98 About Hailey Voyek
Hello, my name is Hailey Voyek. I am 27 and a student at the University of Iowa graduating at the end of the semester with a Global Health Studies B.S. and Sustainability Certificate. I am interested in studying the intersection between our current global food system and its relationship to the rise of diet related diseases and climate change. I am passionate about localizing food systems in efforts to work towards healthier communities when it comes to the double-burden health affects from our current food system. Iowa has a unique position as a large producer of industrialized agriculture which has a strong hold on many families and institutions due to economic ties. Despite this economic tie, Iowa also has a large growing community of smallholder farmers and community workers who are committed to cultivating and providing food for Iowans that benefit both human and land health with a strong emphasis on equity. Overall, I hope to help build greener food and energy systems for future generations.
In my free time, I enjoy being active by going to the gym, running, doing yoga, or riding my bike. I like to garden and cook all different kinds of recipes. I also enjoy traveling all over the globe and hope to be able to visit and learn about many different cultures and ways of living. In addition to this course, I am taking intermediate Portuguese. I want to be able to continue this new skill and brush up on my previous knowledge of Spanish as well. I’m hoping learning new languages will help in traveling and getting to know new people throughout my life!
Throughout this course I have learned a lot about how we can use humanities to inform what we know about health in ways that are different than a traditional social science perspective and why this approach is important for our health and health systems. By using a humanities lens, the ideas around health topics shifts from a sterile, one direction, right vs. wrong environment into one that is more open and accepting to new information and perspectives. Humanities offers more patient autonomy within their own health experience.