About Us

We are senior Public Health students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst sharing our passion of public health in our capstone class with Professor Aline Gubrium.

Rachel:

I am a senior Public Health major from Long Island, New York. I love playing tennis, hiking, and spending as much time as I can outdoors. On campus, I am a member of Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed community service organization. I am passionate about working with my peers to help underserved communities in Massachusetts. After graduating from UMass, I hope to gain experience in the Public Health field and eventually obtain a Master’s Degree in Public Health Nutrition. My goal is to work with communities to improve nutritional status and decrease risk of chronic diseases on the population level.

I had never worked with digital storytelling in the past, but learned greatly about the ways in which it can effectively be used to communicate about various issues in the Public Health field. While storytelling, conveys a message to listeners in a way that connects audience members to the storyteller, digital technologies allow storytelling to be more accessible and reach more people. In a field that is reliant on community collaboration and informed policy-making, digital storytelling can both impact public perception of certain public health issues while, hopefully, reaching those who hold the power to ameliorate these issues.

Rufina:

My name is Rufina and I am a senior majoring in the field of Public Health and minoring in psychology. I transferred to UMass Amherst my junior year of college, and the transition has been a great experience. I’ve gained a new sense of independence, had the opportunity to interact with a diverse group of individuals, and have taken on a major that inspires me. I am a member of Phi Theta Kappa and the National Society of Leadership and Success.  On my freetime I enjoy spending time with my family, shopping, styling hair and doing makeup.

When I graduate from UMass Amherst, I plan to further my education and pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health. With my degree I hope to obtain a career where I will have the opportunity to work with underserved and poverty stricken communities. I want to travel throughout the United States and abroad to educate and empower populations who are lacking basic education and  health services.

Taking Public Health 497 Capstone with Aline Gubrium was definitely an eye opening experience for me. Through this class, I learned about narrative intervention and digital storytelling. Through the assigned readings, group presentations, and the viewings of digital stories in class, I learned how effective and impactful narrative intervention and digital storytelling was in Public Health. These two methods allowed the narrator to deliver a Public Health message that  raises awareness, educates others, and sheds light on specific issues affecting the public. The difference between these two methods compared to other interventions became quite clear. Narrative intervention and storytelling has the power to capture the audience, evoke emotions, and convey a message that allows the audience to draw connections and relate to the story and even the narrator. Taking all of this is in, I have created my own personal digital story that I hope you all enjoy.

Ciara:

My name is Ciara and I am a History minor and Public Health major with a focus in health policy and data analysis. I am from Eastern Massachusetts, but my heart lies in travel. My current goals are to visit all 50 states and all 59 national parks. I love to hike, see new places, and take pictures. In my time at UMass, I have participated in the BioSci club, a student-run exploratory club that exposes students to different niches of life sciences and promotes close relationships with faculty. I also am a member of Iota Gamma Upsilon sorority and have served on the Executive Board for the last year and a half.

After graduating this spring, I will be matriculating to the University of Minnesota's Master's of Public Health program in health policy and management. I hope to research patient outcomes in government-funded programs like Medicaid and Medicare, as well as work as a manager of a nonprofit organization advocating for opioid treatment.

I have never created or been exposed to digital storytelling prior to this course, so there has been quite a learning curve. I really enjoyed seeing how different each story is from one another, whether by the content of the story or the editing of it. I appreciate how this form of communication allows for a more personal view of an issue and brings awareness to the many public health issues. Through our project, we have touched upon many different facets of public health and hope to be the future of public health intervention. I am very happy to have worked with the individuals in my group this semester on our capstone and share our stories with the public!

Michaela:

I’m a Public Health major with a focus and strong interest in Global Health. I’m from Western Massachusetts, with plans to move to the Greater Denver, CO area after graduating this December. I’d love to pursue a career in Public Health Communications, working to improve the lives of those less fortunate.

Digital storytelling uses a personal approach that isn’t always accessible through other interventions. It is through these real experiences that people are able to relate or empathize. In the public health field, this process exemplifies the importance of truth within a cause. Reading an article or a statistical fact sheet doesn’t pull the same weight as a heartfelt story told from true, past experiences.

Monica:

I am a senior Public Health and Spanish double major. I am from Massachusetts, but plan to move to a warmer climate during my postgraduate life for the sake of sunshine and warmth. I love hiking, as well as most other outdoor activities, and may even thru hike the Pacific Trail Crest after graduation. During my undergraduate career, I served as the Buddy Outreach Coordinator for Best Buddies. Best Buddies is a club designated to forming one-on-one friendships between UMass Students and community members with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This club has been one of the most fun and fulfilling parts of my time at UMass.

My main interests within Public Health lie in Environmental Health, specifically in air and water pollution. I hope to obtain a doctorate in Environmental Health and continue to complete research in the field so as to benefit global health initiatives. I have a strong passion for environmental justice, and as my digital story explains, I strongly believe in sustainability’s role in environmental justice!

Taking part in digital storytelling was a new process for me, and I had never heard of the concept before taking the Public Health Capstone class with Professor Aline Gubrium. I learned that digital storytelling has the ability to appeal to listeners in a way that more typical forms of health communication does not. I still remember the names and stories of the digital stories we were exposed to in the beginning of the semester. For example, I can remember Johnny’s message of overcoming addiction to change his path to the positive, but I cannot remember the stories of people we read about nearly as well. I enjoyed the process of making my own video because I was able to personalize my project and tell a story that is important to me. I also had fun thinking about and constructing a project creatively. I hope viewers can enjoy my digital story as well!