I AM FPHLP 2013: Harvest Yomai

This summer Villiann-Mae (Harvest) Yomai from the Federated States of Micronesia participated in the FPHLP 2013 program. She is currently a junior at Chaminade University of Honolulu (CUH) where she has declared her major in Biology. Harvest is very involved on campus where she was one of the lab assistants to the Dean of the Biology department and is now a student employee at the Natural Science and Mathematics Department of CUH. She is also involved with several organizations such as the "Scrubs Club" and Micronesian Club. Scrubs Club is a Pre-health student group that focuses on community service and workshops for pre-health students. The "Micronesian Club" is a group of Micronesian CUH students provides community service opportunities to kids of Micronesian descent living in Hawaii.

The highlight of Yomai's journey with FPHLP began at the opening ceremony at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Besides the fact that visiting the CDC was something that she always wanted to do, Harvest found it an amazing experience to meet people with important positions in the medical and legislative fields and to have the opportunity to network. "Hearing their stories of how they've become what they are now gives me hope" she said.

Harvest's field placement was located at the Ecology Center where she did research on toxicology and antibodies use in animal feed. She created factsheets to keep the community informed on ways to decrease risks of exposure to harmful chemicals. The field placement and the program in general opened up new doors for Harvest. She didn't know much about public health and the graduate program options until FPHLP, which allowed her to take interest in variety of career opportunities.

Now as FPHLP alumna, Harvest has several "lessons" learned that she wants to share with others who are interested in applying to the program. "Be open. When I first got here I was out of place. No one knew where my country is from. Once I started interacting with others, I knew that we were all in the same page" she says. "It is a great experience to have worked with a very diverse group. They are amazing and I will forever keep in touch with my cohort." Now that she has experienced all that the program has to offer, Harvest's advice to future participants would be to "Be open- minded. Take all the resources that are offered and use them! Make sure to keep in touch with colleagues and presenters whom you know would be of most help to you. Most of all, share your heritage and culture with others."

Upon Harvest's return home, she is now looking forward to graduating in Spring 2015 with her Bachelor's Degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology. She is also interested in applying for the study abroad program in Africa. Her long-term career goal is to further her educational career in Medicine and become a clinical physician in Chuuk State.