Christina Faulk was an MPH candidate at the Medical University of South Carolina when she served as a Region IV PHTC Pathways to Practice Scholar in the fall of 2020. As a research intern at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), Christina assessed childhood homelessness as a risk factor to opioid misuse and the role of effect modifiers as protective factors. Here is Christina’s reflection on her experience in her own words:
I chose this field placement because I knew that statistics was not one of my strengths and I wanted to build my skills in SAS and statistical analysis. My field placement gave me more experience in this subject matter and I was extremely fortunate to be able to work with the Director of Surveillance at DHEC, who is very knowledgeable in the field of Epidemiology, and Research and statistics.
I learned that with good public health research, a huge impact can be made for an entire population of people, which is quite profound. My mentor taught me patience, to believe in myself, and with dedication and effort anything can be accomplished. I have grown both personally and professionally during this field placement and feel more confident with large datasets and my ability to use statistical programing software to clean and analyze data.
This opportunity has confirmed my desire to work with data and research, specifically trauma and substance abuse research. I am extremely grateful and fortunate to have had this experience and encourage all public health graduate students to apply to the Pathways to Practice Scholars field placement.