GPSI Webinar Series Q & A with MPA/MPH graduate student

I was looking through the first question. I was like I think I just answered all the questions, just kind of going through talking about yourself.

Yeah, now it's, and if you do then we'll just chat so.

OK, sounds good.

Yeah.

I will wait for some more people to join in. We had about, I think 29 registration, so hopefully those people will come on through.

Awesome.

Yeah, here they come perfect.

Hi everyone, thanks for joining. We'll get started in just a couple minutes.

And today we do have two representatives from admissions. We have Anna Bradford, our international admission Counselor, and Vivian Wesley. She's an admissions counselor, so if you have any admissions specific questions, feel free to type those in the chat as we're going through and either those two will address those questions for you, or I'll get them at the very end. So yeah, feel free to write whatever you're thinking in the chat. Any questions you may have.

I see a couple of familiar names.

I am joining just West of Springfield from home.

No.

Ann asks where you're joining the web, and I'm personally joining from my office here in Springfield. One of the rare days that I get to come to the office when I don't want to do when I don't want to lose anyone through my Internet signal. I'll come to the office and make sure that I get this zoom going. Brianna, where you joining us from.

Awesome.

Cool Ashleys in Chicago. Hey Ashley, how are you?

Good to see you again.

You're Ashley's public health major, I know.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Awesome, well we will go ahead and get started again. Welcome everyone to the web and R regarding UAS graduate opportunities. My name is Myra, I am the assistant director for the Graduate Public Service Intern Program and I currently have been working at UAS for over 3 1/2 years now. In this office. I really am excited to bring Brianna to this information she has is going to be very valuable in regards to Graduate School internships and just kind of what it's like to be a graduate intern so.

With that, we'll go ahead and get started with some slides. So put these up for you. So UAS has right around 20 Masters degrees for you all to look into when considering pursuing a graduate degree so you can see there listed out here. I do have the ones that are offered online, signified with the OL, so that just means that they are offered both on ground an on line. The only one that's not offered on ground on this list is education. Masters of education. So if.

Any of these peak your interest? Please let us know and we can kind of go into more detail or point you in the direction for which you can get more detail on these, but quickly. Brianna is a public health public administration dual program so she is getting 2 Masters degrees in her time with us. We have that programs, a dual program, and I think there's also something you can do Additionally with maybe Human Services, and I think it's public administration, potentially as a dual program, but a lot of these programs.

Are very very.

This.

Short program so they can be done quickly. Most of them are within the range goes from 30 hours to complete it too. I think maybe the dual program is at 68 hours to complete.

Um, I think it's mind 66. They did add, I think another class so it might have gone up a little bit.

Yeah yeah, so kind of that range. So if you're curious of what you're the program you're looking into, what the hour requirement are, please feel free to type that in the chat and Anna and Vivian can get that answered for you real quickly, but these programs are phenomenal to propel you forward in a career, and you can see we have a variety of programs, so I encourage any of you to look into these programs and try to learn more about the specific areas that you're interested in. And we also do offer a variety of graduate certificate programs as well, so if you're wanting to enhance.

Your Masters degree graduate certificates are a great way to do that.

So after you've decided on a Masters program, UAS is very unique in that it offers an amazing internship program that will place you in an Illinois State government agency and the intern program. The one we're talking about today is the Graduate Public Service intern program or GPS. I for short. So again, as I mentioned, it is a paid internship within an Illinois State government agency. We also place students in associations as well as nonprofits. So we do try to get our students a variety of experience specifically where they are interested in working.

This internship provides real world work experience to our students so you know they're not just sitting at desks and answering phones and filing away papers. They are actually involved in the processes that go on in state government and decision makings and influencing. You know, certain policies or certain initiatives. They have their hands in that. So you're not just going to be doing you know mailings or things like that. You're really going to be doing some work, so it's going to be great experience for you.

