From Challenges to Insights: MHST 631 Reflections

As I reflect on my journey through MHST 631: Health Promotion I, my overall experience was positive while also meaningfully challenging. The course was not entirely what I had expected which required me to adjust how I approached the work. Having worked in public health and health promotion for over 20 years, many of the foundational concepts were familiar. However, the course pushed me to think more deeply about upstream action and how theory is applied in a structured and intentional way. It was not about learning entirely new ideas but about refining how I connect them in practice. I found myself reconsidering how actions are planned and how different levels of influence such as policy, organizations and community environments can be aligned to create meaningful change. At times I struggled with clarity around expectations but I appreciated the class’s responsiveness and willingness to provide guidance which helped me move forward with greater confidence.

One of my most exciting though quite challenging discoveries was the opportunity to design my own population health promotion model focused on newcomers and vaccine hesitancy. Using frameworks such as the COIN model and the Population Health Promotion Model helped me better understand how policies, community environments and health system practices intersect to influence vaccine confidence. Developing the model required careful thinking about barriers such as access, trust and communication and how collaborative approaches across sectors can strengthen outcomes. This process helped me move beyond thinking about isolated actions and toward seeing how coordinated efforts across systems shape population health.

What stands out most to me is the strong support from classmates throughout the course which reinforced the course’s focus on collaboration, shared learning and applying health promotion principles in practice. The weekly discussions were engaging and created space to share ideas, ask questions and learn from one another’s experiences. Their encouragement made challenging moments more manageable and kept me motivated. That sense of shared learning was my most powerful takeaway.