Name: Quin Gerber
Class Year: 2027
Majors: History, Public Health (Independent Major)
 
Internship Organization:  Allen County Department of Health
Internship Title:   Department of Health Intern
Location:  Fort Wayne, Allen County, IN
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

My internship at the Department of Health focused on exploring the countless different ways public health is performed at a local government level. In my time there, I was able to connect with the directors of each division, which encapsulate everything from Vital Records to Vector Control, and learn more about the work they do in the community. I shadowed DoH officials in the field, including a visit to the county jail for STI testing and conducting a pool inspection. I also completed projects such as creating and sending a postcard to families in need of school vaccinations, creating informational pamphlets for Vector Control, suicide legal literature review, and death record data entry and analysis.
 
Why did you apply for this internship? 

I loved that this internship gave me the opportunity to explore the many different careers that fall within public health. Until this internship, I did not have much knowledge of the everyday duties of health departments. As a Public Health independent major planning to go to graduate school and eventually work in public health, I wanted to learn more about my future career, gain mentors, and hone in on what specific roles I would be interested in.
 
What is the most rewarding part about your internship? 

The most rewarding aspect of my internship is getting to see the direct impact of the work done at the Allen County DoH. Allen County is home to over 400,000 residents, meaning that many of the issues I learned about and worked on impacted only a few hundred or even a few dozen people. This population size allows for robust public health efforts to be closely individualized based on our community’s needs. Instead of blanket outreach that may or may not help millions of people, the work I did could be targeted and carried out on a personal level. For example, I was able to contact families directly to inform them about their vaccine needs instead of sending generic emails, which likely led to higher vaccination rates. 

Was this internship what you expected it to be? 

In some ways, yes. I went into this internship most interested in working in infectious disease control or epidemiology, and my experiences learning about and shadowing the different divisions confirmed this to me. However, I did not expect to find a love for working in local government. I was mainly interested in doing public health on a state or national level before this internship. In many ways, local governments have less power with legislation and policy, but much more power in terms of influence. Instead of working with numbers and statistics, I worked with names and families. I’m not sure what the future will hold for me, but if it is anything like this internship, I will have a profound and rewarding career bettering my own community.