RUMFORD — Ashley Lauze, a Class of 2007 graduate from Mountain Valley High School, took part in a fascinating 16-week internship. She works with the Maine Cities Readiness Initiative, which is federally funded and part of the Center for Disease Control. Her work focuses on disaster planning for Cumberland, Sagadahoc and York Counties.

Lauze said, “The program focuses on bioterrorism incidents that might occur in the future, and my job is to help plan what will happen if that occurs. The CDC has stockpiles of medicine that they store for bioterrorist attacks.”

If an attack occurred, the governor would request the medicine and it would arrive in Maine in 72 hours or less. But who gets the medicine first and how will it be distributed; that’s where the planning comes in.

Lauze described, “We have to plan who gets the medicine first, such as health care providers. We have to know how to disseminate the medicine to the general public, including isolated populations such as homebound and elderly people, including those in isolated areas.”

The journey she took to get to this internship involved education and some foreign travel. Along the way, she developed a better understanding of her strengths and her desire to serve others.

Her story begins at University of Maine at Orono where she earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism.

“Shortly after beginning my freshman year,” Lauze said, “I was offered a full, four-year scholarship from a trust affiliated with UMaine and that was huge for me. But I also worked throughout my four years as a cashier, manager and then a pharmacy technician.”

The financial aid helped her to be able to travel.

Lauze continued, “I took some time off during spring break to travel during my last two years of my undergrad. I went to Rome in 2010, Paris in 2011 and Dublin in 2012.”

That travel gave her self-confidence and allowed her to see how other people lived.

She said, “Each time I went by myself. I hadn’t even been on a plane before flying to Rome. Although it scared my family that I was traveling alone, it was the best decision I have ever made.”

Lauze said, “Walking around in a foreign country by myself, meeting new people from different ways of life and seeing things like the Louvre, riding the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower and touring the Guinness Factory made me realize I really could do whatever I set my mind to. I’m still bit by the travel bug though and I am planning on someday returning to Italy to visit Pompeii.”

As graduation loomed, she realized that despite her love of travel a career in journalism wasn’t what she wanted. An encounter with a teacher helped her decide her next steps.

“I loved news and educating people about what’s happening around them,” Lauze said. “But I could not constantly move around, which is usually what happens when someone works in journalism.”

She continued, “My chemistry teacher, who I had worked with extensively, saw that I seemed lost and recommended that I try looking into public health.”

Lauze followed that advice and explored public health on the Internet.

She said, “I realized that was what I had always wanted to do. It was a perfect mix of science, education and helping people.”

Lauze applied to the accelerated Master’s of Public Health and began her studies in January 2012 at the University of New England.

In the meantime, she turned her pharmacy experience into a certification as a pharmacy technician and a job at Southern Maine Health Care. She does everything from aseptically mixing IV solutions to working in a small retail area to running medications to patients throughout the hospital.

That brings her to her internship were she can combine her journalism and pharmacy skills to help people in a time of crisis.

Lauze concluded, “In today’s quickly changing world, this is an important program that will help keep people safe in the event of disaster. I’m excited to be able to say I was a part of it.”