The ending of an era: Cohort 7 graduation!!

Dear Cohort 7,

As you all know graduation is fast approaching. As far as I have heard everyone will be in town for graduation (barring any AA strikes, cross your fingers). As this will be the last time for a while that we are all going to be in one state at the same time we will need to celebrate (yes there is a mandatory celebration). We (the party planning committee, further known as PPC) understand that families will be in town, people have lives, jobs, and well other obligations, so we would like to plan the festivities around that. Right now we were thinking of possibly having something on Thursday afternoon, before convocation, with anyone that is in town, and relatives that are free and would like to come and possibly professors. This is a tentative idea we need some input. We were also thinking of having one final cohort 7 hurrah on Thursday night after convocation- maybe some pandemic (last time), dinner, movie, chatting and a few tears (from Pete). We thought this could just be cohort, spouses and kids. How does this sound to everyone, if you dont vote then we vote for you so please give us your input...

Sincerely,

The PPC

PS if you would like to join the PPC we would love to have you... let us know, we meet on g chat... pretty much daily....

Critter, Project, Work, PhD programs

I intended to post to the blog long before now, but life has been crazy (but totally worth it)! Joseph and Jenny are doing well. Joseph was a whopping 12 pounds, 6 ounces at his two month appointment on February 26th. He is getting more motor control and loves to cuddle. Jenny has started to call him "Critter" because he is so cute and cuddly. I'll post a picture or two at the end if I can figure out how to do it.

I defended my MPH project on February 26th and turned in my edits on March 12th, so I made the deadlines to graduate in April. Yeah! I was so worried Dr. Merrill was going to ask me some obscure question about the statistical method we used, but he didn't (thankfully). I am still, however, working on the manuscript with my mentor from NIEHS that we will submit for publication.

Work is going well, but I still get tired almost everyday and have to stand up in my cubicle so I don't fall asleep. I can't wait to only have work to worry about so I can go to bed earlier. The main program manager has started calling me "mini me" because I can do a lot of the statistical and GIS stuff he can or that he shows me. It's sort of weird, though, because I am taller than he is by about four inches so I'm not really mini relative to him. Anyway, I really like the people at UDOH and the work in really varied and interesting. I use SAS almost every day and am currently doing an analysis of the associations between blood lead and blood mercury levels and birth weight in newborns. The paper was already written, but it was rejected for publication the first time because it needed more samples. Now that we have more samples, I just have to replace the numbers and then I get another publication. I won't complain about that.

The PhD search has been exhausting and all consuming in some ways. I visited and interviewed at all four schools I applied to: Emory, Michigan, Washington, and North Carolina. Emory and Michigan interview their top applicants before deciding who to admit while Washington and North Carolina admit applicants and then bring them in to try to entice them to come there. I think I'll just quickly run through each school below.

I had a great visit to Emory and really liked their program, but I've been waitlisted there.

Michigan was basically a downer all the way around. Funding is really hard there, the faculty I wanted to work with were actually in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences (one of whom wasn't there when I visited), and I got a ticket for turning right on a red light about 1/4 mile from returning my rental car. Apparently there were signs saying no right turn on red, but I didn't see them and it cost me $150. It left a pretty sour taste in my mouth toward Michigan.

I ended up having a phone interview the week after I visited Michigan with the faculty member that was gone when I visited. He was very nice and had some interesting research going on. He suggested that I dual-track my application to Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences and see which department gave me a better offer, so I did. I didn't get accepted to Epidemiology, but am not all that surprised given that the faculty member that would need to support me is in EHS. I still haven't heard from EHS, but am guessing I didn't get in since Judy was admitted there a couple of weeks ago. I can't say I'm too upset, though, because I don't really want to go to Michigan anyway.

While things haven't turned out too well at Emory and Michigan, things have gone a lot better at Washington and North Carolina (which are actually better Epidemiology programs anyway). I found out while I was at Emory that I have been accepted to Washington and found out I was accepted to North Carolina while I was visiting Michigan. That took some of the pressure off of my visits to those two schools.

I had a superb visit at Washington and can really see myself there in the future. Seattle is beautiful and the view of Mount Rainier is stunning (when it's not raining and you can actually see Mount Rainier). I had great visits with the reproductive, perinatal, and pediatric epidemiology (RPPE) group as well as the air pollution and Parkinson's disease groups. The Monday after I visited Washington, I was offered a spot on their RPPE NIH training grant, so we do have some funding (I know, repro epi? I've got to be kidding, right? Let's just say I would focus on perinatal and pediatric epi.). The cost of living, however, is pretty high in Seattle and I would have to commute an hour both ways each day in order for us to live in affordable housing. They are also on the quarter system meaning I could take more classes, but wouldn't get the depth I would at other places because they don't have as much time to cover the material.

