I’ve been in DC a month already — what?! It’s hard to believe how quickly time goes, considering everything we’ve all accomplished in the last year of our MPH program. I lived in DC for 6 years before moving to New Haven. I went to undergrad here at American University where I majored in International Studies, focusing on Peace & Conflict Resolution. After graduation I tried to pursue my lifelong goal of being an attorney by working as a litigation paralegal in a large corporate firm downtown with big fancy clients, my own office, and a nearly unlimited budget to feed myself and taxi from home to the office and back. It was all in support of working 60+ hours per week or more. That law firm was my first experience of learning the value of work-life balance and how important it was to me. I was more concerned with giving stressed-out attorneys tea and snacks rather than focusing on the 3,000-item exhibit list I was assigned to work on. Needless to say, I didn’t last long there (16 months, actually not bad for a first job out of college).
So I went from one end of the spectrum to the next, and joined the Peace Corps. I was “conditionally accepted” meaning I had to get more agriculture experience before joining the environment volunteers. While working as a paralegal, I volunteered at Common Good City Farm in DC. I remember the first time I held a shovel and dug into warm, fresh compost. After being in a fluorescent-lit air-conditioned office far too long, it was the best feeling in the world. I felt totally connected with the earth, with fresh food, with myself and what I really wanted to be doing. Before long I was on a flight to Mali.
Quite unfortunately, I fell ill and didn’t last long in Mali. I was sent back to DC where I spent a solid week in the hospital hooked up to all sorts of IVs, sending me antibiotics and pain killers, putting me in a state of highness for 7 days straight. When I finally emerged from this blissful yet painful state, I realized the 2 years I had planned for myself, to figure things out, where gone. I was back in DC, which I said goodbye to only months earlier and had no idea where to go from there. It took me 3 months to find a job, and I took the first thing that was offered. I ended up working as an program coordinator for a nonprofit in Dupont Circle called Alliance for Justice. While the work itself was to support programs I knew little about and the job acted as a sort of “filler” for me until I figured out my life, I didn’t realize how important the connections were that I was making there. Trying to recover from my Peace Corps illness, I got very into veganism and home cooking. I constantly brought in new dishes for the office to try, though I tended to instill fear more than curiosity in my co-workers. One of my bosses, and now very close mentor, told me about her good friend and the organization he started in the 70s called Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). “I can introduce you,” she said. “Cool!” I thought, having no idea really who this was or how big of a deal it would be for me.
The following fall when I started my MPH at Yale I was taking Nutrition & Chronic Disease with Susan Mayne, an incredible class with a brilliant professor that taught me so much about what I’d been trying to self-teach for the past couple of years. Before long CSPI’s name kept on coming up as THE group working on food labeling, food marketing, and salt/sugar/fat issues in the food supply. Score. Let’s do this.
So during winter break I set up a meeting with my old boss and mentor, and her good friend Michael Jacobson. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know him, his organization, and the important work they’re doing. He said, “sodium is the most dangerous product in our food supply.” I questioned this, thinking that sugar was the main culprit (though it’s by no means excused, and comes in at a very close 2nd place for most dangerous). But I knew I had a lot to learn from this man and CSPI. During the following semester I applied for a number of internships, including two positions at CSPI — in their Health Promotion Policy (HPP) department and with their Test Kitchen, which researches and tests healthy recipes for the newsletter (hello dream job!).
I was fortunate enough to be offered an internship with HPP. I quickly set up a call with the head of the department, Jim O’Hara who had worked at the FDA for many years. He told me, “I have this great project for you this summer on sodium. We need some data analysis done.” **stomach flip** …..so I just struggled through a year of biostats, epi and SAS, eagerly awaiting my summer, which I imagined would be filled with interactive community health and nutrition work. And of course, I’m tasked with being a data analyst for the summer on a topic I knew nothing about. A combo feeling of FRICK and “Ok, let’s kick butt at this and learn some things like a real person” flooded me. And here is what I look at almost every day:
Thank god for the Yale stats lab and my friendly professors for spending hours on the phone with me at my self-made standing desk (which I recommend anyone in an office do), because I’d be lost without them. I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned over this past year, enough to allow me to do a data analysis project for a huge organization doing important work. I won’t get into the details of sodium, but I’m learning a lot and that stuff is scary. Check the label, know what you’re eating. IOM recommends no more than 1,500mg per day for most people. Stick to it.
