Students are constantly thrown into a frenzied academic environment teeming with lecture slides, calculations, exams, papers and online assignments. It is quite easy to get lost in this crowd of concepts and facts, where paying attention is only for the grade. It is even easier to feel eyelids getting heavier and to dose off in the midst of a professor's lecture. However, the class "Cultural Factors of Public Health" brings the classroom into a new type of frenzy. Engaging students with its films and group discussions, the class is collaborative and never lets eyes droop.
The driving force behind this class is Dr. Thomas LaVeist, Director of Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions and a William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor in Health Policy at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. A veteran in research, Laveist is an accomplished scholar, producing dozens upon dozens of publications.
Approaching his office down at the Hopkins medical campus, one sees a cozy research building that looks more from the front like the entrance to an old-style apartment than a place of academic seriousness. Although based at Bloomberg, he is approachable and relates to the undergraduate community. LaVeist understands the struggles of a college student, the tendency to keep changing one's mind and, ultimately, discovering a passion.
Recently, LaVeist took some time to sit down with The News-Letter to share his experiences as a bustling college student to teaching and working with the Hopkims community.
The News-Letter (N-L): What do you love the most about teaching undergraduate students at Hopkins?
Thomas Laveist (TL): I love the passion and curiosity that they bring. I can expect hard work and dedication to learning from these students. Most college students, I even remember when I went to college, are not like that.
N-L: What advice would you give to these undergraduates?
TL: Do what you're passionate about. I know you have to make big decisions in college about what job will make money and other factors, but do what you love. Trust me, if you like what you're doing, the rest will come. Most people who are successful have passion. Know your talents, skills and interests and build a career around it.
N-L: What got you interested in the public health field, especially in the area of health disparities?
TL: Initially, I was at the University of Michigan trying to get my Ph.D. in sociology. As I was completing my dissertation in sociology, I noticed that the concept of disparities in health kept creeping up. I was fascinated by the topic and the fact there was no clear answer in the literature. I was even more amazed that very few people were doing work on the topic. So, I figured if I studied public health as part of a postdoctoral fellowship for two years, I would get the answer to my question. As we've discussed in class, there is no clear answer, and I've been searching for it for a long time, but I feel like I'm much closer now towards the answer than I was at University of Michigan.
N-L: How was your experience in college as a student and what lead to your interest in sociology?
TL: Well, I attended University of Maryland Eastern Shore mainly because I was recruited to play football there. All I could think about when I was a freshman was playing football. I started off as a music major and studied classical music. After a while, being a music major and on the football team proved to be too time-consuming, so I dropped the music major. Later, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore couldn't afford to maintain two football teams, so they dropped funding for one. I quit football after that.
So I decided to pursue law school and was deciding on a major to help me in that process. I started off as an English major for one semester and decided it wasn't for me. I then switched to a sociology major as a part of the pre-law program. In my junior year, as part of the pre-law program, I worked at the law school and observed what lawyers did in a law firm. I didn't like it and by then time was running out, I had to finish college with something. I finished my bachelor's in sociology.
N-L: What advancements would you want to see in your field of interest?
TL: Well, we are making progress in this field. It would be nice if you get a group of individuals that know social, behavioral and biological sciences. Usually, in Public Health, you end up studying each component separately. But health is a combination of all those factors, you need a collaboration of all these disciplines to solve this problem.
