{"id":4811,"date":"2025-08-07T18:05:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T18:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/?p=4811"},"modified":"2025-08-07T18:05:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T18:05:36","slug":"rusher-27-allen-county-health-dept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/2025\/08\/07\/rusher-27-allen-county-health-dept\/","title":{"rendered":"Rusher &#8217;27 | Allen County Health Dept."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-1-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-1-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4813\" style=\"width:290px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-1-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-1-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This summer, I had the opportunity to work with the Allen County Department of Health, conducting research and data analysis on overdose deaths from 2024. My work involved compiling and analyzing data from the coroner\u2019s office, police department, and vital records to identify trends in overdose cases. The ultimate goal of this research is to support efforts in addressing and preventing the opioid crisis within our community\u2014a crisis that continues to touch too many lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While my focus was on spreadsheets, reports, and patterns, I never lost sight of the fact that each number represented a life lost, a family affected, and a community impacted. This internship challenged me both intellectually and emotionally, and it helped me grow in my ability to approach sensitive topics with empathy and purpose.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Looking back on my internship, my Clifton Strengths truly guided me through this work. As an Achiever, I felt a deep sense of responsibility to approach each case with focus and determination, striving for accuracy and impact. My Learner strength was constantly activated as I navigated new systems, studied public health models, and asked questions to better understand both the data and its broader implications.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019d like to extend my deepest thanks to my supervisor, the entire Allen County Department of Health team, and the donors\u00a0who have supported my academic and professional journey. Your investment in students like me makes experiences like this possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-3-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"4815\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-3-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4815\" style=\"width:302px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-3-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-3-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-3-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-3-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-3-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-2-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"4814\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-2-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4814\" style=\"width:309px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-2-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-2-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-2-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This summer, I had the opportunity to work with the Allen County Department of Health, conducting research and data analysis on overdose deaths from 2024. My work involved compiling and analyzing data [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-summer-internships","category-global-health"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/IMG-INT-2025-1-768x1024.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4816,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4811\/revisions\/4816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}