I AM FPHLP 2022: Ariel Le
Ariel Le was part of the Michigan FPHLP 2022 cohort. She is currently a junior at
Georgetown University majoring in Human Science and minoring in Public Health. During
FPHLP 2022, Ariel interned with Washtenaw County Health Department.
Ariel wanted to participate in Michigan FPHLP because she wanted a space where she could not only get exposure to public health skills and knowledge, but to also apply all of the public health skills she learned into the communities she wants to work with in the future. Ariel also wanted to have this opportunity to be a leader in her own personal journey and create a direct impact on public health efforts. By doing this, she hoped to gain confidence in her abilities as a future public health leader.
In her field placement with Washtenaw County Health Department, Ariel worked with the Environmental Health Division (WCHD-EH) focusing on taking action to ensure sanitary and safe food, water and surrounding conditions, whether it may be through inspection, education, regulation, sampling, and partnership with community organizations. These inspections are important for regulation because it ensures that many of the food, pool, body art, and restaurant establishments comply with the minimum standards of safety. At WCHD-EH, Ariel shadowed health inspectors as they inspected urban and rural establishments within the county. She produced an educational flyer for outdoor pool owners; as well as created an electronic record of pool violations and other data on Excel from a paper-based program of seasonal outdoor pool files that will provide a baseline for WCHD-EH to measure future educational efforts on overall violation compliance and citations.
The biggest highlight of Ariel’s FPHLP experience was the personal and professional connections she made throughout the program. For one, she was able to learn so much about her interests and my goals as a future public health leader through all of the leading professionals that the program brought to the cohort. In addition, she was able to become more empowered and validate herself through the support of the other cohort members with whom she formed deep connections with for life.
After leaving Michigan FPHLP, Ariel will be entering her junior year at Georgetown University where she will be working in various public health initiatives. Ariel is continuing her undergraduate research experience working at a lab focused on improving lung cancer screening rates and other forms of intervention to reduce the lung cancer mortality rate. In addition, she will be joining OCA-DC as a part-time Public Health Program Support Specialist to aid in public health efforts to uplift AAPI communities in DC.
In the future, Ariel hopes to pursue her MPH in the social and behavioral health field and become a public health program coordinator. More specifically, she would like to be part of efforts that address the social determinants of health in the context of violence, sex work, HIV/AIDs, alcohol & substance use disorders, etc. through harm-reduction work and educational initiatives.
Ariel encourages others to apply to Michigan FPHLP because FPHLP is an amazing program that allows you to validate your own lived experiences and uplift yourself in a way where you can lead your own community in the future. It will do this by providing you with all of the professional and academic resources you need to not only put yourself out into the public health workforce, but to also apply yourself and your skills in a way that makes your efforts incredibly impactful. FPHLP also allows you to meet so many amazing people that you can build life-long personal and professional connections with.
