FFH: All Grown Up

I watched Anna speak on a panel entitled "What is Public Health?," which was really just a chance for frightened undergraduates to ask questions about careers in the health sciences that don't necessarily involve acquiring M.D.'s. There were two doctors there, but they were dull and left early. One broke down Epidemiology into its Greek roots prompting me to smirk at Anna from the back of the room. The other was a little SNAGgy, but otherwise pleasant. Anna was the only one of the four who tried to inject humor into her presentation, including the line in response to a question about gender equity in public health, "It is one of the few fields, other than pornography, where the ratio favors women." It shocked basically everyone. Nervous laughs are still laughs.

There were some fantastically cynical questions from the students. One asked, "What do you guys do for fun?" There were also variations on "Will getting an M.P.H. make me look compassionate on a medical school application/make it easier to get into medical school without taking all the prerequisites?" It was fun to watch Anna take questions and she's a natural with people.