Knowing I’d be in an office 40 hours a week **cringe** I needed to engage in a more active project throughout the summer. So I reached out to my friends in DC who were still involved in community gardening and urban farming. One of my friends started Wangari Gardens a couple of years ago, and luckily they had a garden apprenticeship program with openings. Perfect! I way for me to get out into the sun, meet people, start getting experience in community work, and play in dirt. I was still at Yale when I nailed this apprenticeship down, and when I spoke to the garden Educator Director about apprentice projects for the summer she mentioned wanting to interview garden plot holders. **ding ding ding** Hello thesis idea! So within two weeks I worked with professors at Yale to get approved for the research project and draft interview questions, with the idea of doing a creative, interactive thesis project instead of a paper. I really wanted to design something I could be passionate about and not be bogged down by a dataset during my last year at Yale. And voila, here I am in DC, volunteering weekly at Wangari and meeting some amazing people with amazing stories. The gardens sit just outside the Washington Hospital Center, so interviews may be a bit of a struggle with the constant sirens and life flights, but I’ll make it work.
As it turns out, Wangari isn’t the only center of action this summer. CSPI has been an incredible experience, especially as I’ve been involved with the 2nd annual Soda Summit hosted by the organization and attended by over 200 public health professionals from around the country. The past two days were remarkable. Here’s Michael Jacobson, founder and Executive Director of CSPI, giving the opening talk at the Soda Summit, which was held at the National Press Club in downtown DC:
During that post-Peace Corps “what am I doing with my life phase” I did a lot of reading on nutrition, wellness and health. One of the books that cultivated so much passion in me and pushed me to apply for my MPH was What To Eat by Marion Nestle. Lucky me, she was at the Soda Summit!
She gave me some great advice about my career path and interests — how important it is to LIVE in the community where you want to work, where you want to make a difference. It’s not easy being an outsider with a fancy degree and big ideas, then try to work and change a community. It’s about being a part of that community. And that’s exactly what I intend on doing.
Multiple times when someone overhears me talking about nutrition on the street, at a bar, at an event, someone will ask me, “What should I eat?” or “How should I eat to be health?” I have this unique and incredibly challenging opportunity to give the most helpful piece of information to that specific person in 45 seconds or less. The first thing that always comes to mind is “Eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies” hoping they’ll understand that those things need to replace other unhealthy items and not just add to them, but who knows what they’ll go home and eat after that, or how they’ll misinterpret what I say. Messaging is so important, and so incredibly intriguing and challenging. It’s also important to meet people where they’re at. Someone on the street said he already eats a lot of veggies, like spinach. I asked him how he cooks it. He said, “with butter!” I said “try replacing the butter with olive oil” And if that’s the only advice he hears from me ever, and he actually acts upon it, that could have huge benefits in his life overtime. One starfish at a time.
I’ve also managed to have some fun this summer. I learned how to “drive” a boat!
…and dance on one…
…and eat “kale pops” straight from the ground…
Now that I’ve written a mini novel, it’s time for me to get my act together and head to Jazz in the Garden, the best part of DC summer. It makes me so happy to bring together people from CSPI, AU, Yale and beyond at events like this. My worlds are colliding and I’m filled with love for all of it.
I miss all of my classmates (or should I say, family members) so much, and I’m so proud of everyone going after their dreams all over the world this summer. I can’t wait to see them all in the fall. And I hope many of them can come into DC at some point to visit.
xoxo
Tracy
YSPH 2015 Summer Internships 