Becoming Public Health: Identity, Growth, and Finding Your Place with Dr. Clarion Harris

Thank you for sharing that.

I think it's so interesting to hear everybody's unique journey into public health because, like you said, you didn't really necessarily know what it was until you took that intro course at, you know, after you already had your undergraduate degree.

And so learning from somebody who had, you know, such extensive work but then also such passion for the work, interesting to hear that, how that invigorated your own interest in the field, right? So I also wanna ask, you know, there can be an interesting transition from being a student yourself, where so much of your identity is tied to learning and becoming this professional, to then suddenly now being seen as the expert or the professional in the field, right? So what was that transition like for you? And when did you start to feel like, "I'm not just studying public health anymore, but now I'm a public health professional myself"?

Well, I would be remiss if I just say that that feeling has gone away because I still have that feeling.

I like to look at it like this.

The transition from student into public health professional for me in my personal journey is a continuous, it's a continuous thing.

Yeah.

Um, because I find myself wanting to make sure that I'm always in the mindset of learning.

Um, even though I have graduated, transitioning into more of a professional role, but I'm still learning.

I'm still trying to find different ways to broaden what I do know.

And so if I change my mindset to say, "Hey, I'm not a student anymore," or, "I'm not learning anymore," I feel like I would be, um, shortchanging myself.

So I just wanna make sure that I as a professional am always in an open and learning space because I can learn from anyone.

But, um, the I like to see myself right now in the middle.

Student transitioning into professional.

And so-

Yeah

... going into spaces where you are in an environment with people who've been in this industry for 20, 10, even five years-

Yeah

... um, there's a, a different, um, breadth of knowledge in that space.

But also being in that transition from student, um, I'm able to go into the classroom and also be a mentor to students who are in their, um, academic programs.

And so-

Yeah

...

I'm being able to transition in a time where I'm getting knowledge from each side.

I'm learning from-