Gender Equity, Advocacy, and Historical Significance
I had originally entered Hamline with an interest in biochemistry, and planned to work towards medical school. However, after discovering a passion for social justice in my extracurricular activities, I decided that I wanted to major in Social Justice and incorporate justice work into my career path. I decided to reroute my interest in medicine and health through a Public Health major, hoping to diversify my collegiate experience. After taking introduction-level classes for both, I quickly realized that the topics are heavily intertwined, and truly act as the perfect marriage for my degree.
Public Health, at a base level, concerns the whole health of a population- physically, mentally, and spiritually- especially as it is promoted from the state. Part of this is looking at a variety of factors that affect quality of life, titled "social determinants". Some examples can include race, socio-economic status, location, gender, and more. Those who have more socially underprivileged (or target) identities typically have a lower quality of life, and even have significant gaps in life expectancy- something that social justice works to fight against.
I hope to use my public health major to understand the implications of injustice on a community, as well as a more analytical perspective of methods to combat this. Similarly, I hope to use my social justice major to understand the systemic and institutionalized extent of inequality, provide myself with the language and history of social movements, and as an opportunity to learn about my own privilege and power while learning from other perspectives. My nonprofit management minor will equip me with tools to use in my post-graduate career to help reach these goals.
Within my social justice degree, I have chosen to focus on gender equity, advocacy, and historical significance. This was born through a passion to fight against gender-based violence, specifically in intimate relationships. I am creating my focus to study the work women have done both now and throughout history, and to better understand positive ways to advocate for equity. Please feel free to use the drop-down menu to see a sample of courses I have taken in each area of my degree.
Public Health, at a base level, concerns the whole health of a population- physically, mentally, and spiritually- especially as it is promoted from the state. Part of this is looking at a variety of factors that affect quality of life, titled "social determinants". Some examples can include race, socio-economic status, location, gender, and more. Those who have more socially underprivileged (or target) identities typically have a lower quality of life, and even have significant gaps in life expectancy- something that social justice works to fight against.
I hope to use my public health major to understand the implications of injustice on a community, as well as a more analytical perspective of methods to combat this. Similarly, I hope to use my social justice major to understand the systemic and institutionalized extent of inequality, provide myself with the language and history of social movements, and as an opportunity to learn about my own privilege and power while learning from other perspectives. My nonprofit management minor will equip me with tools to use in my post-graduate career to help reach these goals.
Within my social justice degree, I have chosen to focus on gender equity, advocacy, and historical significance. This was born through a passion to fight against gender-based violence, specifically in intimate relationships. I am creating my focus to study the work women have done both now and throughout history, and to better understand positive ways to advocate for equity. Please feel free to use the drop-down menu to see a sample of courses I have taken in each area of my degree.