About Me


       My name is Marina Sansom and I am a rising senior at Washington & Jefferson College (Washington, PA) and have hopes of going to Law School when I graduate college. I have lived in three states (CO, OR, PA) and attended 3 Elementary Schools, 1 Middle School, 2 High Schools, and 1 Charter High School, and because of this I was exposed to a wide range of demographics. Attending a liberal arts college now is no different, and I am able to appreciate the many opinions that people have and the decisions they make.
       The main focus of my Magellan project last summer was to try to understand the different mindset of people in Australia, which has a Government issued plan for a "Smoke-Free Country by 2020." In general, they are a much healthier country than the US, and they have more plans and tobacco control protocols implemented than the US does. A generic pack of cigarettes costs an average of $25-$30 in Australia, while the average pack in the US costs $6. During my time in Australia I talked to leading tobacco control researchers, public health professors, visited smoke-free universities, as well as talked to the general public in order to gather information about their lifestyles in relation to smoking.
       This summer I am staying in the US, as I have an internship in Pittsburgh, PA. While completing my internship I will be studying the lifestyles of residents of Pittsburgh and the surrounding suburbs. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) has been working closely with the biking community and Bike! Pittsburgh to improve the quality of cycling downtown. They have installed the “Three Rivers bike racks” which are visible throughout the city, have recently implemented downtowns first bike lane that can be found on Penn Avenue, and have an event called “OpenStreets” three times during the summer, where certain streets and bridges in the city are shut down and blocked off so no cars can be driven on them. UPMC Health sponsors these events, and their goal is to “get people outside and active while helping to connect families with new neighborhoods through physical activity.” It is growing as one of Pittsburgh’s most popular free events with tens of thousands of people participating every summer.
       

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Manly Beach Town

The other beach area in the Sydney area is called Manly Beach, and it can be easily accessed by a 30 min ferry ride across the Harbour. I decided to go here to see the similarities between Bondi Beach and Manly, as Bondi is a smoke-free suburb. I was really pleased to not see one smoker all day here in Manly, which could really just be lucky for me, but I am choosing to believe it is because of the environment of the town. "The Corso" which was the main street from Manly Wharf down to the beach, was packed with all of the popular surf shops, souvenir shops, and cafes. Not one tobacconist or convenience store in sight. It is definitely a healthier area, the beaches and ocean are perfect for swimming and surfing, there are many hikes in the area, and I also saw a lot of people riding their biked along the beach as well. So usually, if it is a healthier area, there is less smoking occurring because those two just don't exist together. Unfortunately, I did find a few empty pa...
Read more

First Weekend: Sydney Suburbs

Saturday and Sunday I spent venturing outside of Central Sydney to Glebe, Mosman, and Olympic Park, which was recognized as a suburb of Sydney after the Games were over in 2000. It was nice to get out of the highly concentrated tourist areas, because you really don't get the chance to speak to many Australians. Glebe, to me, was a typical "hippie-type" town. They had an outdoor market, and they call the main road "eat street" because it is packed with really trendy and cool small bars, cafes and restaurants. It is right in the middle of two universities, meaning the area caters to a much younger crowd. Maybe this is why I saw less smoking, or maybe I just came on a good day, but I am hoping it is because University-aged students are smarter about what they put into their bodies. Sydney Olympic Park, honestly, has nothing to do with my Magellan, but I could not pass up the opportunity to see it. The Sydney 2000 Games, 17 years ago, were called by many people ...
Read more

Heart Foundation: Days 3/4

Wednesday was spent mostly reading through all of the packets of resources that they have given me here, nothing too newsworthy to write an entire post about. It has been really nice having a desk and large computer to work with to spread out all of the papers in front of me as well as having word documents open in front of me for my notes and ideas. As for today, Thursday, I had two really great meetings. The first was with a woman named Fiona Phillips from Cancer Council of Western Australia's " Make Smoking History " campaign. They are a non-governmental organization (NGO) who employ a range of strategies to combat tobacco use. They focus on four main areas; mass media advertisements (3-4 per year to target adults 18+), policy advocating, education & research, and community service programs (cessation support). The original campaign was called "Quit WA" and was run by the Western Australian Government until 2000, when it was handed over to the Cancer Cou...
Read more