Back to school, back to school - 1st week of studies March 2010

First week of classes are over and it's only Thursday !!!!

I have some amazing courses crammed into 3 days (Monday-Wednesday) but with lots and lots of readings to follow up on. Even though this week I felt as if these courses are a repeat form my undergrad program, I have a feeling that these courses will take a much deeper analysis of my present knowledge through the semester. It also tells me that I should come out my first semester with some amazing marks (no pressure but it is all-or-nothing !!!) Here is a little summary of my 4 courses:


Biostatistics
Math has never been my strongest talent, but I have always managed to do well in courses I required to take. I have a stats course from undergrad but they do not recognize this previous course in this masters program. This is logical and fair because students in my program are form all over the world. It is good to have everyone studying the same things, making sure everyone is on the same page at the start of the semester. But still, why do I have to take stats again .... lol????

I will be using R commander (stats programing, thank god it's not SPSS - yuk yuk) so I will definitely be learning some new skills but it's too early to tell if I will survive this course. Not too excited about stats but I know only good things can come out from taking it.


Epidemiology
At this time, I have to mention that I enjoy all my profs, they all seem extremely passionate about their courses and their research. In this course, the prof is super excited to be teaching us about the amazing things epi has to offer (which I cannot see yet, but I'm sure with time I will realize the treasures in the world of epi) and hopefully a semester will be just enough time to get me as exciting if not half as exciting as my prof is about this course(lol). It is still too early to tell if I will be the next amazing epidemiologist of the century (again, this is a course we all have to go though in the program to make sure we can do bigger and better things for second semester). The course is a little dry, introducing quantitative research withing public health. It may become a tool which I will be using once I am out in the field but just after week 1 it's not keeping my eyes open in class :-)


Health and Development
Now we get into some of my favorite/juicy course(s). This course started by presenting some ideas introduced in my undergrad but (again) will be taking concepts further and into a much deeper assessment over the semester. Terminology include: Demographic transition, determinants of health, macro/micro perspectives of health and development, role of health in economic development and so on (3 year nursing was a wonderful intro, now it becomes my life). I get excited just talking about what this course has to offer. I do have some assignments to type up but no final exam which is so nice to hear. But it also means that I need to get going on some of my readings so I can write great and well thought out papers and impress myself :-) (by the way, there are no exams in my masters program which is already a bonus ... but I have to keep up with the readings and develop some amazing papers - which I know will be challenging on it's own, this is coming form a procrastinator, lol).

Not having exams also means that I will have less time to keep up my blog and tell everyone about my new experiences and ideas. But I will stay conscious of the time and try to fit everything into a week's work :-)


and for the final introduction (and my most exciting course so far)...

Social Perspectives in Population Health
(Dr. K. Meier ...thank you!)
Did I hit the jackpot with this course. Even from the tiny description online I knew that this will be an amazing course to attend. Just as before, from the introduction in week one, I find myself familiar with the basic terminology. I also have a little practice with sociology courses (readings and writing sociology papers) so I am not intimidated to be taking this course (yet) but I am supper excited to learn about (and expand on my knowledge of) social theories, qualitative research methods in public health, diseases in a social context and their effects, alternative medicine, and so much more. This is my most lucrative course (not sure how I will manage all the readings in this course) but also will be both fun and challenging at the same time. (All that struggle with sociology in undergrad is finally paying off .... and it is all thanks to my idol in academics Dr. Meier).


Attending this first week has been extremely exciting and I finally am recognizing that this is exactly where I am supposed to be. I may not have enough resources to comfortably live in Oz and travel everywhere I would like to go. But I am surrounded by great people who are at the peak of research in PH and are there to help a new generation of post-grads get on their feet and keep up with research which continues to strive to evolve this world and make it a better place for everyone :-)