Notes from the Field
Tour the World• Ghana • Mexico • Chile • Ukraine • Kenya • India • Thailand |
SPH Students Report on their Summer Field Experiences
Every summer, School of Public Health students take skills learned in the classroom and bring them to real-world settings. They embark on summer field experiences and make important contributions to communities around the globe.
Packing a thirst for adventure and a strong commitment to improving public health, more than a dozen SPH students took on projects abroad this summer. They left the comforts of home and dove into different cultures to focus on making the world a better place.
From rural hospitals in Africa, urban clinics in Ukraine, classrooms in Thailand, and labs in Chile, many students are taking time to keep in touch. Through e-mails and blogs on the SPH Web site, they are sharing stories about global strife and the state of public health in the developing world. While taking steps to advance the health of communities worldwide, these students are also experiencing personal growth and professional development.
Here's proof, summarized from the latest news from the field, starting on the west coast of Mexico and ending in the Far East. Browse the links at right and take a tour around the world.
Ghana
Jennifer Pierquet and Elizabeth Scherman, are in the eastern region of Ghana tackling separate projects in different cities.
Pierquet, a public health administration and policy student, is in Dodowa doing surveillance for malnutrition in children and providing cholera prevention education in schools.
Scherman, an environmental health sciences major, is working with the District Health Management Team in Asamankese, devoting her time to community health education and food safety programs. She is surveying food vendors, asking questions about handling procedures and hygienic practices.
"I hope to be able to make some feasible recommendations on how to improve food safety in the area," she says. Scherman is also recruiting and training junior- and senior-high school kids in the area to become youth educators on the issues of sexual health and pregnancy prevention.
"I am lucky to be in Ghana at this time because programs of this nature are becoming more widely accepted," she says. "I’m hoping the teachers and administrators will be able to continue with the program after I leave."
Mexico
"Public health is global. We not only need to take responsibility for ourselves, we need to take responsibility for each other," says Dominique Lopez-Stickney.
She's doing just that on the southwest coast of Mexico in the city of Oaxaca. The public health nutrition major is working at Casa Hogar para Ancianos "Los Tamayo," a home for the elderly. The facility offers physical, mental, and social services to senior citizens who do not have family to care for them or resources to support themselves.
Lopez-Stickney is providing dietary guidance to residents and creating personalized menus for those with diseases or health conditions. She thinks her summer abroad is a pivotal part of her career path as a health professional.
"It will give me a better under-standing of the Mexican culture and language," says Lopez-Stickney. "Hopefully, my field experience will result in a greater cultural competency that will facilitate better community programs at home."
Chile
Lauren Neils and Marie Quasius are in the southern part of Chile dividing their time between two cities. In the lab and out in the field, they are tackling public health issues related to water and food safety.
Neils' primary project is in Concepción, where she is doing molecular research on virulence genes in E. coli isolated from water samples. The environmental health sciences student is learning how to do scientific studies without elaborate high-tech equipment and other lab luxuries available in the United States.
"I am realizing how critical it is to be able to think on your feet and try unique methods. This lesson will be valuable no matter what avenues of public health I pursue," she says.
Neils is also absorbing a new language and acclimating to an unfamiliar place.
"Never could I have anticipated how seemingly easy tasks would be so complicated. But each and every day leaves me with a sense of gratification unlike other past experiences."
Quasius is also researching water quality. In addition, the joint degree student in public health and law is spending time in Valdivia, studying how economic development has affected the health of the Mapuche, an indigenous population in Chile and Argentina. Earlier this summer, both students participated in rotations facilitated by the Chilean Ministry of Health. They visited a rural public health clinic, slaugh-terhouse, cheese factory, and wastewater treatment plants.
"I've enhanced my understanding of the interconnectedness between the environment, human health, veterinary medicine, and government," Quasius says. "My field experience has contributed to my understanding of public health in the real world."
Switzerland
Katherine Harrison, Sarah O'Brien, and Jose Suarez-Lopez are in Geneva, Switzerland working for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Harrison is an intern in the Department of Making Pregnancy Safer. The epidemiology major is compiling data from 75 countries, looking at dozens of health indicators such as still-birth rate, maternal mortality, and HIV prevalence. The data will be used to help WHO staffers make more informed decisions about the allocation of maternal and child health resources when working with health ministries and NGOs in developing nations.
"I'm learning how the international health community operates," she says. "I'm also finding out how long it takes to see the results of the efforts being made, and why work done by the WHO is taken so seriously."
