completing a Senior Comp focused on the experiences of Black women breastfeeding and their perinatal health care in Pittsburgh. Edmunds-Hunt interviewed Black women directly, using their voices as the basis for her study. Some of what she heard — health concerns being dismissed, women being denied pain management due to bias, and medical racism — moved her.
It [Allegheny] gave me that foundation of, ‘I need to know about a lot of things and not just stay, stuck in my worldview.’ Elissa Edmunds-Hunt ’18 “It changed the trajectory of my life,” said Edmunds-Hunt, now the director of First Steps and Beyond at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, an organization that seeks to reduce Black infant mortality. Prior to First Steps, Edmunds-Hunt became a birth worker, and then implemented a culturally reflective home visiting program for high-risk Black pregnant women and people in Washington, D.C. Her classes and research experience at Allegheny “forced me to think about how all these social determinants — employment, housing and nutrition, health care, family support — impact health outcomes. “I don’t think I would have that perspective if I didn’t go to Allegheny,” Edmunds-Hunt said. “It gave me that foundation of, ‘I need to know about a lot of things and not just stay stuck in my worldview.’” The same holds true for Jon Michael Shink ’07. When he talks about research, he, too, mentions storytelling.
10 ALLEGHENY Spring 2023
JON MICHAEL SHINK ’07 When Shink first arrived at Allegheny, he thought he might want to go to law school or enter politics. That notion went the way of the VHS tape after he took his first video production class. “I was bitten by the bug from that point forward,” said Shink, now a lead producer at Pendragwn Productions, a Washington, D.C.-based creative agency that specializes in helping clients tell their stories, often through the power of video.
I have always really appreciated and respected the impact that comes with exposure — exposure to different people, exposure to different places, exposure to different cultures and ways of thinking. That exposure is eye-opening if you allow it to be.
he may never have been exposed to otherwise. “It fundamentally changed the course of my life,” said Shink, who has won four Emmy® Awards for his work. “I have always really appreciated and respected the impact that comes with exposure — exposure to different people, exposure to different places, exposure to different cultures and ways of thinking. That exposure is eye-opening if you allow it to be. “Allegheny is a microcosm of that,” he said. “What Allegheny did was expose me to different things I didn’t expect to be interested in or in some ways didn’t acknowledge existed. When I was 18, the idea that storytelling was a possibility as a career was not on my radar, not remotely. … I certainly may have ended up in some version of this career, but my Comp literally got me my first job and a 15-year career filled with incredible success and opportunity. It’s hard not to draw a direct line between my Allegheny experience and where I am now.”
JI-HEE HONG ’16
John Michael Shink ’07 Working under Professor of Communication, Film, and Theatre Ishita Sinha Roy, Ph.D., and with the support of Professor of Communications, Film, and Theatre Michael Keeley, Shink, a communication arts major and political science minor, created a documentary called Living with Autism. His research: fully immersing himself in the lives of an Erie family with a child who has autism. He used the documentary to land his job at Pendragwn, a position that exposed him to people and parts of the world
Like Shink, Ji-Hee Hong ’16 speaks about her time at Allegheny, and particularly her undergraduate research experience, with pride. During the summer following her first year, Hong worked with Associate Professor of Chemistry Timothy Chapp, Ph.D., to improve and expedite a process to synthesize molecules, using an instrument that works like a microwave. Originally a biology major, she switched to chemistry, with a global health studies minor.