Week 1:
We’re not in the Midwest anymore!

May 31, 2019

What a week it has been! Where to begin? Early last week I woke up at 3am to catch a flight that would eventually bring me to my internship site location of Marion, Massachusetts. I am here as a part of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s (MDPH) Local Internship program. Through this program both undergraduate and graduate students interested in public health are matched with various health departments throughout state of Massachusetts. These matches are made based on prior experience, interest, and the projects available. I found this opportunity while searching for experiences with state health departments earlier this year. I knew a majority of my experiences had taken place in the Midwest and wanted to gain experience doing public health in other settings. Work at a local health department such as those in this program would also allow me to gain more hands-on practice in a specific, smaller community. I was placed with the town of Marion because they had projects similar to my interests and success with past interns. After being matched I was able to find a family willing to host me for the summer in town. Shortly after arriving I got settled in the room my host family prepared and set off for a tour of the town. Everything is easily accessible by bike so that’s the way I primarily travel. I was able to meet my supervisor just before the big day: Intern Orientation.

I wasn’t sure what to expect for the orientation day but it was a wonderful whirlwind. The interns arrived early in the morning to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) state laboratory building. To begin we had an overview presentation about the program for this year, how many of us there are, and what is to be expected. They told us this year is their biggest cohort yet with 45 interns altogether. I quickly learned I was the only intern not currently attending an institution in Massachusetts (MA) or “Mass” as the locals say) or even in the Northeast. Additionally, I am one of about five undergraduate students in the program, most of the other interns are pursuing a Masters of Public Health (MPH) or a dual degree program.

Next, various departments within the state spoke on their roles and responsibilities. It was fascinating learning about the way MA does public health work because every city or town has its own health department, regardless of the size of the city. This means there are over 300 different health departments operating independently of each other across the state. As one of the presenters said during orientation, “If you know one health department in Massachusetts, you know one health department. Each one is different from the next.” When I first heard this, I was kind of surprised, both Minnesota and Iowa use county health departments, I worked in one last summer (Linn County Department of Public Health) where there were five different departments covering the whole county. One of our presenters explained that in rural or small communities it may sometimes be one person doing all of the public health work and managing all the aspects of the town on their own. Quite a change from the Midwest. I asked one of the interns from MA why this was the system in the state and he remarked that “It’s a problem that stems from being old, when the state was formed all the towns wanted to do their own thing so that’s the way it is.”

We broke for lunch and I got to meet some more of the interns in the program. Although we’ll be in different locations across the state, it was still nice to learn what they’re doing and what they’re interested in. We had a great discussion about how things work in MA (I had a lot of questions) and they were willing to lend me some of their wisdom regarding town to town relationships as well as current issues in the state. Following lunch, we had breakout sessions with interns who had similar projects to us and someone from MDPH. My session was regarding data collection and assessment. All of the other interns in my group were graduate students with projects regarding environmental health concerns, hospital acquired infections (HAI), and other types of assessments. The interns around me remarked that MA is one of the best places to do assessments because there is a wealth of public data sources that can get really specific if needed. We exchanged information with one another and discussed keeping in contact, I think they will be great resources for me on my projects this summer.

After the breakout session, past interns gave presentations on their tasks during their internships and what they do now. Throughout the day the program coordinator was explaining that this internship is to be thought of as an extended job interview and that a sizable amount of MDPH’s hires were past participants of the program. This was shown to be true through the previous intern presentations as all of them went on to be hired either by the town they were interning in or at MDPH. It was interesting hearing about their various projects and their career paths and it showed me that I have a lot of options going forward.

The orientation day definitely gave me a lot to contemplate. My next task was to get settled in Marion. Luckily, my host family is very involved in the community. I was given a variety of tours around town, sent to volunteer at a few functions, and even got to witness the ribbon cutting on the new entrance to the library. Along the way I met so many people, almost all of them were shocked that I was: A) from Minnesota and B) did not know anyone in Massachusetts prior to coming out here. One person even asked if there was still snow on the ground “where I’m from,” and I kindly informed them that no, there is not. In addition to meeting and milling about, I got to get acquainted with the beach nearby, just a short bike ride away. The weather was fantastic and from our perspective in Marion, you can see parts of Cape Cod across the sea. Everything is so close in the northeast, an aspect that is totally new to me. After my pleasant beach days and time to get settled in, came my first day of work.

I arrived at the office early and shortly thereafter we were pouring over the calendar for the next few months. I copied down all the meetings, presentations, webinars, and other commitments my supervisor was set to complete. She said I can go to anything and everything I want to, which I will definitely take advantage of. The size and location of Marion makes it important and easy for us to collaborate with the neighboring communities, and I learned we’re involved with a number of local health coalitions. We had a few meetings that day to attend to and then went over my supervisor’s tasks as well as my potential projects. Just as the presenter mentioned, my supervisor has to do a little bit of everything to improve the health of the community and she’s the only one who is hired by the town to do this type of work. As of right now it looks as though my projects for the summer will be completing reports on some community assessment data as well as collecting data on how public health work is conducted around the state. As time goes on the details of those projects may change but it looks as though those will be my tasks while I’m here. They’re both right up my alley and I feel great about being able to provide for the community in this way. It was a great start to the summer and I can’t wait for all that is to come!