Ruoxi Chen

My development into public health began with a simple conviction: that true well-being must reach the individual. Whether sitting side-by-side with a child in “Beautiful Hearts” or listening to dreams in a rural classroom, I saw that data and policies gain meaning only when grounded in personal stories and emotions. To bridge the individual and the systemic, I expanded my work across broader contexts. Hospital volunteering revealed the lack of human connection in healthcare, while co-producing evidence-based health videos for my father's People’s Daily Health channel taught me how to turn complex medical knowledge into accessible public understanding.

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My internship at the ZEISS Medical Department further deepened this journey by showing me the “hard power” behind public health. Tracking the full cataract treatment pathway and studying the engineering principles of ophthalmic devices helped me understand how technological precision drives better outcomes. Yet developing patient materials also revealed how easily such advances lose impact when users feel confused or uninformed—highlighting the need to pair innovation with communication.

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Rural fieldwork then exposed the “last-mile” gap between policy and reality, completing my understanding of public health as a discipline that must balance scientific rigor, clear communication, and human empathy. These experiences also taught me that future public health solutions require integrating diverse perspectives and translating insight into action—a skill I strengthened through leading economic competitions and research projects. I am eager to deepen this interdisciplinary approach at university, merging data, stories, science, and community to build more resilient and equitable health systems.