Our students work part time during the school year, so it's very, very manageable for them to do their coursework and get their work done at the same time. And then we do have our students working full time in the summer, and that time in the summer, as maybe Brianna can attest to really kind of immerses you in your agency and you really get kind of.

Kamdyn, as part of the team you know you're already feeling part of the team, but they really start to rely on you at that time and they really know that you're there when they're there and they have those expectations of you just like they would any other employee. So it's a really, really great time to get that full-time work experience and kind of absorb as much as you can. Then networking connections that you're going to receive in this program are huge, especially if you're wanting to stay in public service. You know this program it's not required that you stay in public service afterward. There's no sort of.

Commitment to this program, but we love when students stay in public service because we're always needing wonderful and educated public service professionals entering the workforce. So if you do that, networking connections within public service are going to be very, very valuable for you to get an the unique thing about GPS, I is. We do place students in Springfield, of course, because that's where the hub of state government is. But there's also state government agencies up in Chicago, so over the years that I have been here in, our director has been here, we have.

Kind of saw this need of students living in Chicago and we saw agencies up in Chicago and we decided why not put the two together so those placements would require that a student be enrolled in a online Masters program. So any of the ones that had that OL designation would be eligible to apply for this program an essentially what you would do is you would be living and working in the Chicago area at one of our state agencies or associations or nonprofits and you.

Doing it coursework entirely on line. So if that's something that interests you, definitely let us know and we can kind of expand on that towards the Q&A portion. 'cause that's a really interesting and unique thing about this program.

So the benefits of this program do include a tuition waiver. You'll get 22 hours per academic year that you're with us in the program, so if you're with us for two years, you're going to get 44 hours of credit to go towards your Masters program, which again, as I mentioned, is kind of right at the medium area of most programs. Most programs are either below that or around it, or there's only a couple that are slightly above it. So usually the tuition waiver hours get you fully covered on tuition. Then you get a $500 fee waiver per academic year that you're with us in the program.

And we split that up between $250 each fall in spring, so that doesn't of course cover all of your fees. Are students do still pay fees, apportion of them, but we try to help offset those costs as a benefit of this program. And then there is a professional Development Fund of $300 that you receive each again each year that you're with us in the program, so students will use this to attend conferences. Subscribe to scholarly journals, get any materials they may need for their internship or there.

Academic programs really anything like that so that money is always very valuable. We encourage students to utilize it because you know, once. If you don't use it, it's gone. So why not spend the money on the things while you're in school? Very, very important.

And then our students do receive a monthly stipend as well, so they get right around $1200 per month during the school year, and then they get right around $2400 per month during this summer months. Now we do tell students those numbers are pre tax, so you of course won't be seeing those exact numbers. But that kind of gives you a good ballpark idea of what your paycheck would be each month.

So with that, we'll go ahead and move on to the portion. Hopefully you guys are all here for is the Q&A with Brianna, so Brianna, if you could tell us a little bit about yourself an include your placement site and title for those of the students that don't know.

Alright, thanks Mara. Hello everyone, my name is Brianna Klein. I am actually a native of the Springfield area, but I am a third year GPS. I at the Illinois Department of Public Health. I work in the division of Chronic Disease, specifically in the diabetes and cardiovascular health programs. There I do grant management one of the main activities that I do is I facilitate a diabetes prevention program. So that's just a small aspect of other things we do we.

Right, the work plans we meet with grantees. We hold meetings with stakeholders, but let's see I said. And I'm like Myra mentioned earlier, I'm a joint student pursuing a degree in public health and public Administration. So that's a three year program. I'm in my third year. Do I've been with the Department two years and two months? And it's going great. I really enjoyed it. I know that during my time I do have my home program, but I've had the opportunity to work with.

Other programs within my own division within my own office, an even outside of my office with, you know the Cova 19 response. I had the opportunity to do some things there with communications and scheduling, testing sites and stuff like that, so it's been a really great opportunity. I know that I came in. I really wanted to. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I wanted to pursue something that was health related an during my time, I've really gotten to, you know.

