Ashley Crawford is in the second year of the MPH program in Health Behavior
1. What made you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
Based on my interests in undergrad, I knew that I wanted to gain more experience in public health and hopefully pursue a graduate degree in public health after some time working. After 4 years of working in various settings, I had narrowed down my interests within public health and wanted to gain skills in community assessment/engagement and program implementation and evaluation. I pursued a graduate degree because I wanted to gain those skills.
2. What’s the thing you love most about Chapel Hill?
I love that this is a place where students have the ability to ask critical questions, receive support from thoughtful colleagues, and create new initiatives/projects as we see necessary.
- If you had any advice for someone thinking about pursuing a graduate degree, what would it be?
I would encourage them to conduct informational interviews with those in their field or discipline of interest to better understand what sub-topics interest them the most and what skills are useful for different careers within the field. Spend some time asking lots of questions and exploring a bit before diving in!
- What is your dream career after you’ve completed your studies?
This is the million-dollar question! I’m still crafting the answer to this, but my dream career would involve some combination of the following: collaborating with community stakeholders and organizations to build capacity for institutionalizing racial equity practices while also integrating creative, holistic and long-term policies, systems and environmental change to achieve health equity and improve quality of life, particularly in low-income communities of color.