Marlana Lammar is a SOPHE Collegiate Champion and Pre-Physician Assistant Track student at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL), as well as the president of the Eta Sigma Gamma (ESG) Beta Phi Chapter.

Combining the many hats she wears, Lammar shares her experiences with professional organizations and their learning opportunities at her campus last semester:

At our ESG meetings we talk about multiple professional organizations that our members can be a part of to gain experience and knowledge about public health education. One that we especially talk about is SOPHE. At this meeting I expressed the SOPHE mission and how one can be involved as a student. At UWL, our department provides its students with information on two conferences SOPHE puts on – each one having participation from faculty and staff from UWL. I then shared my involvement in the organization. I have been to the annual conference last year in Denver, and participated in the case study competition. I also attended the advocacy summit in DC this fall to advocate to our senators and representatives.

“I think the events that SOPHE puts on are valuable to college students, and are important to attend for knowledge and networking.”

We discussed the annual conference, and members who have gone in the past got to share their experiences with the group. I ended the presentation by inviting my fellow Gammans to join me at the conference in Ohio.

Application information for the Collegiate Champion program for the next academic year will be announced Summer 2018 and open to SOPHE Student members.