Pictured: Photo of U.S. Capitol Building
Emerging Leader Program Leads Brittany Edghill and Christopher Whitehead report in from their J-Term trip to Washington, D.C.
Earlier this month we took a group of undergraduates from the GPH Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) on an exciting trip to the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. Our goal for the trip was to hone in on how our programmatic themes of Innovation and Storytelling, impact public health at the domestic and global level.
Channeling our fall 2022 topic of emergency management, we had two separate talks with Patrick Cheng, Program Analyst at FEMA, and Dr. Peter Navario, Clinical Associate Professor of Public Health Policy and Management and CEO of HealthRight International. Each discussed the importance of knowing how to navigate political, economic, and social landscapes to advance their organization’s mission. They also provided our students with insightful leadership and career advice, along with their opinions of where Innovation and Storytelling show up in the public health field. Patrick Cheng shared examples of how FEMA innovated its processes during the Covid-19 pandemic with Project Airbridge, while Dr. Navario spoke about how storytelling is utilized to negotiate community support and request finances for public health projects.
Pictured: Patrick Cheng and Dr. Peter Navario present to the GPH-ELP cohort
Taking advantage of Washington DC’s rich assortment of museums, we asked our students to be observers by spending the morning visiting a museum of their choice to further illuminate how art, design, and stories are all essential tools to educate and inspire. In the afternoon, as a group, we embodied the role of researchers to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Our focus was the public health topic, Racial Equity and Public Health, as listed on APHA’s website. Before visiting, we required our students to develop two thoughtful questions they had about Racial Equity and Public Health to help guide their experience. They took the prompt and ran with it, staying at the NMAAHC until it closed. In our debrief, we engaged in critical dialogue surrounding their questions, the pervasiveness of racism in society, and the many ways the NMAAHC communicated hope and resilience within its walls.
Pictured: GPH-ELP cohort at the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Our ELP students repeatedly shared with us how impactful this trip to Washington, DC was for their public health journey. Now, as they look forward to the spring 2023 semester, they feel much more equipped and inspired to tackle what will be their final project: The If You Haven’t Heard Showcase, where they will give a 5-minute TedTalk style presentation to the GPH community about a public health issue of their choice that you might not know much about.
We’d like to give a special thank you to our speakers, Patrick Cheng and Dr. Peter Navario, the NYU Office of Global Programs, Julia Cartwright, and the NYU DC team who all helped to make this trip so impactful and memorable for our students. To learn more about the GPH Emerging Leaders Program, reach out to Brittany Edghill and Christopher Whitehead at gph.emergingleaders@nyu.edu.
Pictured: Assorted photos from GPH-ELP DC trip
Authors
Brittany Edghill, MPA
Program Administrator, Undergraduate Programs
Christopher Whitehead, MA, MFA
Program Manager, Student Affairs