Philosophy Statement

Public health? When it comes to public health, it is not just one thing but hundreds of
things focusing on the health of one community. Within the community, the populations I would
like to focus on would be adolescents. As many adolescences continue to grow and learn, many
will also go through tough times to get where they are now. However, due to this pressure, many
would develop poor mental health. Mental health includes our emotional, physiological, and
social wellbeing affecting the way we might feel, think and act. In the public health field, I aim
to improve is mental health among adolescents. Mental health among adolescents is something
that has affected my family, friends, and myself personally. This topic has greatly impacted my
cousin due to the enormous amount of stress from school, family, and friends. This stress has
also affected the way he felt, thought, and act causing him to do irrational things. He was able to
open up about this feeling and thoughts, allowing him to seek the help he needed. His mental
health has also affected family and close friends, allowing us to share some of the pain with him.
From that experience, I learned that many lives can be saved from just listening to one's thoughts
and feelings. From the past year, I have also learned that mental health has greatly impacted
many Asian countries due to the increasing amount of stress from exams and work. From this
experience, I have gained an interest to educate the community about mental health.

During the adolescence period, many are affected by mental health can lead to an onset of
other illnesses and often correlate with risky behaviors. This has also led me to study as an
undergraduate in Health Science with a minor in Health Education. My focus is to serve as a
resource to the community and to advocate about mental health. The Certified Health Education
Specialist (CHES) responsibility I will focus on is CHES responsibility VI and VII, providing
proper information and advocating for the change in mental health. To give the proper
information, not only do I need to know the information, but I would also need to assess the
community, plan, implement, evaluate, and administer the proper program. Communicating with
the community through social media to educate about mental health and how it might affect one
another. Another way would be to use it through another voice, the voice of someone who might
have gone through depression, anxiety, and any other disorder. Using the voice of others and the
social support of the community to spread the awareness of mental health.

Within the next few years, I want to graduate with my Master’s in Public Health and
advocate about mental health. I want to be able to work among side the National Alliance of
Mental Illness (NAMI) to spread awareness and be able to reach out to others that might also be
suffering from a mental illness. As mental illness increases each year, I hope to help people by
providing the proper information and educating others about what might they do when they come
to face someone they love with mental illness. Not only will this help those who suffer from
mental illness, but it also helps society realize that not everyone is perfect and that nobody is
alone. Being able to educate people and advocate about mental health can allow those with a
mental illness to get the proper care that is needed and allows more people to voice what feel and
think.