Grow, build on some things that I really enjoy doing. I was challenged. I learned new skills and I think moving forward I wouldn't have had this. I think I would be in a different place if I didn't have the opportunity that I had here to grow an just being in a work environment. While you're going to school, you can apply what you're doing in classroom to work and your coworkers love to hear it because you know you'll be with a group of people. Everyone has different backgrounds, different experiences. So you add something to the table, like Myra said.

You're not sitting there, and you know.

Just doing filing and stuff like that, you get projects they rely on you to complete a portion of what needs to be done. Like our grant, we are federally funded. We have things that we have to report. You know, obviously to our Department. But to the CDC and you know, it's exciting and it can be challenging and tough. But you know, All in all you have that team environment that I really enjoy that you. I know that I'll carry on in the future.

But one of the big things too is I've had supervisors that say, you know, tell me what you want from this, which is awesome 'cause it's like, oh, you know, I'm spewing out questions and hey, can I help out on this project? And they're willing they want to know what you want to do. But also, they're like, do you have any projects right now that with school that you know what we're doing here that will help you, you know? Do a policy paper on you know diabetes prevention programs or something like that? And it, you know?

You can do that in the classroom, like with everything you've learned at work and you might have, you know, finding materials that you can use for that, but also you can bring it back as well. Say, hey, you know you did some research for that project. What can you tell us now? So it's just a great opportunity. I really enjoyed the experience. I know the Gypsy office is great if you need to go and you need something from Myra, Pam, or Sherry Shuman email. They're great with responding. It's just been overall a wonderful experience, but that's just a little bit about me.

Goodnight

I'm thank you, so you kind of mentioned you didn't really know where you were going to go or what you wanted to do. So what led you to pursue a graduate degree at UAS?

so my undergraduate degree was very technical. I love science, but I really wanted to. Do, you know, I said health. I really wanted to do something where I felt like, you know, I was giving back so you know that kind of being a public servant. I really embody that an I I wanted something where I could get the chance to actually apply that and so here having the I really you know I was excited about the coursework.

But having a space where I could come an actually do the work.

Was huge to me, it it sold me from the bat. I was like I need to be in this program. I need to get a placement because I feel like I learned better sometimes by, you know by doing then you know just reading out of a textbook or going through slides so you know being at IDP H I've been able if there's something I don't understand as much. I can be like. OK, so we're doing this in the project. I can ask my coworkers, you know. I can review historical documents and stuff like that, but.

I really wanted that crossover of the work school environment to kind of help me grow as an individual.

Yeah, yeah, I know that's always important and so could you tell us a little bit about what you do in your internship and kind of what a typical day looks like for you. Maybe pre kovid an now post or current kovid.

Yeah for sure. OK, so like I said I'm in grant management so we receive over a every year. It's over $2,000,000 for a grant for the diabetes and Cardiovascular health program. So those are two programs working on one grant and what we do is we, you know, write a work plan. We work with grantees so we work with.

Other you know stakeholders or organizations in the state that have interests in what we're doing, and then they complete grant activities an you know report back to us. So then we can carry that data and send it back to the CDC. So that's probably the main thing that we do, and I know my division as a whole. Grant management is the main task, but I know for me like I said, I am a certified diabetes lifestyle coach and that's another thing to note with that you know.

You do have a PDF under the Professional Development Fund. Look for opportunities. My certification that I received during my internship was covered by our grant or by the grant that we have, but definitely look into that. But I became a certified diabetes lifestyle. Coach Ann. I facilitate a lifestyle modification program. I've done a complete cohort and we actually received recognition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An I just started moved everything from.

In person to virtual. So we just started our second cohort but pre kovid the first thing kind of a typical day. I'd show up, start my computer, check my emails, check and see if I had any. You know, Miss phone calls kind of catch up on all of those things. Then every night and at the more in the morning I would pull out my To Do List. I always put it underneath my computer, but I wanted to make sure that I didn't forget anything that I had written down from the day before. I'm really big on making lists and having a calendar. I right.

