Luther's Opening Convocation- February 5, 2009

Dr. Diane Griffin, a molecular microbiology and immunology professor from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was the speaker for second semester convocation. The title of her speach was "Global Approach to Infectious Diseases" and details a lot of facts and research regarding vaccinations and diseases. While Griffin explains that death from infectious diseases has decreased in the United States, infectious diseases, such as measles and tuberculosis, remain the main cause of death world-wide. Like Griffin stressed, this can be mostly preventable. The vaccinations for these dieseases exist and only need the acceptance of developing countries to use. Griffin says that part of the problem that prevents global vaccination is that many developing countries are refusing to accept the vaccination. Due to the fact that developing countries resist these outside vaccinations, and the highly contagious nature of infectious diseases, mealses and malaria remain two of the largest preventable diseases that causes death (especially in Africa). Finally, Griffin concluded her speech by discussing how these infectious diseases are a global problem from many perspectives: humanitarian, education, world peace, importation, and ecomonic development.

While Dr. Griffin's speak was interesting, I found it a little slow and confusing. She did use a powerpoint to organize her speech, which included data and graphs to illuminate what she was saying, to help us follow along. However, throughout her presentation, she lacked charisma and used words like "uh" a lot. Becuase she often lost her train of thought, the audience got confused about where she was going with a specific example. Also, she spent quite a portion of her speech discussing her own educational journey and research. While this gave us some context for her speech, I felt like it was an unneccessary and rather boring addition. The history of her own journey did not provide a benefical connection to her views on infectious diseases; instead it just flooded her audience with all her qualifications, degrees, and awards. From her speech, I learned that just because a person has the qualifications, that does not mean they are going to be effective in presenting it. I will keep this in mind in the classroom; I need to balance the expertise I have with enthusiasm so that my students are excited to learn what I am presenting.