promoting overall health and wellness (including alcohol and drug abuse, sexual behaviors, fitness and nutrition, and wellness) to my peers. Although undergrads are on the older side of the adolescence scale, they sometimes had the same thought processes of adolescents much younger than themselves. In terms of knowledge, I have taken courses in health psychology, middle childhood and adolescent development, social psychology, and cognitive development that will hopefully help all of us understand adolescent health promotion a little better. I know this sounds corny, but I am looking forward to learning with all of you this summer!
-Lalida Thaweethai
-Lalida Thaweethai
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Personal Reflection 1
Adolescent health promotion interests me, because adolescence is such a critical time for self-empowerment, self-realization, and behavior change. As I'm in the health promotion track, I'm very passionate about issues that can most easily be changed through interventions with youth, as their behaviors are much less ingrained than older populations. These issues include smoking cessation, reducing road traffic accidencts, nutrition, obesity, etc. Although I must admit that I'm nervous to attempt and reach out this population through our workshop in this class, I'm excited to learn practical methods to engage youth and foster healthy behavior changes. I also hope to learn how to bridge the gap between theory and practice! Although I have never conducted a workshop before, I hope that the classes I took in youth delinquency (undergrad), community psychology (grad), and program planning (grad) will add to discussions in class.
-Dana
-Dana
Friday, May 8, 2009
Jana's Reflection on Pregnancy Prevention Workshop at Bell
I really enjoyed the topic of Pregnancy Prevention. It was a bit difficult for Katy and I to narrow down our scope of discussion about Pregnancy Prevention because we were not sure if the number one priority should be on contraceptive use, the cost of a child, accept that people already have children, etc.
We were able to gather GREAT information from sites like:
All in all I think that we did the best we could with the limitations we had- which is how it is!
Thanks again to the students at Bell for having us in your class!
We were able to gather GREAT information from sites like:
(check them out! they just literally updated their site a couple days ago)
http://www.stayteen.org/
http://www.sexetc.org/
We were able to talk to quite a few of our Latino friends who are in the School of Public Health who gave us great insight about the best ways to approach the topic. We also looked at best practices through the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancies. With May 6th being the National Day to prevent Teen Pregnancies it was a perfect time to find up-to-date resources.
A day or two before presenting our workshop at Bell we learned that we might not have the opportunity to use the Internet to show a video that we picked out to show the youth. We did our best to try and download the movie however nothing worked to be able to access the movie. We were pretty bummed because we are pretty sure the youth would have really liked it! (but here it is for everyone else!- ha ha I can't embed it because it is "not suitable for minors" and this blog won't allow it)
During the workshop we learned that the youth were fairly knowledgeable about most of the types of birth control. They were not however familiar with Emergency Contraception. Because it took so long going through all the forms of birth control we were not able to get to the fun activity that I was going to lead. I was also pretty sad about that. :(
It seemed however from the evaluations that we did ok. The kids liked the condom packs that I put together with information that I put together about where they could gain access to birth control in their area as well as the websites that I listed above. I really enjoyed the experience and I wished that we had had more time and the appropriate resources for the workshop.
All in all I think that we did the best we could with the limitations we had- which is how it is!
Thanks again to the students at Bell for having us in your class!
Jana's Final Reflection
Formal education in Adolescent Health Promotion was not something that I had considered until I moved to DC and spent time actually getting to know DC. It is because of the people that I meet day in and day out most literally on the street, on the metro, in the grocery store, or at the mall that I became actively interested how I could make a difference in changing the course of key behaviors that affect adolescents lives. I also literally enjoy the free spirits of many youth and strive for more youth to be able to be free spirits. I have a fun time in the classroom setting, chillin', and talking about things that I feel like I was never able to talk to anyone about when I was an adolescent. I do think that I am good at connecting with adolescents becasue most of the time they are shocked that I either know what they are talking about or that I am willing to take the time to sit down and talk with them. I also think I am able to keep it "real" with the youth, which at times I feel many adults lack. Because of some of these characteristics I wanted to be able to utilize them in a manner that would do the most good. That is why I decided to take a class in Adolesecent Health Promotion. I have however come to realize that I do not have the skill set (yet) to be the most effective health promoter and that I need to spend more time gaining an understanding to become comfortable with content to promote to the youth.
Adolescent Health Promotion has shaped my public health experience professionally in various aspects. I feel that I am more aware of my strengths and weaknesses as well as I have FINALLY be able to gain some useful skills that I can use not only in a volunteer realm but clearly in a work setting. I appreciated the fact that I was able to learn, make mistakes, and at times in my mind nearly "fail." I think however that the youth are fairly forgiving and will help you learn. As a professional I appreciated the constant feedback, criticism, and positive reinforcements. I believe that they should be used more in all disciplines and all classes that are taught.
