Hi! My name is Clara and I’ve just finished the first year of my Master of Public Health in Maternal, Child, and Family Health at UNC. My summer practicum is a remote internship with the United States Peace Corps in the Office of Global Health and HIV. I am working with the Youth Health & Wellbeing Portfolio, for which I will produce two products over the course of the summer: 1) a literature review of best practices and recent developments in Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug (ATOD) prevention for adolescents, and 2) a guide for Peace Corps Volunteers to use when implementing ATOD prevention projects for youth at various Peace Corps posts around the world.
I have been interested in health education for a long time, and I am hoping that this summer will give me a better sense of direction as to whether I’d like to be working behind the scenes in health curriculum development, or directly delivering health education campaigns (or both!). This past year, I was a graduate assistant for Duke University’s Student Wellness Center, where I worked with a team to create sexual health education campaigns on campus. We also had the chance to provide some health education presentations at a local high school, the administrator of which told us that the time in school lost due to COVID had created a noticeable difference in the social development of young teenagers; we were asked to consider this as we delivered the content differently according to grade levels. I want to keep such effects of the pandemic under consideration as I work in youth health education this summer.
Some of the perks of this practicum are the conversations that I get to have with my coworkers about their work at Peace Corps. I sit in on the weekly meetings of my office so I can learn more about what my coworkers are doing. My preceptor also hopes to connect me with current volunteers in the field so that I can get a better perspective on the materials that I’m creating for them. I will admit, however, that Aristotle’s old adage, “The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know,” is proving true when attempting to understand the structure of the behemoth organization that is Peace Corps.
One of the challenges I have had to confront in previous health education work was how to educate people about the consequences of certain health behaviors without further stigmatizing those who have already engaged in those behaviors. I look forward to continuing to navigate this challenge as I delve further into health education this summer.