McKinley Chapman

Public Health Philosophy

From a teen age I had a passion for public health. I was always interested in health science,
and from the beginning knew I wanted to work in healthcare. Books like The Hot Zone by Richard
Preston and The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton sparked my interest public health research
and infectious disease epidemiology. In high school I participated in Science Olympiad, a high
school science competition covering over twenty subjects. I partook in events such as disease
detectives, microbiology, and entomology. This experience led me to participate in the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention’s Disease Detectives Camp. Afterwards I knew public health was
the path for me. The topics were interesting and came to me naturally. Seeing the impact of health
care workers inspired me to pursue a career like them. To further confirm this feeling, I interned at
the Florida Department of Health in high school, where I discovered that epidemiology was my
favorite field in public health. Working as a team in efforts to better community health through
outreach programs was my most passionate endeavor. I hope to serve populations at risk of
emerging infectious disease as well as endemic diseases. Surveillance of emerging infectious
diseases is vital to preventing their spread before an outbreak occurs. Public health is a field where I
feel complete passion for every subject it covers, especially emerging infectious diseases and
epidemiology.
While I knew public health and epidemiology was what I wanted to study in college, I was
also open and excited to study the many other fields of public health. Public health to me means
bettering the overall health of a population through policies and education in hopes of not only
improving community and personal health, but also quality of life. Within public health there are
five core areas, my favorite being epidemiology. The other areas include biostatistics, health policy
and management, social and behavioral sciences, and environmental health. Public health
professionals observe all these aspects and combine them to develop the best course of action for a
public health event. Through prevention and education, I aim to meet public health needs of those at
risk for infectious disease, making it possible to decrease their prevalence or completely eradicate
the disease. Through Eta Sigma Gamma, a national health education honorary, I saw the power of
outreach programs and education. Volunteer work has showed me the different settings of public
health, allowing me to gain experience and knowledge in each field. The main settings in public
health include healthcare, worksite, school, and community settings. My favorite setting in these
would be the community setting because it works directly with the community in education,
prevention, and numerous other areas. As a health education specialist, I can accomplish jobs
including program planning, fund-raising, advocating for laws, policies, and regulations, and
delivering programs directly to the community at large. Everyone deserves the right to health and I
believe I can use my passion for public health to help deliver this right to the community.
Public health is a field vital to each and every community. Without it, population health
would be at higher risk for developing disease. To help improve population health I aim to finish
my degree and work as a certified health education specialist or epidemiologist for a local health
department while getting my masters in epidemiology. While I would like to have a worldwide
impact on public health it is important to look at local disease prevention. My goal is to serve
populations at risk for emerging infectious disease and create prevention programs aimed towards
them. To achieve this, I plan to work for a local department of health and eventually obtain a career
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Through public health policy, research, and
education it is possible to improve the health of communities at local, state, national, and
international levels.