HLSA Journal by Tim Johnson https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks Made with mirth en-us 2020-09-18 14:27:28 UTC 2025-04-13 15:12:44 UTC hello@padlet.com Week 3 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/763212298 Thus far, I have enjoyed practicing good interviewing techniques, active listening, and empathizing with my classmates. This has allowed me to truly learn about and form some connections with some of my classmates. I had all but I accepted that I wouldn't talk to my classmates this year due to the limitations of Zoom, but this class has a provided a nice opportunity to still connect. Its not the same of course, but I see myself and my classmates overcoming the medium and connecting more and more each week and it is very encouraging. 
So far, the bit of Dr. Thomas's wisdom that stuck with me the most has been the importance of putting together a story when talking to or interviewing someone. I believe empathy obtains a lot of its impact and power from the stories we can construct from the people, environments, events around us. Without the principles we're practicing in class (open-ended questions, active listening, etc), the story spawned will be one-dimensional at best. 
While I'm enjoying the more abstract material we've covered so far, I'm really excited to get to work. I love the idea people in undeserved communities being able to access health services, legal services, fresh produce, and nutrition education in one place. I can't wait to contribute to this. ]]> 2020-09-21 06:46:28 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/763212298 Week 1/ Intro tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/779479570 I'm Tim and I am a Senior Public Health Major. I am preparing for the LSAT now and plan on pursuing a JD/MPH. I love music and reading. Some of my favorite authors are Toni Morrison, N.K. Jemisin, Stephen King, Yaa Gyasi, and Khaled Hosseini. Some of my favorite musical artists are Kendrick Lamar, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, D'angelo, the Internet, and Fred Hammond. I attached the below photo because I also love the ocean and can't wait to travel again.]]> 2020-09-25 14:51:00 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/779479570 Week 2 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/779588108 I've always loved Humans of NY and I loved this video. Everyone said something, whether it was wise or controversial, that sparked a lot of thought in me. One such comments was in the conversation between the 2 subway performers. At one point, one of them made used the word "b*itches" and the other one said "chill I got a daughter." The first performer then apologized and amended his previous statement with the word "females." This caused me to reflect about how many people are unable to empathize until its "close to home." I also reflected on the broader relationship between Black men and women. There was a lot to unpack from a  very simple, and not uncommon, comment. ]]> 2020-09-25 15:16:42 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/779588108 Week 4 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/782712687 What stuck out the most to this week was the manner in which Jane Chen, who was pitching her innovation reduce infant mortality, started her presentation. She asked everyone in the audience to close their eyes and imagine them holding an item like a wallet or phone. When the audience opened their eyes they were greeted with a picture of a premature baby that can fit in the palm of a hand. She then proceeded to explain the issue and her present her solution. This reminded me of learning ethos, pathos, and logos in high school. She led with an appeal to pathos, or emotion, and then followed up with appeals to logos and ethos. While this is not the only way to begin a presentation or pitch, I believe it is especially effective in the public health field. Far too often the powers that be and even everyday people are reluctant or unwilling to support public health initiatives targeted at the less fortunate. Some believe that efforts to improve health outcomes for marginalized groups is too costly or simply not their problem. Facts and statistics are not enough to sway these beliefs. Often the best way to do so, or at least to start a productive conversation is with pathos. ]]> 2020-09-27 20:09:29 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/782712687 Week 5 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/815911724 This past week I interviewed two individuals on their general feelings about health. I interviewed my girlfriend (pictured below) and a student on campus. I enjoyed the in-class interview, but I had already established rapport and a high level of comfort with my girlfriend. I was much more nervous to interview a stranger. Despite being less comfortable, I found three techniques to be especially helpful in establishing a genuine connection during the second interview. These techniques were validation, finding common ground and sharing my similar experience, and humor. I think the student I interviewed had her guard up somewhat because I was a public health major asking about health. However, I made sure to validate all of her answers without and condemnation or judgment. I believe she perceived this and began to open up more and more. She eventually felt comfortable enough to share that she was somewhat anti-vax, was in therapy, and planned on going to a party this weekend because she knew it was a safe space for dialogue. When she began talking about therapy, I shared about my experience with the UMD counseling service. I talked about how I wasn’t gaining much from it until I finally found a Black, female therapist who was able to better understand me and communicate without a cultural barrier. The student, who was also a Black woman, had gone through the same exact experience and seemed to be thrilled that we had this in common. From there I was able to make some jokes about our shared experience. The rest of the interview was very conversational, almost as if we were friends exchanging ideas. Moving forward, I will absolutely use validation, shared or common experiences, and humor to better empathize and establish rapport. 

