Ryan Kouchakji - Undergrad

What questions or issues drove you to choose Environmental Health as a major?

While taking classes such as chemistry and biology, I always felt very removed from application of the material. I found myself asking "why is this important?" or "what effect does this have on people’s lives?". I completely understand the importance of building a strong scientific foundation, but I wanted to learn more about topics that were directly impacting human lives. Environmental health courses have taught me about the direct interaction between humans and the water we drink, air we breathe, and food we eat.

Tell us about research or internships have you participated in. 

During my freshman and sophomore year, I worked as an analyst in a QC Microbiology Lab at CMC Biologics. While I was there, I helped perform assays to detect and identify contamination in biologic product.

This past Summer, I had an internship at Public Health- Seattle & King County. During my internship, I worked on a project where I did a risk assessment in the local homeless encampments. We focused on learning more about methods of communication in the local homeless population as well as barriers that people experience while trying to access resources. I am working on publishing the results now.

For the past year and a half, I have been working at a Sobering Center in Downtown Seattle as an EMT. In this role, I work with a team of EMTs to monitor and assess patients to decide whether they need to go to a local hospital or simply sleep off the intoxication. Ultimately, the Sobering Center is a safe place where people can be medically monitored and sleep for the night.

What classes or lessons learned in the program have had the most impact on you?

ENV H 472: Risk and Society; ENV H 431,432,433: Environmental Sampling and Analysis

Throughout my undergrad I have taken numerous chemistry, biology, physics, and biochemistry classes. Environmental Health classes have allowed me to apply the complex details from science foundation classes to human health outcomes in a direct way.

 

URL
http://deohs.washington.edu/news/profile.php?content_ID=8214