One spent the summer updating policies and rebuilding an internal website in Richmond. Another led focus groups on maternal and child healthcare in the Shenandoah Valley. A third hosted grocery store tours for families in need at Roanoke.
Public health students Bailey Fleming, Bella Peachey, and Max Painchaud were each selected through a competitive application process to serve in the Virginia Department of Health’s Internship Academy 10-week summer program.
“The VDH Internship Academy is highly competitive and gives public health students the opportunity to work in a health department setting,” said Kristi Lewis, collegiate professor of public health and director of the Undergraduate Public Health Program in the Department of Population Health Sciences within the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech. “Students work and learn from public health professionals. The VDH Internship Academy gives public health students insight into what public health looks like day to day.”
Fleming, from Northern Virginia, worked in Richmond at the health department’s central office, embedded in the Office of Procurement and General Services, where she focused on internal communications, updating policies, building infographics, and reworking the department’s internal website to be easier to navigate.
“I really enjoyed being in the central office itself because we are the background of what’s going on with the Virginia Department of Health,” Fleming said. “I was able to see lots of different aspects of VDH. Being a part of the public health program at Virginia Tech, I am always working with the communities, so it was really great to see all the things that go on in the background in order for the communities to be reached out to.”
Peachey, from Harrisonburg, was placed with the Central Shenandoah Health District, covering localities in and around Staunton, Harrisonburg, Waynesboro, and Lexington. She led a rapid community assessment examining maternal and child healthcare access. Working through focus groups and key informant interviews, she and her host site gathered data the district plans to use in a funding proposal to the state.
“I really liked that I was able to explore different departments within my health district,” Peachey said. “I was able to experience all of those and see how they interacted, and that also helps with making connections and career opportunities.”
Painchaud, a junior from Bedford, was assigned to the Roanoke City Health Department’s clinic for WIC, the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
A dual-degree student in public health and technical and scientific communication, Painchaud put both halves of that education to work in Roanoke, creating WIC benefit sizing guides and store navigation maps, hosting WIC grocery store tours, and building a website to house every deliverable. Each piece had to be understood across multiple languages.
“Getting to work with and understand how social programs like WIC function in a community like Roanoke’s linguistically diverse one was such an inspiring part of the internship,” Painchaud said. “Getting to see how my writing skills were transferable to many languages was so cool.”
Peachey and Fleming are in the accelerated Master of Public Health (MPH) program, allowing them to undertake undergraduate and graduate degree courses concurrently. Fleming received her bachelor’s degree in public health this past May and is set to graduate with an MPH this coming May, while Peachey will earn her bachelor’s May 2027 and her master’s the following year.
Fleming is hoping to parlay her public health degrees into a career in healthcare administration or hospital management, possibly medical sales or pharmaceuticals.
Peachey has narrowed her plans down to two general paths: academia or community outreach.
Painchaud plans to pursue volunteer service, such as the Peace Corps, after graduation, or to seek a job in editing and publishing.
For all three, the summer sharpened their understanding of public health.
“I feel that when you academically learn about social programs like WIC and SNAP, you never truly get to see how a community can be impacted by them, and how different the social programs look and function,” Painchaud said.
Peachey and Fleming both see public health in light of how it compares to traditional medicine.
“Public health is more preventive,” Peachey said. “So rather than treating a sickness, we try to stop the sickness from happening.”
“The way that doctors and nurses treat patients is the way that we treat a larger community,” Fleming said. “They are looking at individuals and their health or disease, but we’re looking at the widespread community. So, I would say, as a doctor is to one patient, public health is to the world.”
Source: news.vt.edu