O'Brien, also an intern in the Department of Making Pregnancy Safer, is working on projects related to HIV and malaria in pregnancy. Her efforts, in part, focus on reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission during gestation, delivery, and breast feeding. O'Brien is also honing her research skills, assisting with the development of technical documents like summary reports, advocacy statements, and fact sheets. The experience is helping the second-year epidemiology student explore her career options and expand her social network.
"Both the WHO and Geneva itself are full of people from all over the world," she says. "My time here has helped me to know better what I want to do in public health."
Suarez-Lopez wants to improve the health of women and children in disadvantaged populations of Latin America. As an intern at the WHO’s departments of Family and Community Health, and Reproductive Health and Research, he’s gaining skills needed to reach his goal.
"I’m getting a better understanding of the work dynamics within the WHO," says the epidemiology Ph.D. candidate. "In order to build successful collaborations between developing countries and international funding institutions, like the WHO, this view-point is critical."
Currently, Suarez-Lopez is assisting the WHO area manager for the Americas in analyzing the status of reproductive and health services in 15 Latin American countries.
Ukraine
Community health education major Ingrid Johansen traveled to Ukraine, a country in transition following the fall of the Soviet Union, and a country in crisis facing the most severe AIDS epidemic in Europe. She spent time in Odessa, one of the cities hit hardest by the outbreak, interning for the South Ukrainian Pedagogical University. With guidance from a faculty member with expertise in HIV/AIDS research, Johansen visited several facilities, including a rehabilitation center for injection-drug users and an STI clinic. She interviewed patients and providers, asking questions about the services available to those who have the virus, prevention efforts, and perceptions about the disease.
"I was given a chance to talk to people who typically would have been out of reach," Johansen says. "I learned so much from everyone. I am stronger after this experience, less afraid to ask difficult questions and more aware of the complicated relationship between health and government."
Kenya
On the dusty savannahs and dry grasslands of Eastern Africa, D.V.M./M.P.H. students Alina Evans and Mindy Rostal are conducting research on zoonotic diseases. They are spending the bulk of their time in Garissa, Kenya, investigating Rift Valley fever (RVF), a mosquito-borne viral disease that affects livestock, wildlife, and humans.
Outbreaks of RVF are most common during years of heavy rainfall. Amid a drought, Evans and Rostal are working on a pilot study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, collecting clinical data from febrile patients and blood samples from sheep. They are trying to determine if RVF is circulating in livestock or human populations between epidemics. The experience is leaving a lasting impression on Rostal.
"The hospital where we work has about two thermometers and a stethoscope," she says. "They lack the basics. Seeing the standard of care in Kenya is confirming my dedication to working in global public health."
Before the RVF project began, the duo traveled to Mwea, where they donned protective suits and worked with wildlife veterinarians in the field doing surveillance for bird flu among wild water fowl.
"Seeing elands and sheep in the pastures and small children playing among the chickens and goats is illustrating how closely connected the health of humans, livestock, and wildlife is, especially in developing countries," says Evans.
India
Laura Miller is combining her affinity for yoga with her passion for public health.
The community health education major is working at Kasturba Medical College Hospital in Mangalore, India. She is assisting with research projects that investigate the health benefits of yoga on people with diabetes.
Miller is enrolling diabetic patients into several studies and assessing outcomes of the interventions. Three times a day, five days per week, she also teaches yoga to the study participants and other members of the community. Most of her students are senior citizens.
"Through this experience, I’ve realized how important it is to focus public health efforts on the elderly, not only on youth and individuals in their prime," she says. Even without results from the studies, Miller has already witnessed the effects of her work: "A little bit of movement and a big smile really can be effective public health measures."
Thailand
Students from Wat Chakmakrood, a school in Kram, Thailand, pose for a photo after they cleaned up a local beach. Ishizaki organized the effort after teaching the kids about the environmental health problems caused by littering.Allison Ishizaki is becoming familiar with the public health system in Thailand and getting hands-on experience in community health education, her field of study.
She is volunteering at a public health center in the Rayong province, designing health promotion and disease prevention pro-grams. Ishizaki is also working at Wat Chakmakrood, an elementary school, developing lesson plans about public health topics like nutrition and environmental health.
She’s a pioneer of sorts in her small community.
"The school here didn’t have any health education classes, so a great need existed," she says.
Ishizaki is not only providing a service, she’s gaining knowledge.
"Any time a person travels to a new place, they not only learn a lot about the culture, they learn a lot about themselves," she says. "I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. That awareness alone will better prepare me for the numerous situations I will encounter as a public health practitioner."