{"id":249482,"date":"2025-01-24T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=249482"},"modified":"2025-01-27T08:09:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T13:09:59","slug":"rooted-in-community","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2025\/rooted-in-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Rooted in Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin is-style-text-over-image has-media has-media-focus-center-middle has-text-position-x-left\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"Tree in the forest\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest.png 1280w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest-636x398.png 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest-755x472.png 755w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest-900x563.png 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/tree-in-the-forest-1200x750.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">public health matters<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRooted in Community\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">How academic community-building and personal growth intertwine.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">January 24, 2025<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/michael-stein-md\/\">Michael Stein, MD<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>I am simply delighted by the sense of community I feel as a member of BUSPH.&nbsp; I remain a strong believer in the seemingly paradoxical notion that the feeling of community actually benefits individuals. To argue that you should embrace community because it is good for you<em> as an individual<\/em> is to<em> <\/em>make a strangely selfish case.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let me try.&nbsp; I think the idea of community seemingly sits perpendicular to the idea of <em>independence<\/em>, the quintessential American myth and self-description. We go alone into our offices, to our computers and Zoom rooms, to accomplish the day\u2019s work: to take a class, to write a grant, to check off something on the ever-growing list, to better ourselves. We work to learn new skills and improve our CVs to become increasingly self-reliant, self-determinative, with an eye toward our value in the marketplace when we look for the next job, the next grant. The work we often pursue is highly individualistic and competitive. We each grow as a single tree, reaching up, seeking the sun, adding rings. Independence makes us better, freer, happier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The very different orientation of <em>interdependence<\/em> envisions our school as a union of twisted roots, where we are engaged with co-workers. In this environment it is difficult, if not impossible, to work alone for long. We want to be trusted partners\u2014when we do a group presentation, when as collaborators we write different sections of a paper or document or proposal, when we serve on a committee together.&nbsp; How does thinking of ourselves in terms of the underground end of the tree, entangled with others, help us individually, grow, add rings to our CV? By helping each of us figure out who we are, what we believe (which includes agreement and disagreement), and to recall why we have chosen to be here at SPH, what this special place offers us and we might offer in return. An academic community provides access to others\u2019 free expression in order to fully understand our&nbsp;<em>own<\/em>&nbsp;ideas. A strong community is one that enables, even fosters self-criticism, and allows honest self-assessment, important aspects of individualism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which is not to say that interdependence is always anchoring or uplifting. It can feel suffocating down there in the roots. Feeling that we must depend on others goes against our independent streaks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We know what an uncaring community looks like. Halls that are silent. People pass without looking up or saying hello. An environment that ridicules the human desire to congregate. A day in the office is an endurance test, a form of loneliness. When we have no community, we are imperiled. Work, where we spend so much of our lives, is where we share celebration and anguish, doubt and defeat, brilliance and errors in judgement. It is where our minds \u201cdance together\u201d in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/1586299.The_Dancing_Mind\">Toni Morrison\u2019s phrase<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community, by nature, is slow-forming and its power comes to us only through a slow awareness. You see it when difficult circumstances arise, an illness, the death of a colleague\u2019s spouse, or problems with a colleague\u2019s mother or child. Interdependence requires quiet acts of caring and looking out for others, mentoring, listening, sharing, letting go. It requires down time and coffee breaks, virtual or with shared stirrers. Then we can begin to see and feel community\u2019s transformative power.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Academic communities are about creating and producing and distributing knowledge. Our mission is to make health better. In how we think of doing this, the SPH community shapes us. The environment where our work is done is, I hope, supportive. Community is more than feeling included, it means feeling welcomed.\u00a0 It is how we attract new students, staff and faculty. It is a manifestation of what we stand for. When braided with our natural and inevitable drive for independence, interdependence allows for the possibility of personal betterment because our complex world now demands collaboration. As we move deeper into 2025, we look beyond the boundaries and bloodlines of our department, past our current collaborators and this semester\u2019s students. The walls of universities have largely been symbolic; they allow the drafty currents of broader society through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community-forming requires identification, attachment and participation, but also respect. We owe it to ourselves to have a community where arguing, debating, persuading, disagreeing\u2014things you can\u2019t do alone\u2014are the norm. Each of us is better for these pursuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Stein, MD<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dean Ad Interim<br>Boston University School of Public Health<br>mdstein@bu.edu<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previous Public Health <em>Matters<\/em> are archived at: https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/category\/public-health-matters\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am simply delighted by the sense of community I feel as a member of BUSPH.&nbsp; I remain a strong believer in the seemingly paradoxical notion that the feeling of community actually benefits individuals. To argue that you should embrace community because it is good for you as an individual is to make a strangely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":249635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"public health matters","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[5140],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3531,5139],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[2135],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/249482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249482"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/249482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249713,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/249482\/revisions\/249713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249482"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=249482"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=249482"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=249482"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=249482"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=249482"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=249482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}