All my meetings on a paper calendar that's on my desk and it's on my my calendar. My work calendar as well, but I just want to be able to do a quick glance if I have a meeting you know at the beginning of the day, I print out all the documents that have been shared with me thus far that are needed for the meeting and then from there I kind of go through my list. If I prioritize everything and that's how I'll do my work. But if you have a big project sometimes I'll block out time on my schedule just to so if anybody checks my calendar. Oh, she's working on.

Setting up some stuff for her cohort that she has tomorrow and then they can see when I'm free or not. But another thing too is if I ever had any down time I would always ask my coworkers. Hey, is there anything you need to do? If it's you know something you know, super simple. Another bogged down. I'll make sure that I reach out and see if I can help out. Just, you know, make their day easier. Or you know there might be a new project to come up, or there might be another program that might need your help. But now that we're in Covid.

I do, it's pretty similar because still get up turn on my computer. I don't have my phone from work now, but I'll check my emails Ann. I think with being an Co bed you have it's different because you're used to being surrounded by a lot of people in the office, but it really shows as a working individual. You know you have your own.

You have the responsibility to be accountable to be on those to be on your calls and you know people aren't going to come and say, hey you missed a meeting or something like that. They might afterwards, like you know, hey where you're at. But don't worry, that's never gonna happen to everyone, anyone, because everyone is going to be on task. But I think the best way in Koba to stay on top of things. And you know, really embrace the internship is you know, kind of structured. Make a list of things you got. You know you need to do. Your other coworkers will have.

Other activities, other projects and things going on. So if you do have downtime, reach out and say you know this is what I'm doing. Or if you have any problems, reach out and tell him, hey, I am bogged down with what I'm doing right now because I feel like you know the workflow is still the same as it was in the office. Communication is key, so always contact your supervisor. Anybody who's on project with you.

No, let him know if you're having any issues, and I know technology's been a big thing.

So if you have any issues with that, they'll help you with that, but just.

Kind of maintaining. I'd say it's more communication now than it was before. Co bed.

Yeah, that's a great point. I think specifically in the GPS I office we find ourselves saying have I told you this yet or you know have did I copy all anymore? 'cause normally we're so used to just kind of not yelling, but you know just communicating in person and so I think communication is huge and honing those communication skills is a big big benefit.

Uh huh.

So how does your placement contribute to what you're learning in the classroom and your future career goals?

So I I love my placement. I've been very lucky because I feel like during my course work with public health and public administration, I've really grown to love policy and with I know diabetes right now, especially with the services and programs that the CDC is really promoting. You know for.

Medicaid coverage that's a big thing right now, and so you get to meet with stakeholders. We don't do the specifically the policy part of it, but we meet with stakeholders. We interact, were involved in, you know everything. Every step of the way and kind of what their plan is, who else they need to meet with. But it's really exciting for me because that is kind of what I would like to do in the future, and I feel like I wouldn't have had that if I didn't, you know, work kind of have this work experience.

Along with my coursework.

I'd say that.

For the future, I mean, I've done policy. We all my classes. If you kind of go down it like policy human resources.

I took a information in decision making class every step along the way I've got to build a database. I've got to, you know, learn about human resources with hiring and you know the process. I've with our grant budgeting is huge. I took budget and finance like that is.

You you have to keep your budget is it's very important to keep your budget, but I could probably go through every single class and what I've done in the classroom. I've done at work. So it's I mean I think it's made me a better student. But it's also made me a better professional because I'm learning. You know, you can learn stuff at work, but in the academic setting you'll you know you'll learn new strategies when you talk to your professors, they'll give you more information or more resources, and you know.

