Learn By Doing

Stephanie Pons received her BA in International Studies from Middlebury College. After graduation, Pons spent three months setting up public health programs in Cape Town, South Africa at an orphanage and a kindergarten.

She had the opportunity to work directly with children, teaching them about different health topics such as tooth brushing and nutrition. This experience motivated Pons to get her MPH and conduct research. Everything came full circle for her this summer when she was given the opportunity to go back to South Africa with a strong sense of direction and passion for the research she was pursuing.

While in South Africa, Pons worked with the South African Medical Research Council, where she worked on two related projects: the Strengthening School HIV-related Health Services Implementation for Children and Adolescents in South Africa (SHICASA) project and the Promoting sexual and reproductive health among adolescents in southern and eastern Africa (PREPARE) project. Both projects examined school health services and focused on the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Working on these two projects was a unique opportunity that allowed me to gain experience in both the initial planning and designing of an intervention, as well as the subsequent data analysis that occurs once the intervention has been implemented and data has been collected,” Pons said.

Specifically, as part of the SHICASA project, Pons contributed to a systematic review focused on examining community involvement within school health services. This work will help inform the interventions used in the SHICASA project. Additionally, while in South Africa, Pons was also given access to the data collected through the PREPARE study, which was conducted between 2010 and 2014. Pons subsequently  analyzed this data for her MPH thesis, which focused on school violence.

Marie Sullivan learned her BA in Psychology at Georgetown University. She came to Brown University to pursue her interest in reproductive health in a global setting. Early on in the first year of her MPH she connected with Abigail Harrison, a Brown professor whose area of study corresponded with her interests. It was this connection that motivated her to travel to South Africa to perform her research.

Sullivan’s research focused on how empowerment—or lack of empowerment—aids or impedes women’s health status. More specifically, Sullivan looked at women’s control over their own health.  Working in a clinical setting, she conducted qualitative open-ended interviews with women waiting for reproductive health appointments. “Women’s empowerment has become a central focus in global development, with the specific topic of women’s reproductive health and decision-making an area of ongoing research and programming,” Sullivan said.

She was able to use this opportunity to immerse herself in the culture of South Africa and form meaningful relationships with other students. She worked closely with a local MPH student at the University of Cape Town who helped provide her with cultural context on many of the themes they were encountering in their work. “She would provide me with background on local issues and explain different language barriers, which allowed me to connect better with the participants in the study,” Sullivan said.

Janie O’Donnell graduated from Aquinas College in 2013 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. Originally O’Donnell thought she wanted to go into medicine but her interests shifted after conducting health research in the Dominican Republic during her junior year of college.  

O’Donnell found herself in a mobile medical clinic with one physician, one nurse, and fifty patients all in dire need of care. She saw how the lack of resources was impacting the health and wellbeing of this population and decided that getting an MPH was the best way to help tackle global health issues and conduct meaningful research.

O’Donnell worked closely with the staff at Sonke, a gender justice organization that works across Africa to promote gender equality, prevent domestic and sexual violence, and reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS. She worked in the Men’s Wellness Centre in Gugulethu where she observed the clinic and gained a comprehensive understanding of the services offered there and the barriers and facilitators men face in accessing these services. O’Donnell joined Sonke trainers as they performed community outreach and observed how they taught various groups about gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS, and gender equality. “We performed trainings in schools, prisons, and at various NGOs, such as SWEAT, an organization working exclusively with sex workers,” O’Donnell said. “My time in Cape Town was defined by the passion of the people I worked with at Sonke. They were so earnest in their attempts to diminish the impact HIV/AIDS is having in their community and to promote gender equality, even in the face of constant adversity. It was truly humbling to see the lived experiences of this group.”