Co-op at SEPTA: Connecting Transportation & Public Health

Ever since I began my journey at Drexel as a public health major, I've had a variety of opportunities that have been crucial to my professional development. From being accepted as a Drexel Global Scholar to participating in the STARS program my first summer, each opportunity has guided me into the direction I want to take with my future.

What many people fail to realize is how interdisciplinary public health is and how a career can be found in the least expected places.

My co-op experience was an especially interesting experience that allowed me to see the vast amount of opportunities that the world of public health has to offer. When most people think about public health, they usually think about the CDC, health care careers, and research, among other things. What many people fail to realize is how interdisciplinary public health is and how a career can be found in the least expected places. This was the case for me during my spring-summer co-op at Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). As a public health major I never would have imagined that I would spend 6 months working in the field of public health within a public transportation company. Yet, I found myself working for SEPTA's SCOPE program, a relatively new and comprehensive initiative that aims to mitigate homelessness around the system and create a safe environment for employees and riders.

You may be asking yourself, how does this job relate to public health? Working to address inequities among the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, such as people experiencing homelessness and people who use drugs, is a driving force for those in the field. Addressing social determinants of health, or social factors that determine different health outcomes such as housing, income, race, level of education, etc., is also a key pillar of public health. The work I began to do as Project Manager and Outreach Engagement for the SCOPE Program was to address these social determinants to improve the quality of life for the vulnerable population of homeless individuals and people who use drugs. Through this program, I was able to help manage outreach teams who interacted with the vulnerable populations and helped them get health and social services.

From a public health perspective, working at SEPTA allowed me to better understand how collaboration is imperative when it comes to addressing the needs of vulnerable populations. Any public health issue needs collaboration between different entities; in this case, it was between transportation services, homeless shelters, outreach firms, city officials, and many more. Being part of this effort and taking the role of a transportation company trying to mitigate homelessness allowed me to see the different career routes I could take with my degree and the innovative approach to different public health issues affecting our communities every day. Without this co-op experience, my current perspective on approaching public health issues wouldn't be the same. I am able to better connect the dots between different stakeholders and the different roles that they have to build up those communities that need it the most.