The house I moved into in September is an old house from the early 1900s, I finally had all of my closest friends in one house, and the pandemic was taking a beat. By far my favorite living experience at UW.
taking apart western health norms
"FGM occurring over the age of consent should be completely medicalized. This is a very culturally significant procedure and has little medical difference from routine vaginoplasties that occur in Western hospitals every day."
This class is definitely the class I have had the most drastic shift in viewpoint. This course focused on female genital mutilation, a global cultural practice. I began the class against it and ended in favor of the practice for adults.
At the beginning of the quarter I started working at Husky Coronavirus Testing, the main UW testing site. This job gave me such a sense of purpose as the pandemic got worse again at the end of the quarter. My first real public health job!!! :)
Reflection
The fall quarter of senior year was a breath of fresh air. For the first time since Fall 2019 we were allowed to attend in person classes, on campus. This was so refreshing, online classes are difficult for me to stay engaged in, despite how much I care about the topic I’m learning. As embarrassing as it was, I nearly teared up in my first class, at 8:30 am on a Monday morning. While senior fall quarter brought unexpected personal drama and emotions, going to class gave me purpose and direction all 10 weeks. As I write this amid my second covid isolation, I am reminded of how much progress there is to be made in the public health world. As our White House yet again fails to attempt to contain a containable virus, and raging health disparities around the world allow this virus to terrorize our world, I can only have hope that those in power will come to understand the power in prioritizing peace and humanity.