My journey as a college podcast host began at Northeastern University where I took an interviewing elective class for my communication studies major. In this class, I was required to reach out to three professionals in the communications field on LinkedIn to request informational interviews with them. I researched each professional’s background and used it to draft an interview script. After the interview, I wrote a reflection on what I had learned from this networking experience. Initially, sending an interview request on LinkedIn was a daunting task. I was nervous I would not appear qualified enough to interview a professional as an undergraduate student with no professional work experience of my own.
However, I soon found that these professionals not only kindly accepted my interview request, but also embraced the fact that I was still learning about careers and still deciding what job I wanted to pursue. They not only reflected on their job, but also gave me networking advice and reassured me that they had once been in my position. This rewarding experience stayed with me when I transferred to New York University in Spring 2022, and inspired me to conduct informational interviews during my senior year when I began applying to Master of Public Health (MPH) programs in Fall 2023. I asked current MPH students what they liked about their practicum, their favorite classes and what opportunities their program offered them to connect with other students. I asked alumni of the MPH programs how they benefited from the alumni network and how having an MPH degree enhanced their career. With each conversation, I became more comfortable talking about public health-related topics. Hearing my interviewees passionately talk about the research they were doing made me so excited to attend an MPH program where I would be surrounded by other students who are as enthusiastic about public health daily as I am. I felt very grateful that my Global Public Health major at NYU had given me a well-rounded understanding of public health and made me feel confident about pursuing a master’s degree in public health.
While I was writing my personal statements for MPH programs and reflecting on my journey as a public health student, I realized how lucky I was to learn interviewing skills and to gain a strong foundation in public health during my undergraduate education. I understood that not every student has access to these learning opportunities, and that other students may encounter barriers that may prevent them from learning about interviewing when it comes to public health, hindering their ability to network and gain insights about the field. I was inspired to start the public health podcast “Infectious Inspiration” during the fall of my senior year at NYU through NYU’s student-run radio station: WNYU.
Infectious Inspiration would not exist without the incredible resources that NYU offers me. Academically, I was blessed to have Professor Nura Anwar as a professor for my Fall 2023 class, Experiential Learning in Global Public Health. During her office hours, Professor Anwar mentored me as I wrote my statement of purpose and objective essays for the MPH programs I was applying to for Fall 2024. She read on my resume that I had been a radio DJ for WNYU and she read in my essays that I referenced informational interviews I had conducted with students in the MPH program so I could learn about their experience in the program. She helped me understand the connection between my passion for interpersonal communication and networking in my essays, personalizing my writing as to why I was applying to a particular MPH program since I was applying to several. It was her idea that I could start a public health podcast using my radio and interviewing experience.It was then that I contacted Nia Watson, WNYU’s New Director, and pitched my podcast show for Spring 2024.
Once Watson accepted my show, after completing the necessary paperwork, she updated me that there was an opening in the Fall 2023 podcast schedule for a 20-minute podcast to air at 10am on Mondays and Fridays. I eagerly accepted this early start to my show and reached out to Professor Anwar to share the good news and to ask if she would be my first interviewee. With my radio DJ experience, I was familiar with WNYU and missed being part of the team. It was incredible to reconnect with the community as a podcast host! To create an episode, I use the Voice Memos app to record my Zoom interviews and then edit the audio recordings on Soundtrap and send the completed audio to Watson for approval. Watson reviews and approves the episode, plays it on WNYU’s Radio at its scheduled time and then archives the episode on SoundCloud, where it can be accessed any time.
I am happy to say that I’ve released five episodes so far. Three of them are with people who are part of MPH programs: Professor Anwar (NYU), my friend Afreen (NYU), my friend Dana (Northeastern University). One of them is with a current undergraduate public health student, my friend Parker (NYU), and one is with a former public health student, my friend Magda (UC Irvine). These interviews have taught me about the normality and beauty of changing majors and career paths. Professor Anwar graduated as pre-med and now has an accomplished resume filled with respected public health jobs like teaching experience. Dana graduated as pre-PA but decided to get her MPH instead of attending PA school and is now excelling at her work for a public health non-profit, where she now trains new employees for the role for which she was first hired. Afreen graduated as pre-med and is now writing public health grants for her grant writing internship and learning about public health policy, administration and management while completing several public health internships. Parker’s high school internship with Planned Parenthood inspired her to study public health in college to complement her pre-med classes, and after switching to a public health major from the pre-pharmacy track, Magda now shines as a community health educator.
If you want to start a podcast, my advice is to maintain respectful communication throughout the entire interview process. Your interview request should feature highlights to that person’s career to indicate that you have done research on their accomplishments and want to learn more about them. I suggest reaching out via LinkedIn because LinkedIn has been a great resource for me to research professionals’ accomplishments and message them for an interview. I recommend requesting an interview for a short duration, like 15-20 minutes to accommodate that person’s busy schedule, asking for consent before recording the interview, and sending your interviewee a copy of the recording and the final episode to get their approval before the episode airs. I have learned that when you are respectful of someone’s academic and career accomplishments, they are respectful of your interest in learning about their accomplishments. I would recommend not letting having lack of or limited public health academic or career experience hinder you from conducting informational interviews. Informational interviews are an incredible way to hone your interpersonal communication skills and to build a strong, genuine and supportive public health network. If you are a public health student, professor or career professional and would like to be featured on my podcast, please reach out to me! I am always grateful to expand my public health knowledge and network.
This reflection is my thank you letter to Dr. Elizabeth Glowacki, who taught my interviewing class at Northeastern University and is my role model for interpersonal communication, Professor Nura Anwar, who taught my Experiential Learning in Global Public Health class at New York University, gave me the idea for my podcast, and was my first interviewee, and Nia Watson, my radio manager at New York University who welcomed me back to WNYU and has taught me about the behind-the-scenes of podcast production. Finally, it’s my congratulation letter to my amazing friends, who were my podcast interviewees and who change the public health world each day for the better.