This summer I got to work as a Public Health Intern at the Montgomery County Health Department. As someone who is majoring in biology and wants to work in healthcare this was my chance to see how a local public health department works. I learned that keeping people healthy is not about hospitals and clinics.
During the summer I did a lot of projects related to public health. I wrote articles. Made posters for things like Men’s Health Awareness Month and UV Safety Awareness Month. Some of my work was even published in the Journal Review in Crawfordsville. This was a challenge for me because I had to take medical information and make it easy for people to understand. It really helped me get better at explaining science and writing professionally.
I also got to go on inspections to check on the environment and people’s health. This included checking houses, swimming pools and food places. One of the things I did was help inspect food trucks at the Crawfordsville Strawberry Festival. I saw how public health workers make sure food is safe for events.
Another great experience was going with health nurses to vaccination clinics for Wabash students. I saw how important it is to prevent people from getting sick in the place. I even got to help with a program to monitor mosquitoes in the county. We built traps put them in parks and other places and then looked at the mosquitoes we caught to see what kinds they were. This helped me understand how public health uses education, prevention and working with the community to keep people healthy.
This internship made me even more interested in healthcare. Showed me how important it is to prevent people from getting sick. It also helped me get better at working with people solving problems and communicating. What I learned in school finally made sense when I saw how biology affects people and communities.
I want to thank the people at the Montgomery County Health Department for teaching me much. I also want to thank Wabash College and the people who donated money to make this internship possible. Their help gave me experiences that I will never forget and made me want to work in healthcare and public service more.