As soon as I arrived in North Carolina I felt like I had arrived home. I was totally comfortable the whole time I was there and feel North Carolina would really fit me and my family. UNC is different from other programs because they are all about the student (Washington or Michigan, for example, are all about the research). Of the 40 new students that enroll at UNC each fall, probably 30 are PhD students. At Washington, on the other hand, only about 10-15 of the 70 new students each fall are PhD students (the rest are MPH or MS students). UNC's graduates are renowned for being the best trained epidemiologists of any school in nation (especially in epi methods) and they have a grant writing course that students have used to get NIH grants for their dissertation research. It is extremely rare for a pre-doc to have already gotten a grant for their research, but it happens all the time at UNC. I don't currently have any funding at UNC, but they assured all of us that we will be funded (probably as RA's) by the time school starts in the fall. If we are willing to take it on faith, they told us it will work out.

Jenny and I really like both Washington and UNC, but I think we'll be going to UNC. It's kind of strange to think I will most likely be turning down guaranteed funding at one school to get probable funding at the other, but UNC was that incredible. We are going to try to make a decision this week, so I hope I can tell you all what we are doing at the DHS banquet on Friday (or I can post a short one to the blog for those that will be MIA).

That's where we're at. Here are pictures of Joseph.


Four generations of Beard men.


Where's baby bear's porridge? We couldn't resist putting Joseph in this outfit from his great Grandma Beard.


"Reading" a book. You have to start them young if you want the list of great scientists to be Newton, Einstein, Eyring, and Beard (just kidding).

[Unnamed town] with [gross stuff]

Hi guys, its Eli. I guess I'll follow suit and give an update.

First of all, I miss you guys. Every time someone asks me about the MPH at BYU and whether or not they should apply, I always include a plug for how close you become to your cohort. And, even though I don't express it much, I do feel like you guys are some of my best friends. It's actually kind of sad, but a group of great friends wasn't anywhere on the list of things I expected to gain from going to BYU for my masters. But looking back, it has turned out to be one of the greatest outcomes.

By the way, when is the next cohort bonding time? We are free most weekends (including Fridays)!

The family is doing well. Tanner's latest sentence is "more please" and answering "yes" and "no" questions. Do you want cheese toast? "Yethsssthsp" Do you want some water? "No no.." I took Tanner to the zoo today while Sara was at the temple and even with all the things to see at the zoo, he chose to sit in the dirt and play with sticks. That's my boy!

Our calling in our ward is "to be good examples." I don't know what that means, but we've taken it to mean "feel free to enjoy your Sundays with no meetings for the next five months." I love Salt Lake.

Story time. Well, its going to be a different type of story. I am going to be as vague as humanly possible so I can keep my job. Here goes: Work at the [job] is going well. Lately I have been working on a project trying to get a small town in Utah back on its feet. The [unnamed town] is located downgradient from a former [precious metal] mine. Over the past [lots of] years, leftover [dirt] from the mine has hitched a ride with flash flood waters and made its merry way down into the town. By the way, the dirt is not just any dirt, it is laden with immense amounts of [gross stuff], a chemical that is very bad for you. Well, [gross stuff] is now everywhere in [unnamed town], including in ditches where children play (the ditch water has [gross stuff] at a concentration 200,000 times the allowed level in drinking water. I have been charged with writing a very long document describing the health implications of [gross stuff] contamination. My job is to analyze all possible pathways of exposure to [gross stuff] and to make recommendations for the people of [unnamed town] and other stakeholders. Well, one of these pathways is that children could accidentally ingest water while playing in the creek. During a recent meeting with the stakeholders, including [mystery representative] from the [government agency founded in 1970 that Judy knows a lot about], our team made the case that [unnamed town] is in dire need of cleaning up and that [government agency] should probably be the one in charge of that. Well, the [government agency] responded that a cleanup was completely out of their budget and impossible to justify given the number of people living in [unnamed town].

And, this is the kicker. And I kid you not, referring to one of the many pathways of exposure we have documented, [mystery representative] from [government agency] declared, "If those kids are dumb enough to drink [gross stuff]-laden creek water, they should have died at birth."

Guess that's what we're up against. Needless to say, after the meeting, certain people that I know did not have very nice things to say about certain people who said those certain things during the meeting.

No news on the med school front... still waiting to hear from U Colorado, meanwhile juggling pros and cons of living in Virginia vs. Vermont for the next 4 years. Should be hearing from U Colorado March 30.

Anyway, I sure miss seeing you all daily in the lab. Is anyone going to the DHS lunch on the 26th?

