My sumptuous padlet by Fariahah Khan

Week 1

fkhan223 — 2023-09-21 02:12:05 UTC

My name is Fariahah (Fa-ree-hah) Khan. I'm a senior majoring in public health with a passion for wanting to help improve the quality of life of people. I am from Maryland, specifically Montgomery County, and have lived here all my life. My mother is from India, and my dad is from Pakistan. One of my favorite hobbies is cooking. I love cooking with my mom and sister, especially South Asian cuisine. Another favorite hobby of mine is watching TV. It's something I do in my downtime to relax. I just finished the show Breaking Bad with my sister, which I felt was one of the greatest shows I've watched. Right now, I'm watching the show Sopranos, and I also find it really interesting and intriguing to watch. My favorite color is red, which has been my favorite color since I was little. I have two older siblings who I'm close in age with and spend time with a lot. HLSA484 is a class I'm very excited about as I'm very interested in learning about design thinking, planning, and intervention for the Mona Center. I like that we will use the SDOH's in the communities as I feel this is very important to address and talk about to reduce disparities.

Week 2

fkhan223 — 2023-09-22 01:40:47 UTC

How do you feel about Mondays was the question of our interviews on Friday. We first had to interview a person, and then they would interview us. My partner was Diarra. She told me she doesn't mind Mondays because she has one online class, which differed from my answer. As I said, I don't like Mondays because it's right after the weekend. Interviewing her was really fun as I got to learn so much about her dreams and why she is at UMD. She told me she wants to return to Senegal after graduation to help make healthcare universal. We also had things in common, like wanting to work with maternal health and pregnancy with African-American women. We then had to interview other people and ask them how they felt about Mondays. One of the favorite people Diarra and I interviewed was Lena, who was very cheerful and funny. She told us that she was okay with Mondays and hated Wednesdays because it was the middle of the week, and her schedule was full. It was funny because we had another student who said Wednesday was his favorite day of the week because it was half of the week done. It was funny and cool to see the contrast between the students and their answers. It was a pleasant experience interviewing all the different students because they were all nice and gracious, and even the students who said no because they were busy were still kind and felt really bad about it.

Week 3

fkhan223 — 2023-09-22 03:12:04 UTC

Last Friday our class was on zoom. I was happy about it as I wasn’t feeling well and it hurt my throat a lot to speak; but since it was online I was able to attend class. We started the class with a shake-off which I initiated and was helped by Dr. Thomas, I thought it would be more awkward but because he was helping me it was more fun. In the class we discussed the Purple Line and its effects on the community and UMD students. I’m happy we were able to learn more about the Purple Line because I never researched it to form my opinions, and just listened to what other students had to say. I knew a lot of students didn’t like it because they said it was going to make rent higher and we already had a metro so why was the purple line needed. We had a speaker named Sheila Hosagrahara Somashekhar who is the Director of the Purple Line Corridor Coalition come to speak to us about the Purple Line and she showed us the benefits and advantages for UMD. She said that it’ll actually help UMD’s development and economic growth and will keep the homes preserved.

Week 4

fkhan223 — 2023-09-29 02:43:43 UTC

Last week our class was in person and we did multiple activities. One of the activities we did was choose a picture and state how it motivated us. The picture I chose was of a mom and child. I chose this picture because it reminded me of my mom and how she was my motivation because I always try to get good grades and work hard to make her proud. Another activity we did was we had to go interview people outside of the public health building. My partner was Noor and one person had to interview and the other had to take notes. The prompt was life in a post pandemic world. My favorite person I interviewed was Kylin, a freshman majoring in biology. I thought she was very sweet as she had a class to go to but she still took the time to get interviewed. She told me things that I found very interesting, like the covid experience for her was 50/50 as there were some things she liked and some things she didn’t. One thing she liked was that she found online school easy and she felt she had more time. But she also felt she had a hard time adjusting to school in-person when quarantine was lifted; and felt isolated as it was harder to connect with people and keep in touch with her friends. She also told me that during covid she started crocheting and founded a baking business which I thought was so impressive and driven considering how young she is.

