Constant conversations and learning

Adia Brown, '27, MPH '28, has big plans for her future. La Salle University's Public Health: 5-Year (BSPH/MPH) Program is helping her achieve them.

As she prepares for her final yearsof studying, Brown is thinking about a future career focused on maternal and childhood public health.

Adia Brown, '27, MPH '28, spent the Covid-19 pandemic wondering how she could help people.

"During Covid, and all the issues that were brought up during that time, it made me think about what I could do in this situation, what could I bring," she said. "Looking at Black Lives Matter, and how that kind of affected Covid in the African American community, I was just wondering how these things connect, how do they influence one another."

She set out to find an answer to those questions, and all the others she had, as well as work out where she could fit into it all.

"My research took me to public health, seeing how there are environmental factors, physical factors, mental health factors, and how all of that plays into how somebody acts and how they interact in the world. I felt like this is what I wanted to do," Brown said. "I think public health answers all those external factors and other questions that I really wanted to know."

Committed to a major, Brown now needed to find somewhere to learn more. Brown's mother and father are both first-generation students and they hadn't been through the college admissions process as parents before, so the whole family was still getting familiar with the idea of college when she first visited La Salle. Being on campus, learning more, and having in-depth conversations helped her make a decision.

"It was the community," she said. "It made me feel more at home and more comfortable with the college process."

Committed to a future in public health, the faculty and staff in the program were also a draw, helping Brown to understand even more about the field and all the things she could do within it.

Now in her third year, she doesn't regret her decision. At 20^th and Olney, she's met and learned from amazing people, she said, and has had opportunities that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. The campus and the community have also continued to be an important part of her time as an Explorer.

"I love it when the quad gets filled with people, playing games, playing with their dogs, just sitting outside," she said. "And people are so friendly, so I'll be talking with new people. The quad is my favorite place."

The Public Health Program has also lived up to her expectations.

"Everybody's really intentional and wants to help and make a difference, which is really nice," she said. "And I get to talk with people, learn things from them, things that I never really thought about in public health, I get to learn that from other people."

One of the opportunities that her higher education journey has provided is the chance to combine her newer passion for public health with a lifelong love of art.

Growing up in a house of artists, Brown wanted to be able to carry her artistic endeavors into her career. She worried, however, that there wasn't a place for art in the scientific and research-based world of public health. A conversation with a family member changed that, and Brown set to work organizing Public HArt, a showcase of student pieces that explore the intersection of art and public health in the La Salle University Art Museum.

"This was a great event for people like me who at first thought public health and art had no intersection," Brown said. "They do. We see murals outside that have public health topics, poems that people write about public health issues. So, public health and art do have a place together and I just wanted to share that with the broader community."

As she prepares for her final years of studying, Brown is thinking about a future career focused on maternal and childhood public health. She's not limiting herself to just one role though.

"I want to do almost everything in the field," she said.

First, she'd like to become a researcher with a specialty in maternal health. She'd also like to become a doula, helping people who may experience complications during pregnancy or birth, specifically Black women who are disproportionately affected during birthing and labor, she said. On the childhood side of things, she hopes to become a case manager as well, helping children adjust and acclimate to the world and their surroundings, while also guiding them through any issues or troubles they might have.

The education she's receiving at La Salle is helping her feel prepared to achieve all those goals.

"With the Public Health Program here we most definitely take a more holistic approach to public health and really look at each and every aspect," Brown said, adding that issues and topics are interwoven between classes. "I feel as though our professors really make a statement that we have to have these constant conversations, we have to constantly be learning because public health changes as we change."

This approach has helped her feel ready to graduate and go out to start working and helping people.

Despite her initial hesitation about college, Brown is happy she made the decision to come to La Salle and sees the personal benefit of her time as an Explorer.

"I think the whole college experience here at La Salle has helped me with everything. I would say it's helped me learn how to center myself, as well as center other people," she said. "I feel as though in college there's can be so many things that can get you distracted and get you unfocused and unsteady, but I feel like the close community, the discussion based classes, it helps me feel more centered and it helps me feel like, ok, I can do this, I got this. It just helps me feel more reassured in myself."

-Naomi Thomas