]]> 2020-10-09 03:25:38 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/815911724 Week 6 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/834651038 Last class, my group interviewed a guest who was role-playing as an undocumented Latinx man living in PG county. The issue that stuck out the most to me was the fact that he, and many others, use false information when seeking health services to decrease their chances of being caught and deported. This has been a big concern of mine for a few years now. Two years ago, a friend and former coworker had a suicidal episode and called 911 so he could be transported to the hospital. He called me before the ambulance arrived and asked if I could come with him. The entire time we were at the hospital, he was very uncomfortable. This, of course, was not surprising as he was not in a great mental place. However, it wasn’t until a few hours later that he told me that he was undocumented and that the possibility of deportation was far terrifying than his poor mental health. He almost didn’t call for help because of legal status. How many people don’t call for help or get necessary medical treatment because of the fear of deportation? This needs to change. My group and I began to brainstorm ways to alleviate this fear of deportation. We are still in the process of doing so, some ideas include educational campaigns to inform and empower undocumented individuals to seek healthcare, advocacy to rollback or revise immigration policies that are causing a decline in healthcare service use among undocumented individuals, and advocating healthcare providers strongly advertise that services such as checkups or flu vaccines are undocumented immigrant-friendly. 

]]> 2020-10-16 03:24:21 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/834651038 Week 7 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/855172121 One of the most impactful bits of instruction I’ve received during the “empathize” unit, is that empathy depends on my ability to perceive a story when interviewing someone. During my week 3 reflection, I talked about the specific tools we learned to create those stories, such as open-ended questions and active listening. Using these techniques allows us to craft a story that is rich and fully representative of the perceptions of the interviewee, rather than my own. During my first practice interview, I used open-ended questions, but I was still pointing the direction toward the questions I wanted answered. This isn’t necessarily bad, but I was missing the big picture. As the unit continued, I understood more and more that the story I create depends on the seemingly unrelated details. One of my favorite authors, Toni Morrison, describes it best in the video attached at the 4-minute mark. She says “It’s not fact, I know, but its truth. That’s where truth lies: in our myths, in our songs. That’s where the seeds are. It’s not possible to constantly hone on the crisis.” I think this encapsulates what Dr. Thomas was trying to get us to understand. We can ask questions like “are you getting vaccinated?” and “why or why not?” and we can create interventions from this. However, to truly be empathetic we should empower and encourage them to share as much as they are willing to from their big dreams and catastrophic events to their minute annoyances and little victories. This genuine perspectives enable the exceptionally creative approaches and interventions that can have the greatest impact. ]]> 2020-10-23 07:33:41 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/855172121 Week 8 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/875623381 2020-10-30 05:06:48 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/875623381 Week 9 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/897071464 This week my group continued to brainstorm in our effort to design a community-level intervention for people like Rob, one of the interviewed patrons in the barbershop. We continued to flesh out some of the specifics with some of our ideas and, per Dr. Thomas’ request, we added Rob’s picture to our mural so we could put a face to our design efforts. The biggest challenge we are facing at the moment is that almost all of our ideas are, as Dr. T put it, traditional. My group has some very creative people on it, but we are all struggling to think outside of the box due to troublesome constraints such as those imposed by the pandemic. I think there were two unique ideas proposed. One was a “common-ground” type YouTube series in which people with opposing views would talk it out in a safe space. This video format is not necessarily a novel idea, but using it address vaccine hesitancy has not been done often. The other idea was simply creating “Got vaccinated” stickers that resemble, or are at least are inspired by, the “I voted” stickers. This would be very simple to implement and if we can reach prominent and trusted community members, it could be very effective. 

