For Open Forum on April 10th, Dr. Neubauer introduced Naomi Higgins. Naomi is a friend of TGS because she attended our school for several years. She recently graduated from Clemson with a degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, and Microbiology. Naomi talked about her time at college and her plans to attend USC in the fall to start her master’s degree in the same area.

Naomi said that for her first year at college, all her classes were online because of the pandemic. She was happy in her second year to begin in-person classes, where she got to listen and talk to her professors. “It was different to waking up and getting ready for class,” she laughed, “rather than just rolling out of bed and signing on to classes.”  Naomi went on to discuss how she struggled to find a major she felt passionate about. She said, “It took me most of my college career to know what I really wanted to do”. She started in geology but quickly realized that she “was not that into rocks.” After exploring other science classes, she found out that she really liked epidemiology and public health.  Now Naomi is looking forward to starting her master’s degree in Columbia this fall!

TGS thanks Naomi Higgins for coming and sharing her unique story of majoring in Public Health right after a pandemic with us. We enjoyed learning about her college experiences, and why public health is so important to our community. We wish her all the best!

By Saylor