A look into the lives of CSU's Current Environmental Health Interns

July 17 Journal Entry

Back in the office, kind of. Today was technically a field trip day, but instead we spent the morning teaching a portion of the EHTER course to the CLEH interns. I think this was a really good experience for them—so far, most of the speakers we’ve had have focused on sustainability, so this gave them a chance to see a new aspect of environmental health. CAPT Mark Miller decided to cover the shelters section of the course, which was exciting for me because of my Norovirus project.

We split the section up into smaller chunks, and I covered “Re-entry and Reoccupancy.” This involves determining what services need to be in place in order for people to return to their homes to assess the damage and what needs to be in place in order for residents to move back permanently. This can range from road safety, emergency vehicle access, hazardous waste management, safety issues with debris, electricity, water supply, wastewater systems, vector management, mental health concerns, and so much more. My part ended up being more difficult because we got a late start in the morning and a couple of sections ran long. When it got to my turn, I was supposed to only have twenty-five minutes and only had about eleven. That meant I had to adapt really quickly—I had all of the interns brainstorm in one group instead of small break-out clusters, and then had the small groups analyze different categories of potential factors instead of having each group look at everything. We managed to cover all of the material and get the overall point across, so I think it was a success. I think I am good at adapting because of tutoring o-chem junior year; a lot of the time circumstances changed and I had to change plans rapidly, experience that definitely came in handy today. Goes to show how all experience is relevant experience!