Week 5

fkhan223 — 2023-10-06 03:37:20 UTC

Last week our class was in zoom. We had a speaker come talk to us. Her name is Quynh Nguyen and she is an associate professor for Epidemiology and Biostatics. She talked to us about things she was researching like Google Street Images and Rosie. She told us about how she can use these data sources to look at how it can predict how built environments affect health outcomes. It’s done by having cars take pictures with specially equipped cameras and was able to retrieve over 16 million pictures. I found this really interesting as I didn’t know about google street images and find this a very productive way to find more information about the public’s health ;and how the environment and living conditions are an important way people's state of health and condition are affected. She also talked about Rosie, which is a chatbot her team has made that is focused on ethnic mothers and questions on health, but mostly on postpartum and their child’s health during the early years. I found this really interesting as last year in one of my classes we had to write about an app we would make about health. And my group decided on an app to help postpartum mothers that answered questions and had videos to help them with their babies. So the fact that an actual chatbot was being made was something I found amazing and so helpful. I feel this is an app that can change the way ethnic and immigrant mothers in the U.S live as they have the information right by them, and it’s convenient and easy to access. I also like how the app can be used without wifi and there are actual doctors answering questions.

Week 6

fkhan223 — 2023-10-19 15:28:23 UTC

I didn't come this week because I was in a motor-vehicle accident.

Week 7

fkhan223 — 2023-10-20 02:25:02 UTC

Last week our class was on zoom and our class was mostly focused on discussing the sites we went to. I didn’t attend but the professor let me sit in one of the groups and listen in about their experiences; and also ask questions to inquire more about what they noticed, felt, and wondered. It was a nice experience as even though I didn’t go, my group did a really good job of informing me of what happened, how everything looked, and answered questions if I was confused about something. They told me how they were originally going to a cafe but it was closed so they just walked around in the community and spoke to people. One thing they told me that I found really interesting was how a lot of the places like the gym and movie theater were now closed. We discussed it and said it’s probably because a lot of the residents don’t have the time, money, or energy to go to these places after coming back from work. One person they told me they spoke to was Stephanie, a police officer they met. She worked there for a long time and told them how she saw the demographics change from African-American to Latin-American. We wondered what caused this change as she didn’t elaborate. She also said “the community is more of what you see is what you get”. I was a bit confused about what she meant by this but one of my group members explained that there’s no charm or anything that’s being hidden here; everything including the buildings, people, and culture is a representation of the community.

Week 8

fkhan223 — 2023-10-27 03:06:11 UTC

Last week our class was in person and our class was mostly focused on completing the slides for our presentation that we did for the people we interviewed at the Riverdale site with our groups. The week before our meeting was in zoom so it was harder to do the slides together, so our group did a lot of the work independently. But this week we were able to discuss our ideas and add more to the post-it notes than what we originally wrote. We were able to talk more in depth about one of the residents named Tinu and I thought it was so interesting what my group members found about her. They told me she was a restaurant owner and her restaurant was named QueensWay; and she served Nigerian food. They saw she was wearing scrubs and were wondering if she also worked as a nurse. We wondered how her business was going as the population in Riverdale was mainly Hispanic and a lot of businesses were shutting down due to people not going to them. In HLSA484 we learned how talking to the residents and people who worked there can teach us a lot about the importance of zip codes and people’s economic and life quality.

Week 9

fkhan223 — 2023-11-03 02:39:16 UTC

Last week our class was on zoom. This week was different than how our class usually was, as the class started off by us being put in breakout rooms to wait to hear what our grades in HLSA484 was. This was a first for me as usually our midterms grades are given in Canvas and professors or TA’s don’t talk about our grades or performance in class unless we actively come to them and specifically ask about something. I really enjoyed this as I was able to learn what my grade was and why it was, and what we have to do to keep a certain grade. One thing we learned in class today was how a lot of people don't know who Martin Luther King Jr is, especially in the younger generation. I was surprised as he’s such a prevalent figure in American history; and someone who I feel is very recognizable. Professor Thomas said this is because a lot of people don't know Black history or American history. This can be due to a multitude of reasons. One reason may be immigration. As a lot of people come to the U.S. with their own histories and cultures, it’s also difficult to also learn about American culture on top of it.