Advocacy Summit Part 2

Last weekend Alisha and I joined the 20 other BYU students for the Advocacy Summit in DC. As all of you attended last year, I don't really need to go into details of how it went. I may have had some alternative motives for attending this year, but BYU and the summit definitely got their money's worth out of me. Carl volunteered me to present in a Saturday session and then somehow Alisha and I got roped into role playing on Sunday. Alisha got to participate in the "what NOT to do" and I had to do the "what to do" segment. I'm not really sure how I got put up to all of it, but it seemed to work out. Carl convinced me that my participation would 1)build my resume and 2)help make professional contacts--both turned out to be true.

For the presentation I sat down with one of the head guys (some of you ate lunch with him last year, Rob Simmons) and we talked back and forth on "Effective Hill Visits." I really am not sure how I got selected to be the student expert, but I guess attendance at one summit qualifies you--so you are all advocacy experts, just so you know. The presentation went WAY better than I expected and actually made for a more enjoyable conference. This year didn't seem to be quite as boring as last. They did of course butcher my name, so I am known as "Bre-Ah" and don't worry, the girl introducing me didn't even attempt my last name. Oh well.

The Hill visits went great. I got paired with a great undergrad who was awesome and we rocked our visits. And the weather couldn't have been better--50's. Tuesday, I had the opportunity to tour the Health and Human Services Building. The tour was pretty cool and we met with quite a few individuals who work in different areas: commission corps, policy analysts, emergency and disaster analysts, and an appointed official. I made some good contacts and if anyone is interested in working in HHS, let me know and I'll pass the contact info on. I think I might like an analyst job--getting paid to think sounds pretty good and government benefits are fantastic!

From the visit, my job hunt has turned east and I think DC is now my top choice. So Cal is still lingering in the back of my mind, but maybe I'll get there in a few years (when the state isn't going into financial ruin).

I think that's about it for the Advocacy Summit. I do have pictures, and I'll be sure to get those up soon.

Update

Ok, so I'm not the best at posting on this blog. There's just a lot going on, and I'm not sure where to start.

So, I've been officially accepted to the University of Michigan and Boston University for their Environmental Health PhD programs. I am also visiting the University of Washington later this month. Considering that the university is paying for my plane ticket and my hotel room, I think it's safe to say that I'm admitted, unless they deem me too strange to work with. I did not get into Yale, but I am really not sad about it. I think the choice is going to come down between Boston University and the University of Washington. I've never lived in either Boston or Seattle, but if anyone has information about either city, I would love to hear your impressions of either city.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy for signing myself up for another 4 years of poverty and indentured servitude, aka a PhD program. As if my self-criticism/analysis isn't enough, I recently was asked, "How does you getting a phd and furthering your education, and thus your career and accolade in the eyes of the world glorify God?" I think we talked about biased questions in Rosemary's class... this would be a great example of one. Although the author didn't mean harm, this question, and similar commentary and questions from the general public pretty much have me fuming from the ears.

Judging from most of the cohort's responses to Ashley's blog entry on education and women, I think it's pretty clear where people in this group stand on the issue. I am ready to move out of a place where some people view women's higher education and family life as non-compatible events. Then I remember that no matter where I go, there will still be Mormons that think this way, and then part of me dies just thinking about having to put up with it for the rest of my life. Why is this viewpoint even part of Mormon culture? Why is female education even still a subject of debate?

As far as the project goes, things are slightly delayed. The distribution of the email survey did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. I wrote more about it on my blog. I really am not sure why I thought this email survey would be a smooth process. I think there is a chance I will be able to finish before the April 23rd deadline. I am still going to walk, but I won't receive my diploma until August.

I hope things are going well for everyone. Congrats to everyone that finished their projects! I miss all of you! The lab (aka the cave) is a lonely place without you.

- J.o.

Missing in Action...

Dear Cohort 7,

What happened to everyone.. are you still around? Is life marching on... what happened to keeping people in the loop? How are projects going, jobs, kids, plans for med school and law school? Cohort 7 where are you!?

-Wondering in Wylie (okay Lavon but but I liked the alliteration and to be fair i can probably see wylie from here)

I was thin and cross. Now I'm fat and I'm happy

I love qualitative data! Words are more entertaining than numbers any day. I finally entered all my surveys (with a big thanks to my hired help--the undergrad!) and am now ready to review and analyze the data. I have 446 personal reflections to go through. It's a bit repetitive, but once in awhile I find a gem like this one, "I was thin and cross. Now I'm fat and I'm happy." I think that should be my new motto!

As for life on campus...ugh! Today I found out that my fieldwork projects were incorrectly registered (the blame to be determined...either me or the Kennedy Center) and so it looks like I am deficient 3 fieldwork credits. This is not good. Please cross your fingers that it was the Kennedy Center's fault so that the problem can be fixed with a click of a button. If not, I will have to write yet another petition and wait and wait and wait to see if it's approved. Oh the joys of academic hurdles and hoops!