It's almost like two ways of networking, kind of because they'll give you like your coworkers, your supervisor. The people around at work will give you advice and then at in the academic setting, it's they'll give you advice too, so it's a win win.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. We often hear from a lot of our supervisors were from our agencies that you know, there in turn taught them something. You know their interns, that why learn this in class today? Can we try it this way? An they're so open to trying new things in new ways of working so I love hearing stories about when, when the interns teach them something so.

Yeah, OK, so last question I have for you is what would be your advice for a student seeking a graduate degree or a graduate internship?

Do it. Definitely ask questions to anybody that you can because I know I'm a very inquisitive person. I love asking questions. Sorry Myra, I know. I probably ask you a million questions, but I think the other thing too is don't be afraid, I know.

I was really excited about the program, but I think my biggest fear on my first day was going into class and people being like this is exactly what I want to do and I was just like I want to do something, but I can help people. You know, something health related and I felt like man, am I not in my did I rush into this? did I do the wrong thing? No, everyone comes into a graduate program. A graduate internship at different levels with different skill sets an with different experiences. So if you're thinking about it, I say do it.

Ask questions and then my last thing too is if you're in an internship or you're in your the academic setting, you need to know how much you can do, or kind of when to say no. I know that's something I learned very early on because I feel like when you get to the internship you're like, OK, I need to do.

Everything and help out as much as I can, which is phenomenal, but they'll be time soon. You will have big projects. You will be, you know, the sole person working on something and they're relying on you. But if you have problems you need to.

Talk to Myra Sherrier Paman the GPS I office. If you're having you know issues with your placement. If your projects too much, talk to your supervisor. If your school work, you don't understand that. Reach out to your professors. They love to talk to you about what they're teaching. 'cause that's something they're passionate about. So I think those are my tips and apply for the program.

Yeah, those are great tips, So what a perfect segue. It's like you've seen my slides or something, but the GPS I application process is pretty simple. I'd say we made it even more simple this past year. So in order to be considered for one of these placements or for Graduate School in general, you'll want to go online and apply for admission. And if you just go to uas.edu in the top right hand corner, there's going to be an apply Now button so you can just click that and that will take you to the proper application that you'll need.

So as a graduate student, most go in. I would say majority of our students come in with a placement or a program in mind, right? So they know that they want to go into public health or they know that they want to go into environmental science. So if you're kind of on the fence or unsure about which program is right for you, I would definitely encourage you to do some research and reach out to people regarding you know what you can do with that type of degree. That way you put that on your application in the beginning and that way we know what you are what.

Program you'll be entering into while you're there. You will have the chance to apply for GPS. I all you have to do is select a box that says you want to be considered for the GPS. I program and that will allow you to fill out our application. So it's very simple. It's about 7 questions, just kind of asks about your interest, your past experience, adjectives to describe yourself, things like that. Then you'll upload a resume an we require 3 letters of recommendation to be submitted on your behalf. So what you'll do is you'll input the recommenders.

Email address and they can automatically upload your letter for you so you don't have to do anything with that process. For international students, we do require an F1 visa to be considered an hour. Minimum GPA is a 2.5 out of four. Our deadlines are listed on the bottom, so November 15th is the quickest one that we have coming up that will be for students who want to start in the spring so January or February. Our biggest round of hiring is going to occur in May.

And the deadline to participate in that one is May 1st and then if you miss those deadlines for any reason, we have a later round that occurs in August. So GPS I, we feel like we're continuously hiring, but that's because our students are getting jobs or they're graduating, so there's a continuous flow of interns, and so we can't really put a number on how many. How many interns we hire each year. It just kind of depends on who's graduating, who got a job, those types of things. So with that being said, I saw some questions going through the chat. Are there any?

Any questions I can answer? I see Ashley Sun or Anna said.

Are there any GPS eyes in the Chicago at IDP? H. Great question Ashley. So like I said it just kind of depends year to year and semester to semester. Where are types of placements? Are I know that I have you in the pool to participate in interviews this January, so you'll be hearing from me. Probably mid November with information on Chicago placements for this spring.

