Connecting Preprofessionals with Veterans of Our Field

I recently had a highly rewarding experience. Ms. Jannelle Hibbing, a health education major at Texas Sate University enrolled in a course taught by Steve Furney, interviewed me. Steve is using a strategy that I first learned from Edward “Ned” Johns to connect preprofessionals with seasoned professional health educators. It is a strategy that I used throughout my career and others, including Buzz Pruitt and June Gorski, have used. He assigns his students to research the careers of present, or, in cases involving retirees like me, past leaders within our field and interview them. Each student presents a summary of their findings in class.

Ms. Hibbing contacted me initially by email to describe her assignment and ask permission to conduct a telephone interview with me. I was pleased that someone considers me worthy of this honor. We had a wonderful interview session, during which I mentioned the value of HEDIR and HEDIR Blog for gaining some insights into views of fellow professional health educators. The HEDIR-wiki had not been established at that point.

My students were always delighted to learn how receptive leaders in our profession would be to their requests for an interview and for a cv or resume. Based on Ms. Hibbing’s report of the success of her presentation (success equals an A grade), she seems pleased with the experience.