Since graduating from the MPH program in 2015, I have been working at the Orange County Health Care Agency/Communicable Disease Control Division. The unit is primarily responsible for monitoring disease trends and outbreaks across the county. The undergraduate and graduate program were critical in my career path in several ways. The coursework helped broaden and deepen my understanding of the complex work that is public health, ranging from biostatistics to environmental health to health promotion. After working in the field, you begin to understand how the core coursework comes together in an applied setting. In addition, the internships were essential in networking across the Agency, which is how I was able to start my career path at Environmental Health and eventually transfer to Communicable Disease Control as an epidemiologist. I am grateful to have completed both the undergraduate and graduate at Cal State Fullerton – without it, I would not be where I am today.
