♪ >> A high school and college students interested in a career and public health got the opportunity to display and discuss their research at the showcase put on by the University of Kentucky.

Organizers say the showcase gives students the chance to improve public speaking and networking skills and develop their research.

Public.

How this so much more than just one thing.

It's teaching its research.

It's at practice.

And so.

>> The showcase was really the best word in terms of showing what public health is actually doing in real life and the lives of our students and really in the lives of communities.

The showcase was an idea that actually students had coming out of COVID that they had blank resumes and they wanted an opportunity to practice to talk about public health.

One of the reasons we had the program to begin with is that they weren't experience that talking about what things were.

They were passionate about.

And so giving them the score right is a great practice opportunity.

It is scary for everyone to come and talk about the things that they are passionate about.

There's science, their research, their practice.

And so this is really a low key environment to give him that opportunity to practice so that when they go on to college, when they go on to other programs, they've done it before.

So one of the great things about this is not just research.

It's opportunities for students to talk about just an idea.

So it's not even completed projects, its ideas that they might have and how to educate the public on a topic like opioid overdose prevention.

We talking about photo voice and the different ways to get the community engaged in health improvement plans.

Public health is a team based approach.

It requires collaboration.

And so this networking of people, the sharing of ideas is really the very best part.

>> The research and the methodology and the questions that are attempting to answer or explore.

The they don't just come out of a vacuum.

It is the product of a lot of hands-on time between our students, our faculty, our staff, our community practitioners exploring what are the real concerns and challenges that people are dealing with today?

And what are the factors that influence those challenges?

>> Public health is so broad.

They don't have to be Maryland the way they think about how it will cover whatever topics that they're talking about.

And that program, public health is everything from there with the temperature on your rotisserie chicken, too.

What we do in our communities to have safe sidewalks to transportation, planning to what we talked for, vaccines and even hand washing.

Those are all public health pieces.

Generally public health is not a profession that attracts people that are interested.

>> And being in a highly compensated role, you come into this work because your service, you want to be engaged with people and provide service to people again to improve their quality of life.

You stay in it because of the solidarity that comes with others who are committed to the work.

I hope with students come away with is that developing that community developing?

That network is the most important thing for you to be successful.

>> You don't do public health alone.

You do public health with others.

And so being able to be brave and put yourself out there and make those connections is really the start to a really great career in