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Intellectual Journey Essay
Intellectual Journey Essay
Viviana Rivera
Prior to starting this course, I was personally not very fond of what I was going to be
learning about during the semester. I would constantly ask myself questions such as what is
epidemiology, how does this pertain to public health, or when in my career will I be able to
apply this knowledge. Since we are in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, the majority of
our class has been taught via remote instruction due to health risks. I feel that for me
personally, being completely online for all of my classes has made learning slightly more
difficult and it can feel harder to retain information at times. However, this information packed
course has actually opened up a whole different perspective of potential career choices as well
as a vast amount of new material that I am able to use in the future. Epidemiology has been
extremely beneficial for widening my span of knowledge with information that will greatly
benefit me to know later on in my life and my career. My intellectual journey paper will focus
So, coming into this fall semester I really had not thought much what the course of
Epidemiology was going to be about or how it could potentially benefit me in the future.
Epidemiology is formally defined as “the method used to find the causes of health outcomes
and diseases in populations” (cdc.gov, 2016). When I took Microbiology in Summer 2020, a
common theme that I had noticed was that we had studied many transmissible and self-
replicating diseases throughout the course. Then, while taking epidemiology, we studied how
those transmissible and self-replicating diseases can affect specific populations. For example, in
my microbiology course I remember that we spent a lot of time studying the illness Escherichia
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coli, which is also commonly referred to as E-Coli. This is an illness with tiny bacteria particles
that can be found in foods and in the intestines of humans and animals. We did not study this
disease as thoroughly in Epidemiology; however, it can relate to this course because there are
certain populations that this illness spikes in. In my opinion, knowing how an illness spreads
goes hand in hand with the effects seen on populations. I believe my prior knowledge from
taking microbiology has really helped me be able to fully grasp some of the concepts covered
during this course. Overall, I had little to no knowledge regarding Epidemiology prior to this
course. I always thought it was about epidemics or the study of other serious illnesses. In a way
I was correct, but I have learned that this course really dives in and studies how these diseases
When we started talking about social determinants of health, I did not fully understand
what the terms of that phrase meant. However, as we continually discussed and researched
more about social determinants, I realized that we are constantly surrounded by these
influences. Social determinants are defined as “the conditions in the environments where
people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health,
functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks” (health.gov). There are so many factors that
go into how we live and how our choices can affect our overall wellbeing. Some examples I
found while doing research were safe homes to live in, education and job opportunities, access
to nutritious food, any type of discrimination, and many other factors. A few days ago, I was
watching a show on Netflix with my roommate called Are You The One. The show is about
people finding their true matches. There was a girl of African American decent that was talking
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to a Caucasian male. While they were conversating he was being slightly rude to her because of
where she came from so, she said to the guy, “I have been observing and using sight
reconnaissance in order to analyze and gather information as to why I was being treated
poorly” (Are You The One, 2014). This is an example of social determinants of health having an
impact on someone’s life. The contestant was in an uncomfortable social setting and used
scientific jargon in order to describe to the other person how she was observing him and others
Since I started taking Epidemiology, I always find myself talking to my family and friends
about how the information in this course can be used to really dissect how a person’s
environment can truly make an impact on their life. An example of how social determinants can
affect someone from an outside perspective is about one of my closest friends. She had just
moved into an apartment with one of her best friends to a complex that was affordable, within
10 minutes to the beach, and close enough to their jobs. Over the next few months that they
lived in their new apartment, each time I would hangout with the two people I noticed that
they were getting colds more frequently, both girls would look so exhausted, and they even said
their schoolwork was starting to become affected too. When I asked my friends, what was
going on they said that within their apartment complex there was a shooting and several break
ins. As my friends went into detail about their exhaustion, I started to think about the social
determinants of health and how this is another prime example. If one does not have safe
housing or a comfortable setting to reside in, their overall health can quickly diminish as well as
As I think about where I started in this course during the Covid-19 pandemic, I can say
that I have grown in several aspects. One of those aspects being online school. I have never
really been a fan of taking classes online because I feel that I do not learn as much, I do not get
to bond with my professors, and I just simply feel unmotivated to do any school. I honestly feel
stronger about the fact that I am not learning as much as I would in an on-campus, face-to-face
class. It just does not help me in any way, shape, or form to be completely online. I already
struggle with some learning disabilities and a pandemic forcing classes to be completely online
did not help either. I am the type of person that thoroughly enjoys conversations with my
professors or getting that one-on-one time because I get feedback and it helps me find a good
balance on how to approach certain topics or feel that I am able to reach out if I am in need of
any extra assistance. Being completely online makes that all very difficult for me because it
feels so strange and not organic at all. I believe that if this class was on-campus this semester I
would have excelled and finished with a better grade than a ‘C’.
One of my favorite aspects of this class is being able to learn new information and how
it relates to our community, nation, or the world because then I am able to have open
discussions with others. My friends constantly say that they like when I talk about how
epidemiology or public health courses relate to college-age students because it makes them
think about situations differently. When I first started talking about this course with my friends
and family, they thought it a course about the study of skin. Many people are not familiar with
how our society is affected by communicable diseases, social determinants of health, diseases
This course has given me a lot to think about in terms of the big picture. I feel like I am
more well-rounded in knowledge about how we, as a community, can come together to help
stop the spread of this worldwide pandemic, Covid-19. I learned about many types of statistics
from all age groups and genders. Specifically, I remember one of our first lectures when
Professor Lukens Bull showed class different statistics about risky adolescent and young adult
behaviors in Jacksonville, Florida over the course of a few years. One that I explicitly
remembered was the rate of pregnancy for girls aged 15-19 years old. I remember that the rate
of pregnancy for this age group was much lower than I was expecting. I was mostly shocked
because I know that when there are certain areas that are slightly impoverished or do not show
a significant level of high school graduation rates, there tends to be more teenage pregnancies.
There could be many possible reasons why, but most of the time teenagers are not as educated
about sex or what types of contraception are out there in impoverished areas. According to
flhealthcharts.com, in 2019 there were 647 births to mothers aged 15-19 years old.
I have learned a lot in this course, but something that this course taught me is how to
take a group of data or facts, and how I talk about this in correlation to my life and those
around me. This is always something I have struggled with; however, the way our class was
taught and how we were suggested to look at the information given was eye opening for me. I
thoroughly enjoyed this class besides the current situation our world is in. I am excited to take
more public health classes given the skills and information that I now have. I feel that I have
come a long way not only in Epidemiology, but as a student since the start of this semester. I
have learned better time management skills. Not only time management, but this semester
References
Are You the One? (2014, January 21). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3484274/
Florida Health Charts by County. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from
http://www.flhealthcharts.com/charts/DataViewer/BirthViewer/BirthViewer.aspx?
cid=0001
What is Epidemiology? (2016, June 17). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from
https://www.cdc.gov/careerpaths/k12teacherroadmap/epidemiology.html