This week, Lauren introduces some of our newest student podcasters, Raj, Caroline, and Max. They discuss their backgrounds, what excites them about public health, and their experiences so far in graduate school.

Plugged in to Public Health is produced and edited by students at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the students, hosts, guests, and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Lauren Lavin:

Hello everybody and welcome back to Plugged in to Public Health. Today we’re introducing some new voices to the podcast, our newest student podcasters. You’ll be hearing from them a lot more in future episodes, so we wanted to take this time to get to know them, their backgrounds, and what excites them about public health. I’m Lauren, and today I’m joined by Max, Caroline, and Raj. And if it’s your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student run podcast that explores major issues in public health and how they connect to people both in and outside the field. Now let’s get plugged in to public health.

Plugged in to Public Health is produced and edited by the students at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those at the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

 Well, thank you guys all for joining me on the podcast today. We have three of our new podcasters here, I’m just going to start out I just want you to introduce yourself and then talk about what you do at the University of Iowa, what brought you here. Just give us some background on who you are because this episode is to be introducing you to all of our listeners because they’re going to be hearing from you a lot more.

Raj Daliboyina:

Hi, guys. My name is Prithviraj Daliboyina. I am a master student in public health with my concentration being epidemiology, and I’m a first year in MPH. And my favorite thing about public health or what I really wish to do is work more in the field of infectious diseases, and that’s what I would like to do. I was going to pass out from my master’s in 2026.

Lauren Lavin:

And then where did you move from?

Raj Daliboyina:

I am from India. I am actually a physician, that’s what I did in my bachelor’s. And I was working as a physician for five years before I moved to Iowa to do my master’s.

Lauren Lavin:

So you have some good clinical experience background.

Raj Daliboyina:

Mm-hmm.

Caroline Powell:

My name is Caroline. I am a first year MS student in the agricultural safety and health program, which is in our department of Occupational and Environmental Health. My path to Iowa was a little untraditional. I worked for the CDC as a public health associate, and I got stationed in Iowa to work at the Iowa Cancer Consortium. So I moved from New York City to Iowa City. And after finishing up with the CDC, I fell in love with public health and Iowa, so I decided to pursue my master’s here.

Lauren Lavin:

So it’s safe to say you liked Iowa enough to stay?

Caroline Powell:

Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s a big move. New York City and Iowa City have approximately zero things in common.

Caroline Powell:

Yeah, yeah. I tell people that instead of hearing the J train at night, I hear choo-choo trains now, and it really freaked me out. But I love seeing stars here.

Lauren Lavin:

It’s the little things.

Caroline Powell:

Yeah.

Max Hansen:

My name is Max. I am in the Epi department and I’m a first-year MS student. I was born in Illinois and my sister went to this school. And I visited it at the exact same time that she did, and I really liked it. I came as a biochem major and it wasn’t really the right fit for me, so I started taking a couple of public health classes my second semester and I immediately just fell in love with it and switched over. And I’ve been here ever since.

Lauren Lavin:

Great. And did you do undergrad to grad?

Max Hansen:

Yes. Yes, I did.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Max Hansen:

So I’m currently in my combined year for both of those, going to be getting my bachelor’s in May.

Lauren Lavin:

So then are you done after May?

Max Hansen:

No.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Max Hansen:

I have one more year-

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Max Hansen:

… in my master’s.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Max Hansen:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Great. Well, I’m glad that we get to keep you around for another year. And then the other thing that I want, as kind of our introduction, what are you most passionate about in public health or in your field of study that interests you?

Max Hansen:

I’m really interested in chronic disease, particularly with dementia and Alzheimer’s. But I also really want to look into chronic disease surveillance and trying to get ahead on risk factors for chronic diseases, trying to make sure that we get ahead of the curve and get into some primary prevention strategies there.

Lauren Lavin:

Great.

