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Graduation Profile: Biostatistics Leads MPH Student to Discover New Career聽聽

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Master of Public Health Student Colin Tran discovered coding and his love of helping people through data after taking the required Biostatistics course聽

Colin Tran, MPH
Colin Tran, MPH '22. Photo provided.

Colin Tran has considered many professions鈥攄entist, biochemist, and epidemiologist鈥攁nd he thanks Biostatistics for helping him find his future career path with public health data. Tran is graduating this month with a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology and wants to use his skills to support others.听

鈥淔or the longest time, I wanted to be a dentist. That went away, but my desire to help as many people as possible remained the same,鈥 Tran said.听

He received a biochemistry degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and though he enjoyed his classes, he found that the related career options weren鈥檛 appealing to him. Struggling with what path to take, Tran applied for and was accepted as a . This led him to public health.听

鈥淚 was initially set on infectious diseases. Mason鈥檚 first-year classes helped me get my foot in the door with public health. When I took the Biostatistics course, it got me interested in coding. I found it is where my aspirations in epidemiology and analyzing data overlapped,鈥 he said.听

Biostatics fascinated him so much that he has been a teaching assistant for the past three semesters for Assistant Professor .听

"It鈥檚 a lot different than I expected, in a good way. I didn鈥檛 expect to develop so many skills as a teaching assistant,鈥 said Tran. In addition to traditional assignments such as grading and he has created a resource for biostats students who have not taken a recent math course, learned new coding languages, and expanded his skills as a data analyst.听

He took these skills to his practicum, where he analyzed various data sets at the Fairfax County Health Department. He鈥檚 still finalizing his post-graduation plans and hopes to continue working at a health department.听聽

Tran is headed on a different career path than he imagined when he started at Mason, but he鈥檚 thrilled with where his experience has led him and recommends the programs to prospective students.听

鈥淲hatever you thought you knew about public health, you鈥檒l find out a lot more,鈥 said Tran. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been very rewarding to be exposed to all these other aspects of public health that I didn鈥檛 know existed before. I鈥檝e always enjoyed learning so being able to find new things was really exciting for me. If you鈥檙e interested in community health, global, or聽 infectious diseases, coming to Mason you鈥檒l be exposed to just that.鈥澛