From this course I feel that I can only improve my skills. I will never look at a teacher the same again. I cannot believe the amount of time that I know I spent researching the particular topics that Katy and myself taught in our lectures, I know she spent a great amount of time and then we both spent a lot of time together. I know that in the future I would love to be able to have more of an input from the youth about type of learning styles work the best for them. I would also like to make more activities integrated with technology even though I realize that technology can at times be limited.
I have appreciated getting to know more about myself, but mostly the most effective tools to teach the youth. I believe that it is always important to evaluate your measures as an instructor, teacher, and at the end of the day to make sure that the youth you are working with had a good time (that is my own philosophy :)
Adolescent Health Promotion has shaped my public health experience professionally in various aspects. I feel that I am more aware of my strengths and weaknesses as well as I have FINALLY be able to gain some useful skills that I can use not only in a volunteer realm but clearly in a work setting. I appreciated the fact that I was able to learn, make mistakes, and at times in my mind nearly "fail." I think however that the youth are fairly forgiving and will help you learn. As a professional I appreciated the constant feedback, criticism, and positive reinforcements. I believe that they should be used more in all disciplines and all classes that are taught.
From this course I feel that I can only improve my skills. I will never look at a teacher the same again. I cannot believe the amount of time that I know I spent researching the particular topics that Katy and myself taught in our lectures, I know she spent a great amount of time and then we both spent a lot of time together. I know that in the future I would love to be able to have more of an input from the youth about type of learning styles work the best for them. I would also like to make more activities integrated with technology even though I realize that technology can at times be limited.
I have appreciated getting to know more about myself, but mostly the most effective tools to teach the youth. I believe that it is always important to evaluate your measures as an instructor, teacher, and at the end of the day to make sure that the youth you are working with had a good time (that is my own philosophy :)
Katy's Final Reflection
I signed up for this class with a general interest in learning more about adolescents because they are a popular and yet very unique audience for public health interventions. So many programs targeting adolescent fail to engage them and promote behavior change because they don’t fully understand their view of the world, particularly health issues. At the same time, adolescence is a critical time when youth make decisions that can impact their future health. Although I have no specific intentions toward working with adolescents, I recognize that they have unique characteristics that set them apart from other commonly targeted populations. Developing my skills in working with adolescents will provide me with useful experience that I will likely put to good use throughout my career in public health.
This class has altered my outlook and helped me to change my expectations for my public health work. Having the experience of working in the real world and actually seeing individuals learn new things and accept them puts behavior change expectations in perspective. I aspire to work in communications and marketing which is inherently more of a desk job and you rarely get the opportunity to witness individuals taking in your messages. I think the workshops have helped me to more clearly understand how adolescents process health messages. Although I may not intend to work directly with adolescents in a workshop setting, the lessons I have learned and the experience I have gained will guide any communication and marketing materials I am a part of developing.
Ultimately, I think the best way to promote behavior change is to meet people where they are at. Because communication and marketing campaigns are not interpersonal forms of communication, they need to better understand how, why, and where adolescents will receive health information. This class and the workshops have helped me to better understand where adolescents are coming from and how they learn new health information.
Better understanding the unique characteristics of each population subgroup is something that is hard to do in the context of a graduate program but I feel that adolescents are a critical population that public health professionals must work to understand. For whatever population I may be working with in the future, this class has made me realize the importance of understanding them and the context in which they view the world in. This experience has shown me that the best and most reliable way of doing this is by interacting acting with them in their environment and showing that my interest is in truly understanding them in order to improve their health.
This class has altered my outlook and helped me to change my expectations for my public health work. Having the experience of working in the real world and actually seeing individuals learn new things and accept them puts behavior change expectations in perspective. I aspire to work in communications and marketing which is inherently more of a desk job and you rarely get the opportunity to witness individuals taking in your messages. I think the workshops have helped me to more clearly understand how adolescents process health messages. Although I may not intend to work directly with adolescents in a workshop setting, the lessons I have learned and the experience I have gained will guide any communication and marketing materials I am a part of developing.
Ultimately, I think the best way to promote behavior change is to meet people where they are at. Because communication and marketing campaigns are not interpersonal forms of communication, they need to better understand how, why, and where adolescents will receive health information. This class and the workshops have helped me to better understand where adolescents are coming from and how they learn new health information.
Better understanding the unique characteristics of each population subgroup is something that is hard to do in the context of a graduate program but I feel that adolescents are a critical population that public health professionals must work to understand. For whatever population I may be working with in the future, this class has made me realize the importance of understanding them and the context in which they view the world in. This experience has shown me that the best and most reliable way of doing this is by interacting acting with them in their environment and showing that my interest is in truly understanding them in order to improve their health.
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