Reflections on Personal Growth

            Growing up as an immigrant in the United States, the struggle has always felt like a ball and chain weighing down on life’s progress. However, one of the challenges of arriving in a new country isn’t about breaking the ceiling and succeeding but surviving month after month. After eight years in the United States, my father became a teacher and taught me one of the most important lessons of my life. He said everyone is your teacher, the good and the especially the bad. Those who are good educate you what you must strive, emulate, or work for in life. The ‘bad’ lessons of life instruct you what not to do; however, it is crucial that you learn and not ridicule the dire situation. Nils and Tomislav come from two very different backgrounds and paths to become leaders in public health. The principles in how those two achieved leadership revolve around change and service.

The principle of change addresses the changes in how a leader grows and avoiding the status quo.¹ Nils discussed the principles of evolution by going through non-traditional Public Health channels; through the United States Trade Representatives, he could affect global change by changing how the United States conducted business.² The second principle, service, defined putting others before self and working collectively to achieve professional growth.¹  The work culture Tomislav described at the Cleveland Clinic was designed to be selfless and have everyone pull in the same direction. Tomislav further exhibited the service principle by developing the Abu Dhabi team gaining the staff's hearts and minds to create a world-class team.³ One key takeaway was his emphasis on taking on opportunities that present themselves and not go after what is already successful. These two principles are similar in influencing my professional growth. As an Asian American, it would have been easier to work with a coalition that focused on Asian health or concerns that affect the Asian community. However, I wanted to cross the cultural and racial lines by expressing my desire to advocate and support my community members.

Although I currently face various challenges in my life, I have been lucky to be a volunteer community leader. That glimpse of leadership combined with the education I have received showed me that to be a great public health leader; one must know more than just health. From 2019 to 2020, I served as the President of my children’s school Parent Teacher Association (PTA), which are parent and staff elected volunteers to lead a non-profit child advocacy group. My business background and understanding of finance allowed me to create programs that families desperately need in our school community. For example, when the pandemic hit, our school district did not have enough laptops for school children; together with my Vice President, we help raised over $6,000 to purchase 28 chrome books for families to keep and use for their children's online education. Although we worked on several health-related projects, we had to deal with bureaucratic policies, culturally sensitive marketing, finance, business acumen, legal, and so much more than expanded beyond health.

During my practicum, I started to see the need to expand my knowledge of past health.  This past week, I conducted many manager interviews about community gardens and conversation topics that encompassed real estate, customer service, recruitment, environmental health, agricultural understanding, landscape architecture, water catchment, and more. Each person I talked to focused on something different or lacked the ability compared to another site. Unfortunately, each site works independently and rarely sees collaborations. I chose to do public health because I want to help others. Growing up, I volunteered with a Taiwan-based Tzu Chi Relief Foundation that provided services to senior nursing homes and homeless shelters to remind ourselves that we must serve to put others first to move forward.

Reflective question:
Is a leader stronger or weaker when they apologize?


Figure 1.1 – A team rowing together can cover great distances quicker than a single person rowing to the same goal.

References

1. Rowitz L. Essentials of Leadership in Public Health. (Riegelman R, ed.). Burlington: Jones Bartlett Learning; 2018.
2. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Nils Daulaire, Former Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Voices in Leadership. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/daulaire/. Published 2016. Accessed February 21, 2021.
3. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Tomislav Mihaljevic, President of Cleveland Clinic. Voices in Leadership. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/tomislav-mihaljevic-president-of-cleveland-clinic/. Published 2018. Accessed February 21, 2021.