Author: Eva Felipe Dimog
Challenging Journey Towards Academic Independence
I am a midwife by profession for about 15 years now. I worked as a midwife in the public health setting for six months where I enhanced my knowledge and skills in providing primary healthcare, especially among pregnant and laboring women. Practicing my profession in the field is challenging yet fulfilling but my passion is really to impart knowledge to future healthcare professionals, especially among midwives. This encouraged me to take some credit units in education that qualified me to take the national licensure examination for teachers. This made me a Registered Midwife and a Licensed Professional Teacher at the same time.
In teaching, there is a lot of pressure to provide quality education among the youth. This is to prepare students in providing professional and quality healthcare services to their patients and clients in the future. One way to provide quality education to future healthcare providers is for me to further my education. This pushed me to continue my post-graduate degree. I took a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) at the University of La Salette, Inc., Santiago City, Philippines, and finished it in 2013. Upon graduation for this degree, there was an invitation to enjoy a national government’s scholarship grant by taking a newly established master’s degree – the Master of Science in Genetic Counseling (MSGC) at the University of the Philippines Manila which I finished in 2016. My academic background qualified me to land a regular teaching position as an instructor in 2018 at the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College in Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines.
Research is really important when you are working in the academe. There is a need to provide research outcomes-based knowledge and skills to students. My growing research interest led me to apply for a doctoral degree in line with my profession. This is not only to increase my qualification but also to help in the improvement of the faculty profile of my school as it journeys to attain university status.
My school, Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC) in the Philippines, gave me the link on how to apply doctoral degree with a scholarship grant here at Kaohsiung Medical University. Through the support of my school and the assistance of Dr. Venus Grace K. Fagyan, the MPSPC Vice President for Resource Generation and Linkages, I was able to apply and was accepted here at Kaohsiung Medical University. I chose to come to Taiwan in 2019, the same year that I was accepted for the degree program Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health because I was given a scholarship grant to support my studies. Now, I am on my third-year level already.
Dept. of Public Health is one of the most dynamic academic units in KMU.
As a whole, Kaohsiung Medical University provides quality education and brings out the best among the students. The high expectation from mentors and professors motivates the student to work very hard and to achieve a certain goal. For instance, my professor would encourage me to learn more about pooled analysis or decomposition analysis of big data which I have never conducted in my academic career. Through this expectation, I needed to not rely only on what I learned from the four corners of the classroom. I also needed to continuously read articles, and study through online platforms that provide information and guidance to these types of research undertakings. At least for now, I am learning how to conduct pooled analysis which I will be implementing in my dissertation. I am a work in progress to learn independently as expected by my professor.
From left to right: Ms. Julie Dumocmat, Staff, Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC), Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines; Ms. Gie Mcguiing, Director for Entrepreneurial Affairs, MPSPC, Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines; Ms. Tati Rahmawati (from Indonesia), Doctoral Student, KMU Department of Public Health; Dr. Chiung-Yu Peng, Professor, KMU Department of Public Health; Dr. Venus Grace K. Fagyan, Vice President for Resource Generation and Linkages, MPSPC, Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines; and Eva Felipe Dimog, Doctoral Student, KMU Department of Public Health.
From Left to right: Dr. Chien-Hung Lee (Committee member), Professor, KMU Department of Public Health; Dr. Tsung-Hsueh Lu (Committee member), Professor, Department of Public Health, National Cheng Kung University, East District, Tainan City; Eva Felipe Dimog (Examinee), Doctoral Student, KMU Department of Public Health; Dr. Fu-Wen Liang (Academic Adviser), Assistant Professor, KMU Department of Public Health; Dr. Pei-Shih Chen (Committee chairperson), Professor, KMU Department of Public Health; and Dr. Chich-Hsiu Hung (Co-adviser and committee member), Professor, KMU School of Nursing.