Caroline Powell:

So what’s fun about the agricultural safety and health degree is that there’s a lot of different directions you can go with it. And because my background is in cancer prevention and control as well as food systems research, I’ve been able to combine all of my interests using a public health lens. So I’m interested in the health and well-being of the people that produce our food, and also as eaters what’s in our food. So passionate about just the knowledge and education and agency that goes into our food system.

Lauren Lavin:

I love that.

Raj Daliboyina:

As I said, I am actually pretty much into infectious diseases. That’s where I wish to work because COVID had a very lasting impact on me. I was working during the pandemic. Me and my family, most of us are physicians. And I don’t want things to go backwards, have another pandemic, but I think that we are heading that way sometime soon. At least from where I come from and being the most populous country in the world, I really thought that working on infectious disease would be preparing for something that can happen again and again with things going around.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. Do you want to go back to India once you’re done with your schooling here?

Raj Daliboyina:

I am still considering my options to do residency here before I go back. The final thing, what I really want to do is set up own hospital back in India. But it’s going to take some time for that.

Lauren Lavin:

That is a good big goal. Now transitioning. Since we’re all graduate students, I wanted to give some advice to other graduate students that listened to this. So what has been the biggest surprise for you guys about graduate school so far? Because it’s a really big change when you go from undergrad to grad, and so what surprised you?

Max Hansen:

I think the main thing that really surprised me, even though I was told this many times over, was that you should be treating graduate school as a 9-to-5 almost, or treating it as a job. And I never really appreciated the value of that and being in the building and being able to facilitate those connections by just showing up and being in person. So that definitely surprised me. I feel like compared to undergrad at the college, there’s a lot more opportunity to facilitate those connections with faculty.

Lauren Lavin:

So do you go to school every day for a majority of the work hours?

Max Hansen:

I do my best. There are slumps. Especially during midterm seasons, I really like to study in a controlled space at home.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah.

Max Hansen:

I often get distracted in the building. But when midterms come around, I’m definitely a bit more recluse. But during those start of the semester, mid-semester, I’m definitely in the building as much as possible.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. I feel like I see you around all the time there and I’m not even there that much. My other question with that is then when you say you treat it kind of 9-to-5, do you stop working in the night and do your own thing?

Max Hansen:

Absolutely. Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

Really?

Max Hansen:

I find that very important. I think that’s why during midterm season I become a bit more indoors and back at home because I start to break that balance and I find that I really need to be in that comfortable environment when I’m working from 8-to-8 on those.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. I think that’s great advice. And if you are listening to this, if you can set up your commitments so that you can follow that, I do think that that is really beneficial for long-term, especially if you’re in a longer degree program like a PhD. If you can make that happen, I do think you’ll be better off in the end. Okay. Caroline, biggest surprise?

Caroline Powell:

I was an international relations major in undergrad, so public health was brand new to me in an academic setting. So for me, the openness of everyone in the College of Public Health as someone with a non-traditional public health background and my confidence from undergrad to grad has changed exponentially. I was a very undergrad, I wouldn’t go to office hours, I would kind of just do my own thing. But here I’m really taking advantage of meeting with my professors and, like Max said, networking and taking advantage of those connections. And I have found that that has been so helpful in classes where like I didn’t take undergrad chemistry or bio, but I’m in human toxicology and classes that sort of require that background, but I’m still doing fine and I’m learning so much. I like to tell people whenever they ask me how grad school’s going, I’m like, “I can’t complain that I’m not learning.” Because everything feels brand new and exciting. So that’s been really great.

Lauren Lavin:

I totally agree with that. I’m going on my third year now and sometimes it’s exhausting how much you learn on a daily basis. And I don’t think I’m unique in this, but the more I learn, the more I think you realize you don’t know. And sometimes that feels overwhelming. So I’m glad to hear, it’s good to have that perspective again that learning everything is so great. And I need to remember that because sometimes it can also be exhausting, and that’s kind of been my spot the last couple of weeks. But it is so great, you’re right. Okay, Raj.

