One of Nicole Blinn鈥檚 top priorities in life is developing a career where she can help create healthier populations.
She is particularly interested in learning how the social determinants of health 鈥� such as income level, for instance 鈥� can prevent people and communities from being healthy, and then in coming up with ways to overcome such obstacles.
鈥淣ot just intervening in the biomedical healthcare system when it鈥檚 really expensive, but to have interventions before people even get sick and prevent that from happening. I鈥檓 passionate about that,鈥� explains the Health Promotion student from Bridgewater, N.S., who is now heading into her fourth year at Dal.
Nicole has channeled this passion for empowering communities to be healthier through her involvement in a number of vital research projects and community work at Dal, all while achieving top grades 鈥� accomplishments that have landed her .
Finding her place
All of this would have seemed a distant possibility just a few short years ago, when Nicole says she was unsure if she even wanted to go to university.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 sure that was for me. I was a pretty disengaged high school student and sort of applied to Dal on a whim,鈥� she explains.
Even after she arrived at Dal, Nicole struggled to find her groove. It wasn鈥檛 until a course in health promotion in her second year that she found just what she needed.
鈥淲hen I started in Health Promotion, I really had the opportunity to engage with my professors and my classmates and start engaging in research,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he switch flipped. I love school now.鈥�
Her first foray into research was as a co-investigator on a project looking into whether starting class with meditation has beneficial impacts on students鈥� learning experiences. Principal investigator Becky Spencer, an instructor in the School of Health and Human Performance and whose class exercise the research project is based on, became a mentor to Nicole, encouraging her to get engaged in other research projects as well.
Nicole jumped in with both feet. She has worked with Matthew Numer鈥檚 lab on a couple of projects, including one about undergraduate student beliefs about sexual consent. And she is also currently involved in Sarah Kirk鈥檚 UpLift project, which looks at creating better environments to help support health and prevent chronic disease later down the line for children in Nova Scotia.
Exploring body image
For her fourth-year honours thesis, Nicole will be examining the issue of body image in adolescent young women cancer survivors.
鈥淚 had a friend with cancer pretty young. And then I did some research on psycho-social outcomes for people in this population and found that historically women鈥檚 health concerns are overlooked particularly in the context of cancer research,鈥� she says.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a really distinct time to have cancer, when you are going to school and probably losing some independence due to treatments. I thought it was a significant concern that was unaddressed and also a significant population that鈥檚 unaddressed.鈥�
Nicole has parlayed her passion for health promotion into community leadership as well, serving as co-president of Dal鈥檚 Health Promotion Society, secretary for the Student Association of Health and Human Performance, a member of the Crossroads student health research conference organizing committee, and a volunteer with the student-based Indigenous Health Interest Group.
For Nicole, it鈥檚 this connection between her academic work and her work in the community that enables her to have the kind of impact she wants to. 聽
鈥淩esearch is leadership. It鈥檚 one and the same,鈥� she says. 鈥淪eeing what is happening in the research, then seeing what is happening in the community and trying to do something about it.鈥