Um Anna answer that Sam ask and 1st year dual degree apply for the program directly? Or do they have to sit for a semester before applying? That's a great question. So no, you don't have to be in your program for any certain period of time. You actually in most cases a lot of times you'll start your internship if you get placed before you start grad school 'cause we start students usually two weeks ish before school starts in August. So no, there's no requirement for you to be.

To have taken any courses in your graduate degree before doing one of these internships.

It's a great question.

Anna Vivian, were there any does wanting to resubmit? No. Actually you don't need to resubmit. Great question. Now if you've applied before.

Then you do not have to resubmit your application. We still have it on file and I just kind of keep EM and I review them for every round that we have coming up.

Anna Vivian any questions I missed in the chat?

Is the University offered an application fee waiver for underrepresented students or minorities? That would be a great question. If Anna or Vivian could answer. I'm not originally. I'm not in the admissions office. I'm not 100% sure on that one.

See any others that I missed?

I saw Andrew did a poll. What interests you most about the GPS? I program the work experience. That's a huge one, yeah?

David asked if you live outside of Springfield are Chicago. Do you have to move for this program? That's a great question, so we do like that our students live within a commutable distance because of course, right now are extraordinary circumstances, so most of our interns do work from home, but we ask that they still live within a commutable distance just in case any if they're called to the office during normal times. We ask that students live within a commutable distance so you know we don't have any students living 2 hours away, hour and a half away. That's that's generally.

Pretty hard, especially in this summer when you're working full time and you have to be at your agency every single day. You know eight to five, but that's usually kind of more of a specific question, just depending on where you live.

In Chicago, really, it's just a matter of if you can get, you know to the agencies. You can kind of live anywhere around the Chicago areas or the collar counties.

Yeah Andrew, if you have any questions from the RSVP's, feel free.

Our Doctor Chan is joining us from the public health program. He asked are there any examples that interns get jobs from their GPS isites after their internship is done? Yes, actually we do have quite a high placement rate for those students who want to stay in public service now they do still have to go through the application and interview process. Of course there's no specific line that they can just jump right in, but we find that our students who want to stay in government having this specially in Brown's case A3 year replacement.

It's kind of like a three year job interview, so I mean I would find it hard to believe that if she wanted to say she wouldn't, you know, have that opportunity to.

Hopefully.

It's awesome.

Yeah, I know our last webinar we did last week with Chidi. He had said that he was offered a position with his agency at the Office of the Auditor General. So yeah, we have quite a few. Yeah, and if you look at our social media or Facebook, Instagram, Twitter we always try to post when our students get job offers. So if you're ever curious about those, definitely.

Andrew asked, or Andrew off from the RSVP's asked can online MPH student get a GPS? I position absolutely so on line. Students can definitely get a position as long as their interview goes well and their replacements available absolutely. You don't have to be an on ground student to study or to do a placement. In Springfield. You can be an online student if you'd like, and do an internship in Springfield.

Sam asks the letter recommendation which are required for this during the application or the new application. I believe. OK, I believe what you're asking is if letters can be used for the admission application and the GPS. I application possibly and the answer is yes. So if your Masters program has letters of recommendation that are required, you can definitely use those you don't have to resubmit them. The system kind of connects them to the GPS application, so.

As we said, we made it easier. We definitely made it a lot easier there. Hopefully that answers your questions.

Out anadon yeah.

What's the certainty that one will get a position? That's a great question, and one that I don't really have an answer to. It all depends. There's so many different factors that go into getting a position. You know, time of year placement sites, majors, you know there are some majors where we say we don't. You know we have.

Every student get a placement because those majors are so you know desired. But there are some placements that are more competitive. For example, computer science placements tend to be pretty competitive because there are a lot of students in those majors and only a few kind of agencies that can take those students. But we definitely have placements for them. There just tends to be a lot more students in those types of fields, so I can't really give specifics on certainty. But I do say that as long as the student has a good resume and good letters of recommendation.