Week 10

fkhan223 — 2023-11-10 04:31:04 UTC

Last week our class was in person. We went to a site that was located in Hyattsville and a barbershop called Hyattsville. I was surprised at how close it was to UMD as I don’t think I’ve ever driven there. We were put into groups and told to go interview people that lived there. The first person we interviewed was named Jessica, she was 27 years old and worked at the restaurant at the site which is her first job. She came to the U.S a few months ago from the Dominican Republic but she didn’t speak a lot of English so our group member that spoke Spanish had to be our translator. We asked her about her zip code and she told us that she lives locally and since she doesn’t have a driver's license; she usually either takes the bus or ubers to get around. She also told us she didn’t have any healthcare. Even though we weren’t able to directly speak she seemed to be very nice and answered all of our questions; and it felt like a nice conversation. One thing we were surprised to learn was that the site was a food swamp, most of the time we hear about food deserts; but this was the first time I’ve seen an actual food swamp. I heard that food swamps are actually more unhealthy than food deserts and more people are likely to have strokes and obesity.

Week 11

fkhan223 — 2023-11-17 04:22:39 UTC

Last week our class was on zoom and we discussed with our groups the previous trip we went to at the site in Hyattsville. We unpacked our interviews with our group members and also created point of view statements. We interviewed three different people at the site. One of the people we chose was named Jessica and worked at a restaurant as a server; another one of them was named Donovan and was a customer at the barbershop. We thought they were both interesting but decided to focus on Donovan for our frame opportunity mostly because we enjoyed his insight and views as someone who didn’t live at the site, but visited frequently. One of the main things we talked about were healthy food options and how there weren’t that many in Hyattsville. One thing we found very interesting was he told us when we went back to college park to count how many liquor stores we saw, and how there would be more than 10. This wasn’t something I originally noticed but it made me realize how many liquor stores there are; the liquor stores and the unhealthy foods make it very difficult to have nutritious meals. Our group came up with ideas to implement having healthy foods in a food swamp like having ubereats hand out vouchers and creating a community garden.

Week 12

fkhan223 — 2023-12-05 16:27:49 UTC

I didn't come to class today as I had a dentist appointment.

Week 13

fkhan223 — 2023-12-05 16:28:40 UTC

There was no class today due to Thanksgiving break.

Week 14

fkhan223 — 2023-12-08 03:17:07 UTC

Last week our class was in person and we were focused on creating a feasible intervention for our idea on how to help with giving the community in Hyattsville more access to nutritious and healthy foods. Our group, which is named FEM after our names, decided on making a food truck that’s shaped like a bowl called “Bowl on the Go” can come and serve healthy foods and drinks. We thought of this idea from looking at a hotdog food truck, and thought the interesting look would attract more people.The food truck would have a catchy jingle like ice cream trucks do so the residents know when it’s available. We decided for the menu we would make it like a bowl, so there would be things like grilled chicken, beef, salad, and shrimp; and for the drinks there would be things like smoothies, green juices, and tea. We would use social media and word of mouth to advertise the food truck. Another way we’ll get people interested is by giving out merchandise; after getting 10 bowls, the customer can get a hoodie or T-shirt. But there’s still some things we have to account for. One thing for thing is there’s restaurants nearby, and while we want our food truck to succeed we don’t want other businesses to fail and lose business.

Week 15

2023-12-15 05:01:26 UTC

Last week our class was in person and we were creating our presentation focusing on our food swamp intervention. Our intervention is a food truck shaped like a bowl named “Bowl on the Go”. The purpose of the food truck is to serve healthy nutritious meals to the residents of Hyattsville as the community is living in a food swamp where it’s difficult to acquire healthy foods and drinks. We created a presentation to present in our class for potential investors, and if they find our idea interesting enough and applicable; they will actually create it and place the food truck in Hyattsville. In the presentation one of the main things we focus on is the background and research. This is so the investors can understand our process of thinking and why we chose the food truck to implement as an idea. In areas like Hyattsville that are food swamps, healthy foods are often really hard to acquire but they can also be very expensive, leading people to go for unhealthier,cheaper food options. This is a way that helps the resident by not having to waste money or go out of town to get healthy food, which can be more difficult for people who don’t have cars. We want to show the investors the community in Hyattsville and how the food truck will help them by increasing the prevalence of healthy foods, and decreasing the rate of obesity and other chronic diseases.