]]> 2020-11-06 09:36:13 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/897071464 Week 10 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/920355912 This past week I wasn’t able to make it to class (election news kept me up till 6:30 am. My bad.). However, I have been in touch with my group members and Elsie during the week. I learned that we started the prototype phase. We have come up with several good ideas, but we haven’t fleshed any of them out yet. I am interested to see prototyping yields and what activities we will engage in to prototype. I know Dr. T said normally we would have had walls covered in sticky notes. Since we can’t meet in person, I assume we will continue to use mural extensively, as well as other activities like role-playing. I also looked at the PowerPoint that was made. I enjoyed looking at everyone’s drawings and seeing that some of my classmates actually had a lot of talent. Seeing everyone’s perspective of “how to appreciate a flower” was interesting because everyone had very different, yet equally valid thoughts. Some thought that meant smelling the flowers, some looked at their flowers, and others watered their flowers. Some kept their flowers in a vase, while others left them in the ground. The “how to appreciate flowers” question yielded a lot more variability than the “draw a vase” prompt. We can bring this concept to our prototyping phase. Asking more complex questions will cause more varied and creative responses among my group members. We struggled with thinking out of the boss during the ideate phase so this practice will be crucial during the current phase.]]> 2020-11-13 14:59:35 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/920355912 Week 11 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/944477241 This week we had to continue to build upon on our intervention idea, but with a new stipulation: we had to incorporate dogs somehow. I initially thought of this as a somewhat annoying obstacle that my group would have to overcome. However, I understood the purpose of this activity when we were all presenting. All of the groups were literally forced to think outside the box to incorporate dogs without sacrificing the purpose and desired impact of their projects. This led to some really good ideas. Some of project ideas were actually strengthened by the inclusion of dogs. While I don’t think my group’s project is one of those that benefitted from the addition of dogs, I do appreciate this effort in forcing us to think out the box. I talked about how this was a bit of an issue last time, so this is very timely and beneficial. Its interesting that adding parameters like these broadened our horizons rather than limited us. 

This week my group also took a concrete step in our prototyping and actually made a Instagram page for our project. We each created a rough dog-related infographic and posted it (mine’s the dark blue one). None of this is permanent, but it is helpful for planning out general layout and how to best go about disseminating information.

]]> 2020-11-20 06:57:30 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/944477241 Week 12 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/1000511234 This week we continued developing our proposal and prototyping. We created a real Instagram a account, made some mock Instagram posts that included infographics about COVID-19 vaccination, and discussed how we would implement our “middle ground discussions.” Essentially these discussions would involve people in the community who have different feelings and opinions about vaccination. During our practice pitch, one of our classmates shared her concerns with this idea, stating that anti-vax sentiments should be quelled, not acknowledged or given a platform. While this is a valid critique, we believe that changing beliefs and behaviors is not such a simple task. The article attached below discusses in length some theories regarding the science of why it is so hard to change someone’s beliefs and why facts are often not enough. Some of theories include arguments that the evolutionary purpose of reason is not suitable for today’s hyperconnected society, that confirmation bias, caused by dopamine rushes received when reading information that confirms belief, prevents belief change, and that community knowledge prevents belief change. The community we are trying to impact are not hesitant to be vaccinated because they are ignorant. They are making understandable choices given the historical and current treatment of Black people in healthcare settings, and in America as a whole. Therefore, I think we need to acknowledge beliefs held by the community and introduce information through discourse, rather than forcing information upon them. 

]]> 2020-12-09 00:31:33 UTC https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/1000511234 Week 13 Reflection tjohns98 https://padlet.com/tjohns98/Bookmarks/wish/1000531687 This week we continued developing our proposal and prototyping. Based on the critiques received the week before we put some more thought into our goals and how were going to accomplish them. The goal of our common ground discussions is to both acknowledge the existing knowledge and beliefs of the community, while spreading evidence-based knowledge to empower people to get vaccinated. We decided to implement safeguards such a fact check during the videos of the middle ground discussion to ensure that false information is not spread and that the goal of empowering people to get vaccinated is realized. Focusing on key turning points during the creation of our innovation arc helped my group to be able to concisely and effectively convey the purpose and plan of our intervention. 

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