Raj Daliboyina:

Building up on what Caroline said, I would just say that I come from a very different system from India. So one of the things I was presently surprised about was how open the system is for you to control your own education and how you could plan things according to you actually. What works for you, what doesn’t work for you, what kind of pace you want to do things at. And the whole system is designed for more openness that you could talk to people, talk to people of authority without being in a constant fear of being penalized or judged. Which is really important, especially when you’re doing your master’s or when you’re in grad school per se. And unlike Max who says it’s an 9-to-5 job, I must say I have been more of a night owl in the whole system till now. You will find me in the library pulling all-nighters most of the time, which I don’t advise but I would say it’s very efficient during midterms and finals.

Lauren Lavin:

I wish I needed less sleep during midterms.

Raj Daliboyina:

Yeah. You need to get used to having less sleep in grad school.

Lauren Lavin:

Yes. Okay. So what tips then do you have, we kind of retouched on this, so if you have additional ones, you can share them here, but do you have any tips for balancing coursework, research obligations, and personal life while you’re in grad school?

Max Hansen:

I think that the main thing that’s really helped me, on the research side of things at least, was that during my undergraduate tenure I started research and my mentor, Dr. Shannon Watkins, would often incite us to ask our own questions about her research topic. So while we’re still under this overall study, we’re being asked to express our interests in what we’re talking about. So that aspect of research and really trying to hone in on what you are interested in and what you want to do if you want to continue research at some point, I think that’s really important, and relating it to your coursework is really important. I feel like you can really enrich the content that you’re learning in your courses if you’re also working with similar things in your experiences.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, that’s great advice. Raj, would you have something?

Raj Daliboyina:

I just wanted to say that most of the resources that we will have would be very similar, but using AI in the right fashion would be really good for your grad school. Don’t see that as a tool to do your work, but as long as you see that as a tool to enhance your work or learn things or concise things for you, it’s very helpful during grad school. And as long as you use it in the right way, it just goes with the system that you’re in. But if you just use it to do things that other way around it’s not going to work out for you.

Lauren Lavin:

No. Don’t have it write your papers, but it can-

Raj Daliboyina:

Yeah, right.

Lauren Lavin:

… be great for editing, brainstorming, all of the process that can lead you up to the point where you need to do the work and then refining it afterwards.

Caroline Powell:

Yeah. For me, it falls into two buckets. I think the first is organization. I’m a big planner. Girly, my calendar, I live by it. If it’s not on the calendar, it’s not happening. And so that’s been really helpful. And then with accountability. As a Heartland Center trainee for Occupational Safety and health, we have to do these work plans at the beginning of the year. And my advisor, Diane Roman, who leads the Healthier Workforce Center of the Midwest, who’s really focuses on total worker health. So it’s like keeping workers safe in the workplace while also promoting their well-being. She has us create our own little category on that work plan for wellness. So we’re not just talking about professional development or what courses we want to take or conferences we want to attend, but also how are we taking care of ourselves throughout the process. And that’s been really helpful because I feel like if it wasn’t written down on that plan, I probably wouldn’t stick to it as much. So that’s also been really key for me.

Lauren Lavin:

I can also really relate to that if it’s not on the calendar, it’s not happening. I live by my calendar. And if you are a grad student, you need to get that in order because you’re going to have so many different commitments and meetings from all of these different sources and so having one spot where it all converges, I use a Google calendar for all of my things and I just have my Outlook calendar feed into that and I highly recommend it. Because then I put personal things on that one and then other commitments, and it all just feeds in. So I have one calendar. So I highly recommend that. We’re going to move on to talking about some more public health topics more broadly. So what’s an issue in public health that you don’t think gets enough attention?

Caroline Powell:

So I worked at the Iowa Cancer Consortium as a public health associate, and I still work there part-time leading their cancer in the environment task force. Two very big buzzwords in the state. But for me through that work and then tying that into my agricultural safety and health work, I would say health literacy but in environmental and occupational health spaces is an underrepresented or understudied topic. Because we talk about health literacy in terms of eating right or not smoking or not drinking as much, but we don’t necessarily talk about how we perceive and act in the environments we’re in and how work affects that or how the local park affects that. So that’s something that I’ve become more passionate about just as I’ve lived in Iowa and worked and taking classes.

