Working With Vaccines and Children S Health

¶ … long-term goals that I have when it comes to my career, I should first describe what my overall plans are. I wish to work somewhere within the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institute of Health (NIH) or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I have an interest in those agencies because I love working with children and I want to keep them healthy. I am also interested in researching vaccines, adolescent health and asthma. In terms of short-term goals, I know that I need to bolster my educational and other credentials. Along the way, I hope to bolster my work credentials as well through volunteering, internships and any other way that I can gain exposure and access to the agencies and fields that I am interested in working within. Long-term, I hope to be on the front lines of what I mention above. Obviously, I want to be working for a federal agency that is intimately involved in the preservation or restoration of children's health.

I have noticed that these agencies and these fields are rather hard to get into. As such, I intend to take every opportunity I can to improve my standing and experience so that I can realize my dream career eventually. As noted above, I want to be in a clinical-type role where I am helping to research preventive care for children. Indeed, vaccines and control of diseases like asthma are very important as lack of proper vaccinations and asthma control are huge concerns for many children and their parents. Vaccines in particular are a hot-button issue as there are many that say that vaccines are not worth the risk and/or that they are dangerous. This is dangerous misinformation and all federal agencies of any import have said this. In looking at the employment and other resources out there, it is clear that I need to have educational credentials, work credentials and "mindset" credentials whereas I show that I will mesh well with the beliefs and mindset of the agencies that I want to work with (CDC, 2016).

Day Four Response

Since the authoring and posting of the original response on this matter, I have become more resolute and committed to furthering my education and agency exposure as much as is necessary to get the necessary qualifications. As one might expect, the standards and requirements to work at an agency like the CDC, the NIH or the FDA are rather high. While some may be discouraged about this, I am not because I know that the standards should be high given the importance of the work involved and the implications that the agencies' work has on children around the nation or even the world, in many instances. I will need to maximize my educational attainment and that attainment must match with the career field that I plan to be in. I must get as much volunteer and work-related exposure as I can. I do think I will need at least a master's degree to get the best and greatest opportunities.