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Alyssa Baer

Alyssa Baer
Major: Public Health
Minor: Digital Humanities and Technology
Graduation: April 2021

I grew up in Holladay, Utah and absolutely love living close to the mountains and my family. I got involved in healthcare volunteer opportunities in high school and knew I wanted to pursue a career related to health, well-being, and finding solutions to social issues.

I have absolutely LOVED my time in the BYU Public Health program. Some of my favorite parts have been being a teaching assistant, competing in a national student competition, working on community-based interventions/projects, and working with faculty mentors on research. I did some research on female nighttime commuter safety for female college students, and I presented our findings at the national SOPHE conference in April. For the past three years, I've also been involved in interning and now working for a nonprofit organization—Mothers Without Borders—based in Provo that works on international development in communities with large populations of orphaned and vulnerable children. I've had the chance to travel to Zambia with them and found a love for working with maternal and child health issues. All these experiences have prompted me to pursue graduate education, which I'll be starting this coming fall. When I'm not at school or work, I am most likely at a musical theater production or trying a new creative project like carving stamps, making mosaics, or doing digital graphic design work.

What’s one item on your bucket list?

One item on my bucket list is to visit all seven wonders of the natural world. The place where I feel God the most is when I am completely surrounded by nature and by the expanse of God’s creations. So far I’ve been to one—Victoria Falls—and it was incredible! I will be visiting Victoria Falls again this summer and am excited to plan trips to visit the other wonders of the world! I love to travel and explore new cultures and places!

What are your favorite books? What are you currently reading?

My favorite book growing up was a toss-up between To Kill a Mockingbird and The Poisonwood Bible. But lately, my favorites are usually books by or about social impact issues, entrepreneurs, or personal growth. Some of my recent favorites have been Thirst by Scott Harrison, The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates, and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. I am currently reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrnes, which has been really interesting in learning about limitations that we place on ourselves in pursuing our dreams and becoming the best versions of ourselves.

Why did you decide to join the Honors Program?

My freshman year, I was really impressed with the Honors Program because of the interdisciplinary focus. I have always loved being involved in a lot of things or disciplines at once and I loved that the Honors Program encouraged that. As I got started in the classes, I really enjoyed learning from a variety of professors across campus and being challenged to think about how to improve communication and cross-disciplinary thinking to promote increased understanding and opportunities to find innovative solutions.

What has been your favorite part of your Honors Experience?

My favorite part of my Honors Experience (aside from my thesis—which has been so life-changing!) was a class I took that combined sociology and the arts. The class focused on exploring race and music and it was so insightful! I was very unfamiliar with both disciplines and was really grateful for the open discussion and encouragement that Dr. Rugh and Dr. Howard brought to the class. They pushed us to have uncomfortable conversations, but they created a safe space that made it possible for us to all learn and grow together. It was really powerful to learn from other students and develop increased understanding of cultures and experiences.

What is your next step in Honors?

About eight months ago I came to my supervisor at Mothers Without Borders with the idea to design the organization's first formal evaluation of their programs. My thesis was titled "Mothers Without Borders Program Evaluation: Establishing Effective Program Evaluation and Assessing the Impact of Holistic Orphan Care." I combined theories and models from the Social Impact and Public Health disciplines to create an interdisciplinary evaluation model based in industry standards and best practices. I wanted the evaluation to be usable for years to come, so while I was focused on one program in the organization, I designed the evaluation protocol and mechanisms as a "template" that could be altered for use in all of their programs. I have completed the evaluation toolkit and, after my defense, will be staying on with the organization as their Impact Evaluation Specialist to build out and implement the evaluations for each of the other programs.