Lauren Lavin:

Being a student gives you kind of a unique window into noticing things and then being able to explore them further. Max, do you have something?

Max Hansen:

Yeah. I almost just want to bounce off of that in the health literacy aspect of things. I’ve been working with a professor at the College of Nursing on dementia risk reduction interventions in the city. And really a big problem there is just that a lot of people don’t connect their mid to early late life chronic diseases. They don’t connect those with their potential for dementia diagnosis in the future. So by communicating the true disease burden of the stuff that they are going through at say 40 or 50, they may be more likely to change those behaviors given that they understand what those diseases may lead to in the future.

Raj Daliboyina:

And something very similar to what Max said, like my work with Dr [inaudible 00:17:10], we’re doing this root cause analysis. I’ve noticed that there’s not enough emphasis on qualitativeness of root causes or diseases. There’s a lot of material out there when you go out and see that people are getting quantitative data analysis so much compared to why something is not happening. If let’s say transportation is an issue for one sector of the patients or one racial community. We get the statistics of it, we know how much percentage of people are getting affected by one reason, but we don’t have, or we rarely or relatively lesser intent of trying to know why that’s happening to that community or how can we change it or what is the qualitative side of the whole issue. And I’ve seen that it’s relatively a field of less focus in public health.

Lauren Lavin:

Since you guys are all on the podcast, what excites you about being on the podcast and what kind of stories or topics do you want to explore while you’re hosts on it?

Max Hansen:

I think that something that really excites me about being on the podcast is just being able to meet so many really brilliant people, just very smart people that are very specialized in things all across the campus and really all across the country really. So that’s very exciting prospect there. And also, I am probably going to steal a lot of people’s idea here, but bird flu is really on my mind and I would really like to have an episode about that. But really also just infectious disease as a whole, given that it’s not my interest per se, I still would like to be able to explore that in another route.

Lauren Lavin:

Love it. I do love the networking opportunities in being associated with the podcast. Agreed.

Raj Daliboyina:

I’m pretty similar to what Max said. I’m really excited to be meeting people. It was a great thing that we met the wise dean of the med school the other day. It was a very unique experience. There’s so much uncertainty that’s going around in the field of public health right now, and I think I would like to focus on that during most of the podcast because as we move ahead I think people already are facing a lot of issues as they go out with their degrees and what kind of opportunities there are going to be there outside. So I would like to know what lays ahead and we should focus on that.

Lauren Lavin:

Caroline?

Caroline Powell:

Similar to what Raj and Max said, I think storytelling is just such a powerful tool, especially in public health. When we’re asking those why questions and looking to get more qualitative data… I mean, Lauren and I are both in the qualitative research methods for public health class, and I think that’s been just so eye-opening. So just being able to talk to folks about their work and give them an opportunity to brag too, because I feel like public health at the end of the day, it just touches all different aspects of our lives. And having the opportunity to learn more about that and be more aware of that in podcast form, I think, is a really great opportunity. So any chance to learn more about grassroots, community organizing, public health, I would be excited to explore that on the podcast.

Lauren Lavin:

I definitely agree. Giving people a platform to share their knowledge, especially if it’s in a storytelling fashion, is really powerful and it makes it so much more accessible to a broad population because it really does affect us all. Distilling down, we’ve talked about a lot of different facets of graduate student life. What is one tip that you would give people as they start or continue on with their graduate career from your own experience?

Max Hansen:

I would say, and by all means don’t over commit yourself, but put your name down and sign up for everything. You can always say no. I think it’s super important to get your name out there and take every possible opportunity that’s thrown your way. If you find yourself over committed or with too much on your schedule, you can always cut back.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, I agree. Say yes to a lot of things, especially in the beginning because you don’t know what your own capability is at that point yet either. And so it’d be a shame to miss out on opportunities. And I would say that people are pretty flexible. If you realize you’re over committed, people are willing to work with you, especially if you put in a lot of effort on the forefront. So agreed.