Interview options, your interview chances tend to be pretty high.

Ah.

When do we find out decisions on May applications? That's a great question. Hi Parag, I've spoken with him a couple of times at some fares, so with that usually students will find out towards the end of May or early June. So you should know if you have something. I would say before the 2nd week of June and then placements begin in August.

Um?

I'm already admitted to a dual degree Masters international student. How do I apply? There are no additional steps for international students to apply. However, there is that additional requirement of the F1 visa, so the domestic application and the international application they are the same and the resume letters of recommendation are the same, so no differences there. It's just having that F1 visa is the only difference that we require.

You've already applied and you'd like to know.

Out here back. Wonderful question. So we just wrapped up a round of interviews so I will be reviewing applications for our next round of interviews within the next week or the next two weeks. So you will definitely hear from me before November 15th, definitely.

Any other questions I have missed?

What do GPS interviews look under covid great question Doctor Chen so GPS I interviews under Covid were really interesting but we found that they were really successful. So back in March in April we decided to cancel our big in person rounds. Because of course we could not do that and we moved all of our interviews to virtual. So now what we're planning to do is.

Continue that, continue those virtual interviews so there set up through the agencies and they basically just send you a web link to join in on a virtual call or a phone call and you interview that way so they're entirely virtual. It has not become thankfully, Kovid has not become a barrier to us hiring new interns. We hired this year in 2020. Specifically from May to this past September we hired.

92 new interns so definitely was not a barrier for us, thankfully.

And our students who wanted to continue in their internship were able to do that.

Yes, any other questions I may have missed?

Yes, Vivian is one of our success stories. She was a graduating intern and she is now working full time at UAS, so we're very excited to have her in the UAS family or continuing in the UAS family.

OK, if there are no other questions, my email is up here on the chat.

Here we are.

She was selected.

His 88 miles from Springfield considered Commutable.

No.

It kind of just depends really.

I mean, I don't know if I would personally want to drive 80 miles if it's iced outside if it's winter snowing iced outside, so I think that's just a decision the student would have to make, but that's also something that we can chat about on an individual basis. Kind of just to assess how that would work. Fees obli for you.

Could you wanna share with selecting multiple positions? I think what Doctor Chen might be asking about is if you get multiple GPS I offers, so that's a great point. So our students are allowed to interview with more than one position. They're allowed to interview with up to 9 positions if they're offered that and then the students will get the offers after the interview process. And then they. Ultimately, if they get multiple offers, they do have the power in selecting which one they want so.

I did.

If three agencies want to hire them, then they can say, well, I want to go with the chronic diseases division ID pH. So did you have multiple offers? Brianna.

Consequently, I don't think there's a way that you didn't.

So how did you make that choice?

I did and honestly.

Uh, the reason I chose it was because when I interviewed, I actually interviewed with my previous supervisor and then kind of another mentor colleague of mine, but they really stressed about wanting to make the internship. You know something that specific to me if I wanted to do something kind of I had the opportunity to do everything possible with what we do in our programs, but also the opportunity to learn about.

Other parts of the Department an that really sold me. I mean, you know, just in the interview two we, it was very relaxed. I felt like, you know, I felt like it was almost like meant for me. Like you know, 'cause. It's with this process. It's you know you have to match. You know it goes two ways, you know. So don't be like Oh my gosh I'm so scared they want to get to know you so I really liked that. You know they were like you will have the opportunity to do, you know, ask questions, go and work with other programs an.

And I have this whole time I've I've ever, you know, been like, hey, I'm interested in that, they're like, oh, you can do this. You know I'm on an email and I'm on a new project so it's it's been wonderful and you know I the other options would have been wonderful as well. But I'm really glad with my decision.

Good yeah a lot of times I think one thing Chiti said in last week's webinar was just be a sponge. You know. Just take as many different experiences that you can and absorb as much knowledge as you can because the internship does go by very, very quickly. So we always like to have our students get as much experience as possible and that kind of allows the students to see what they like and potentially what they don't like in a future career so.

