Emily Armstrong’s Summer 2022 Experience
I am so grateful that I got to join the Healthier Together team this summer. I was able to meet and connect with so many people on and off our team, and I loved getting to spend the summer traveling to the communities.
On the Healthier Together team I worked as an undergraduate field work research assistant. This meant that I spent most of my time with the evaluation team traveling to the five counties on various trips at different points in the summer. Even though they were pretty long most of the time, car rides were one of the best/funniest parts of my time with Heather Together. Field work days for me usually started with an early morning wake up call between 5am and 6am and a lot of caffeine so that I could go meet the team before 7am. Once we were on our way, I personally spent some of our car rides on the way there sleeping. When I was not sleeping, we spent most of the car rides chatting and discussing different things. It was during these times that I was able to really get to know the rest of the research team and learn a lot about them. One of my most memorable moments with Healthier Together was actually the car ride home from Clay County. We got stuck in some torrential rain coming back to Athens and there were trees all over the road. We sat in traffic and watched as people took chainsaws out of their cars and cut the trees up to get them off the roads, which was definitely not on my list of things I was expecting to happen this summer.
Once we got in the communities, I assisted with all of the community focus groups setting up, taking notes, and helping with any tasks necessary. I really enjoyed getting to hear the community members discuss Healthier Together and talk about the different ways that the grant has helped their communities. It was also a great time for me to learn and reflect, as I did not grow up in a rural community. Other than focus groups, I also helped table at different community locations to collect surveys for our evaluation. We collected surveys at several different locations, including grocery stores, local pharmacies, gas stations, libraries, and more. Survey collection was definitely the most uncomfortable and challenging aspect of the summer for me, but I think that by the end of the summer I really got the hang of it.
Outside of field work days, I did also get the opportunity to travel with the team to Taliaferro County for a community garden work day. I would not say that I have a green thumb, but I still had a lot of fun helping plant trees and other foods in the garden with the community members who help run it. Overall, I am so thankful for my time together. Prior to my time with the project, I had never really had the opportunity to apply what I have been learning at UGA or get hands-on research experience. I was able to learn so much from my team members and community members, and I loved getting to develop new relationships. I am walking away from the summer feeling like I have new skills and knowledge that will benefit me as I go forward into my future in the public health field.
