On September 9th, the One Health Student Association held its first General Body Meeting of the Fall 2021 semester at the University of Florida.
What is OHSA?
The One Health Student Association (OHSA) is a student-led undergraduate organization promoting the need for interdisciplinarity and recognizing interconnections between humans, animals, and the environment. Incepted after the One Health Center’s undergraduate course on the Circular Nature of COVID-19 in 2019, our aim is to educate UF’s student body on the One Health vision through special events and invited speakers.
A New Semester
Leading up to the first meeting, OHSA executive board members tabled in the Plaza of Americas, Turlington, and at a student organization fair in order to spread the word about One Health. As a result, we are proud to share that we gained a significant following on our social media as well as many new members in our GroupMe chat. Our tabling efforts were a success. At our first meeting, we had a turnout of 50+ students attend, both new and familiar faces.
Our organization stresses the importance of interdisciplinarity, and that interdisciplinarity is reflected in our members. After conducting a poll during our first meeting, we discovered that our member’s majors span across various disciplines including Public Health, Marketing, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, Political Science, and many more.
First General Body Meeting of Fall
In our latest meeting, we discussed our mission, the circular health approach, active membership requirements, upcoming events, and leadership opportunities for our members. We also had the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Sara Agnelli, our organization’s advisor, as she introduced herself and the One Health Center to our new members.
Additionally, we invited Arianna Insenga, an intern at the One Health Center, to introduce the topic of Antimicrobial Resistance to our members, a subject we will delve into throughout the semester. As the semester progresses, we plan to have some events surrounding the subject of antimicrobial resistance for our members. Some events we plan to hold include movie night socials, interactive tabling events centered around our topic, and a multidisciplinary antimicrobial resistance panel.
Our first meeting was a warm welcome to an exciting new school year for us and our members. We have come a long way from the start of this organization and we are all excited for the events planned within the upcoming months.
By Maya Salomon, OHSA Communications Chair & Media Intern for the One Health Center
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