Making a Difference

This week was the last week of classes for this semester. Now all I have left to complete are my finals. It's just the most wonderful time of the year, ya know?

One class I'm really going to miss is my foundations of health promotion class. This has been the most inspiring class for me and the most motivational professor I've ever had. This professor has taken a few opportunities to just give us an empowerment speech, and today was the last one. She completely let us drop our last lecture today, and gave us a presentation on making a difference. She started out by having us think of all the things that go into achieving a college degree. She then focused on the money that goes into our education. She figured out that if it takes you 4 years to get your degree, that will cost you approximately $20,000. She then went through all the things you could do with $20,000 dollars. She started with fun things such as buying 400 pairs of shoes, or 20,000 watter bottles, or 10,000 gallons of gas. Then she went into more health related things such as treating 2,500 women with HIV, so that they do not spread it to their babies. A family of 4 living on less than a dollar a day could survive for 30 years with $20,000. Her ponint she made was that we are so lucky to be able to wake up each day with good health. We are so lucky to be able to have clean water to drink. We are so lucky to have the educational opportunities we have. Hopefully I can take the education I pay $20,000 dollars for and give of that to someone in need. This professor is also way into international health, and has been to different parts of Africa to spread her knowledge of public health to people who really are in need. She showed us some picutres of where she visited. It was very moving. She concluded our final class session by saying how each of us really does have the power to make a difference in someone elses life, and maybe even in the world. I am so greatful to have taken this class. It has been the most beneficial class of my major. I now know why I chose health promotion, as my field of study, and hope it can take me to great places. And how awesome it was to have a professor who more than just provides lectures, inspires her students to achieve some of the great things she herself has achieved!