Absolutely, and that's important too, so don't don't get on yourself if you're like. Hey, I'm not crazy about this aspect of it, because if you aren't, you know you can communicate that and there might be something you know maybe to work on an you know, get better at and know how to do it. But if there's other things that you find or like, wow, this is amazing. I love it. I could do this every single day. You know, just all you have to do is communicate and let him know because a lot of times especially my supervisor had supervised pre previous.

Interns, but if you do have, you know a new supervisor, they might not, you know, know as much you know, kind of what a GPS I should be doing. Or you know, really, you can talk to them in the interview, but it's such a short amount of time you know that first day say I like you know, making infographics and I like doing the budget, but don't make me write a work plan because that will put me to sleep and they might say we're going to make you do that, but that's good to know. So then they can kind of their there to mentor you.

To guide you and really help you grow, so take advantage of that.

Yeah, that's a great point and a lot of times we call our supervisors mentors. You know, they're not just overseeing your work there, hopefully helping you figure out paths to get into this career. If you if you want to.

Absolutely, and they want it. Like you said, they want to learn from you too. If there's something that you're doing an in class that can help. I know with one of one aspect of our grant I went to. Actually it was something that the GPS I office put on. It was can't remember what it was exactly, but I mean it was a.

Was it the standards?

It was that meeting.

Was it the C MS-100 workshop?

No, it wasn't the workshop, but it it had.

Different, I can't remember it was, but it was something that the office put on and it was in the student center, an one of the presenters was something that we had been looking so long and hard to find an aspect of our grant.

And she was right around the corner and we, I remember, you know, emailing my supervisor and being like you will never guess who is like what topics being presented on. We need to get in contact with them and that's really flourished an she you know she loved to bring it up. She's like you mentioned that not at first I was kind of like.

Yeah.

Now you guys knew about it, but then thinking back I'm like, hey, you know it's good to speak up and share stuff you've learned because who knows, it might help your grant, or it might help. You will just daily work life.

Yeah, yeah, I totally agree that's a great point.

Alright, do you have any other questions you all can think of? I know were a little overtime so I appreciate those of you who stuck around.

Sometimes we get to talk and there's no time, doesn't matter.

I know.

Awesome well yeah. If there are no other questions, I see Vivian put her name in the chat. So yes, admissions questions are going to be great to go to her. She can help you through those questions and then my email is here. So if you have any questions for me please feel free to reach out to me so.

Oh, doctor Chen wants to know any interview tips you have? Any quick interview tips, period.

Be yourself, relax. I know it's nerve wrecking. It's hard to tell someone to relax when I know I get nervous with stuff like that to be yourself, take a breath and.

Honestly, I'd say interview if you get over 9 or 9 or you get five interview for as many as you think because the one I ended up deciding sometimes the description they do their best, but I feel like sometimes talking with people you kind of get, you perceive the job differently than what's written on paper. So be yourself and go to as many interviews as possible.

Uh huh.

Yeah, that's a great point. We give our agencies right out job descriptions for their internships, and we give those to the students. And sometimes they're not as descriptive as we would like. So accepting the interviews that you get just to learn more or just to practice your interviewing skills are huge. Yeah, and I would say study the study the positions and also just go on their websites. Go to you know what is it? IDP h.gov? Go to your, go to your agency's website and check out you know what they're doing and what's you know? What are some of the common issues? What are their initiatives?

Yes.

Things like that just like you would any job really.

Uh huh.

Awesome, so with that, we'll end it here. I appreciate everyone's time. And yeah, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Now we have one more. I've already applied to GPS I but due to Covid field to appear.

Lego for applying for current GPS I program.

That's a great question. If you would like to email me, please feel free to email me that question and I'll answer it more accurately and email.

Awesome OK.

Thank you everyone.