Morgan Heckle

Public Health Philosophy

Since I was young, I have always had a passion for helping people. As I got older,
through substituting and coaching, I have found that I want to help high school students. My
primary focus would be to improve sexual health among high school students. My public health
focus would be centered around prevention. I remember being in high school and the only type
of sex education that students received was a single lesson in my freshman year Biology class. I
remember hearing myths throughout school about how to avoid getting pregnant. Of course,
none of these myths were true and it was sad to think that students thought these myths were true
and would work. This not only gives students the wrong information but could potentially put
them at risk. Also, pregnancy was the only thing people talked about preventing and not sexually
transmitted diseases, STDs. Sexually transmitted diseases are just as important, if not more
important, than pregnancy. Seeing the lack of sex education among schools made me want to
improve high school sex education programs.
Deciding what to major in for my undergraduate was extremely difficult. I knew that I
wanted to be in healthcare, however, I also wanted to educate. I did not want to get my degree in
education because then I would not get to be involved with health care. I stumbled upon this
degree one day while intensively researching what to study. From here I learned that the Public
Health degree required a minor in Health Education. I finally decided that educating the public
on health is exactly what I wanted to pursue, and this degree would perfectly incorporate
healthcare and education into my future career. I feel as though this is the perfect degree to
express my morals through as well. For example, while educating the public on health, I will
stick to the morals that I associate with. These morals are the power of education, equality, and
respect. You could not get through this life without being knowledgeable and you gain that
knowledge through education. The power of education exceeds any man-made idea or theory,
the power of education allows you to live to your fullest and healthiest potential. I will also
educate based on respect and equality. No matter what one believes or what disease they may or
may not have, everyone deserves to get the help they need with no judgement and being treated
with respect. I believe that if you embarrass someone about their health, they are more likely to
not do anything about it. However, if you treat someone with equality and respect about their
health, they are more likely to be willing to change their own behaviors.
After graduating, I plan to get my teaching license and get hired on as a Sex Educator by
Duvall County Public Schools. I hope to be able to cut pregnancy rates as well as sexually
transmitted disease rates in half. If these rates decreased to more than half, I would be extremely
happy! I hope that in about five years, I can create a program and the outcome of the program
would be to almost completely erase any sources of HIV/AIDS in Duvall County Public Schools.
Duvall County would benefit from this because high amounts of tax dollars wouldn’t have to go
towards unplanned pregnancies or even STD treatments. Young adults would also benefit from
this because they could learn how to practice safe sex to prevent pregnancy and STD’s and will
not be forced to grow up so soon due to having an unplanned child or a life threating sexually
transmitted disease.