Friday’s Visit to Baltimore by Erin Clayton (2021)
On our 3rd day in DC, we boarded the bus for Baltimore at the early time of 7:15, already filled up on breakfast from our hotel. Everyone was tired after the long day of Thursday, but our excitement about visiting Johns Hopkins overpowered our lack of sleep. After a short 1 hour bus ride to Baltimore, we arrived to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and were met by Taryn Mallonee and Lauren Black, the director and assistant director of recruitment, communications, and events for the school of Public Health. After they led us to our conference room, Ms. Mallonee and Miss Black asked us about our own interests in Global Health and our favorite experiences in the field. I thought this was unique and something that we had rarely been asked on the trip. We then had the opportunity to learn all about how the Bloomberg School operates and about the student body. One of the aspects of the conversation I found particularly interesting was how of the 10 divisions of the school, one of them was Mental Health. I thought it was interesting how Johns Hopkins is the only school of Public Health that has a specific Mental Health program. The admissions experts also informed us on the great extent of Johns Hopkins research. After our first session, Ms. Mallonee and Ms. Black took us on a tour of the Bloomberg school building and also John’s Hopkins Hospital. We saw everything from labs, classrooms, and lecture halls to the gym, coffee shop, and study rooms. The facilities were beautiful and it was a great opportunity to see the work in action.
After the tour and a quick break, we had a Q&A with faculty member Dr. Donna Strobino, a professor and vice chair of Education in the department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health. Professor Strobino was very knowledgeable about topics especially related to our work on Women’s Empowerment in Belize. She also reassured everyone that is ok to not know what you want do, and even made the fellows all laugh saying she did not know what she wanted to do. After Professor Strobino’s educational discussion, we had a second Q&A with current doctoral student Justin Jacob, who is a part of the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Justin’s presentation described his unusual undergraduate path which involved multiple major changes, work at the Center for Disease Control that was unrelated to his studies, and ultimately ending up back at Johns Hopkins doing what Justin believed he was meant to do. This discussion continued our topic of how you do not really know where you will end up until you get there.
After our morning at the University, we had a lunch break in the Hospital cafeteria followed by a break time, where my cohort went to a coffee shop to discuss the morning’s events! We returned back to the Bloomberg School of Public Health and then had a fascinating meeting with Dayna Kerecman Myers from Global Health Now. Global Health Now is an online publication and subscription service where the most important Global Health related articles of the day are published or republished from other publications. All Global Health fellows subscribe to the website and so it was an amazing experience to hear about the behind the scenes aspect of the website. I was impressed how Ms.Myers wakes up at 5am every morning in order to publish the days newsletter. After meeting with Global Health Now, we loaded onto the bus to drive back into DC and to our surprise visit to the World Bank Group’s Visitor Center. We enjoyed a in depth and detailed tour by a volunteer tour guide, which outlined the World Bank’s efforts since its founding. We finished off our last night with a delicious dinner at Bar Louie and some ice cream from Haagen Daz.
Congratulations to the ’19s! I have followed your Global Health adventures with joy, awe, laughter, and tears from your first days in the program. I have learned about faraway places, amazing programs all over the world, and here on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus where I work. Seeing the challenges and potential solutions through your eyes has given me hope. As you begin your final year in high school, I wish each of you the very best. Cherish these precious days. Bank your energy and optimism and use it to fuel your bright futures. I am so proud of you. Thanks for sharing your adventures with me on the blog.
Kathryn Meyers
(Madeleine’s Mimi)