While Sofia Olay is preparing to cross the graduation stadium with a master’s degree in public health (MPH) from the University of New Mexico College Health (COPH), she will wear with her more than a diploma. It has a sense of objective, a renewed direction and a vision of what public health should be.
The way from Olay to obtaining the diploma was not a straight line. She finished her baccalaureate in human sciences a few months before the start of the Cavid-19 pandemic. This prompted her to realize that she was attracted to something bigger.
“It cemented my curiosity for public health with everything that was going on at the time,” she said. “I learned how essential the analysis and epidemiology of data are and how it could really help change global health.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSKMU0sWoryThis curiosity and this conduct to create a change led him to the Collège de Santé of the UNM population. What she found was not only an academic rigor in a master’s program – it was a favorable environment where theory encountered practice and where students like Olay were allowed to explore great ideas. She prospered in the accent put by the program on community learning and collaboration.
Olay also had the chance to travel internationally as part of his internship experience – an opportunity that turned out to be a turning point in his academic career.
Olay has worked on a research project on access to cancer treatment in Colombia as part of an education scholarship for cancer epidemiology in special populations, where it has helped to study social and economic disparities in starting cancer treatment.
“It was a decisive moment for me, because it exposed me to what global health is really,” she said. “The context in which I carried out my research and what I had to understand to contextualize my results, which was the fragmentation of the insurance system and inequalities based on income and socioeconomic status, helped me see how the framework in which people live have a huge impact on their health, and that the resolution of these questions is a political problem.”
Back in New Mexico, Olay continues to continue his passion for research by emphasizing the disparities in cancer, especially in poorly served communities. His Colombian internship did not simply check a box, it gave him the clarity, the management and the confidence necessary to pursue a career in research in public health.
Olay’s practical experience has shaped her vision of the type of public health she wanted to become. His graduate internship focused on the work that mixed its history in the humanities with its growing expertise in public health systems.
“We will always need doctors to deal with our health problems,” said Olay. “But we will also always need public health practitioners. We live in communities and societies, and management is different from that of the individual level. Public health is just as essential as direct care to patients. ”
We will always need doctors to deal with our health problems, but we will also always need public health practitioners. We live in communities and societies, and management is different from that of the individual level. Public health is just as essential as direct care to patients.
Sofia Olay,, Master of Public Health, 2025 Grad Inspirant, College of Population Health
At first, Olay was not sure that she could really get a MPH. Like many graduate students, she juggled school with work and other responsibilities, as well as the emotional weight of the pandemic. However, it attributes to the Faculty of COPH for having created an learning environment which was both enriching academic and provided a support community.
His advice to future students? Do not wait until you have understood everything. Olay says it is good to follow his curiosity. “Public health is such a broad field,” she said. “Whether you are in politics, data, community work or something else, there is a place for you.”
Olay’s journey testifies to what is possible when passion meets a goal – and when students receive the tools to transform their questions into action.
Do you want to join the next generation of public health leaders?
Learn more about the Master of Public Health Program: https://hsc.unm.edu/population-health/programs/graduate-programs/masters/