Raj Daliboyina:

I would say have a life outside of your school. Do not overstress on grades, you will burn out and you need something to fall back on. So have commitments, have friends outside of your school and, yeah, generally have fun. Don’t let grad school take that away from you.

Lauren Lavin:

In general, grades won’t be on your CV.

Caroline Powell:

I’m going to quote my mom because she always tells me, “What’s for you will be for you.” And I think I told myself that a lot when I first started grad school because the imposter syndrome was very real. Just asking myself, was this the right program? Am I in the right spot? Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing as a grad student? Because there is no one set path as a grad student. So just I think reminding yourself that you’re where you’re supposed to be, you’re in this program for a reason, you were chosen for a reason, and just take the time to celebrate and acknowledge how far you’ve come in the process is really important as you’re learning all these fun new things and getting the degree.

Lauren Lavin:

Great. What will be for you will be. Let’s wrap this up with our question that we ask everybody, and that is, what are you reading or watching right now? Keep it lighthearted.

Raj Daliboyina:

I was actually watching a documentary on Robin Williams and reading more about him as I work on my standup sets. Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh, fun.

Raj Daliboyina:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

I love that. He’s a classic.

Raj Daliboyina:

Yeah, he is. He is.

Max Hansen:

I just finished Queen’s Gambit. It’s a little old, but I really, really enjoyed it. It was very, very good.

Lauren Lavin:

It is really good. Is that a one season? Did they ever talk about making a second one?

Max Hansen:

I am pretty sure that it was just meant to be a limited series-

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Max Hansen:

… but it was really, really popular.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, it was.

Max Hansen:

I don’t know if they’re going to make another one or not.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, I really liked it. I watched that too. That was good.

Caroline Powell:

I’m watching Bob’s Burgers chronologically. There’s a lot to go through. We’re on season seven now, which is really exciting. But I hadn’t realized how much I had skipped around until finally sitting down and watching it, and it’s just so good. The one-liners are amazing. I need to get the cookbook just [inaudible 00:24:40] for life. So it’s bringing a lot of joy.

Lauren Lavin:

How many seasons are there?

Caroline Powell:

14, 15.

Lauren Lavin:

So you’re set for a while.

Caroline Powell:

Plus the movie. Yeah, yeah. Probably after I graduate, I’ll still be watching.

Lauren Lavin:

I’m right now one, I have the season finale of Severance to watch. I’ve been watching that. And then I also love, love, love. It’s a new show and it’s called The Pitt, and it’s about an ER in Pittsburgh. That’s why it’s called The Pitt. And it is so good. It is definitely my favorite medical show I’ve ever watched. And I wait every week for the episodes. So that’s what I’m watching right now. I don’t read for fun. I don’t have the energy to read for fun at this stage in my life. I have to do too much reading for other things.

Because for a while I spent a lot of time feeling really bad about not reading, and then I was like, but Lauren, you read hundreds of pages a week. It’s just not fun reading. So I’m still getting the mental workout of reading. It’s just not for pleasure. Which is fine, that’s just where we’re at in life. Okay. So anyways, that kind of wraps it up, and I’m so glad that everyone got to meet our new podcast hosts. We have two others as well that couldn’t join us today, but you’ll hear all of them. Max, Raj, Caroline, Tristan, and Victor on future episodes. So I look forward to having you guys as co-hosts and hosting your own in the future.

Raj Daliboyina:

Thank you so much for having us, Lauren. It was great.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s a wrap for today’s episode. We hope you enjoy getting to know our new hosts and hearing about their journeys into public health. As you heard, they come from diverse backgrounds, including epidemiology and infectious diseases, and they’re excited to bring fresh perspectives to the podcast. This episode was hosted and written by Lauren Lavin and edited and produced by Lauren Lavin. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. If you enjoy this episode and want to support the podcast, please share it with colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode is brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Until next time, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.