Category: 2021 Summer Blogs

Bittersweet endings, new beginnings

Posted on by nayavill

I cannot fathom how it is already almost August 2021. Nearly a year ago to the day, I moved to Chapel Hill, and somehow, I’m already wrapping up two months of work with the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) and preparing for year two at Gillings.

It has been a wonderful, albeit very fast, two months of learning about alcohol harm and significant gaps in research regarding various issues in alcohol (I think this is a result of the industry’s influence and attempt to keep negative press away from their products). When I last wrote, I had just completed a briefing and was transitioning into work on a rapid review of calorie labelling for a parliamentary consultation— my work was going to potentially be shared with parliamentary members (how cool!) and I was going to have the opportunity to listen in on some of the discussions to gain a better understanding of how NGO’s initiate the policy-making process through the power of persuasion (backed, of course, with plenty of good old-fashioned evidence-based research). But things have taken a shift, and now I will be producing an interim report that will help IAS’ head of policy and the UK’s Alcohol Health Alliance to prepare for the consultation later in the year. Still pretty cool, and something I’ve worked hard on and will be proud of, but not as fast-paced, exciting, and in-the-moment as I was hoping to end my practicum.

Of course, I began my practicum very interested in alcohol issues, but as the summer has progressed, I’ve realized how very little I know about the world of alcohol and the alcohol industry. I’ve experienced a lot of anger and wonder (an interesting combination) about the relative dearth of research regarding the subjects I’ve been collating information on—but I’ve also experienced hope for a future that offers more transparency and publicly available information so people can make the healthiest decisions for themselves. Regardless of what my post-grad career may be (I can definitely see myself continuing work with an alcohol research organization, but I’m passionate about a number of subjects), I look forward to seeing research expand and alcohol knowledge and policies improve.

Beyond what I’ve learned in my literature reviews, I’ve learned a lot about myself. For the past year, I’ve been saying that I would love to work remotely from the comfort of my home for the flexibility, the lack of a commute, etc., but working remotely has proven to be an immense challenge in the second half of this experience. It is hard for me to find motivation from the place where I also relax and sleep, and it’s hard to find productivity without the buzzing energy of colleagues focusing alongside me. I have at times felt pretty disconnected from the larger picture, but at Tuesday meetings I am reminded of the impact IAS has in the sphere of alcohol policy and research and how my practicum products are meant to feed into that puzzle. While I usually pride myself on my writing skills, I have been fighting away feelings of self-doubt in the past few weeks. I need balance. I need people. I’ve loved the detailed learning that this position has given me, but I think I’m better suited for a community-facing role. This has been invaluable insight for someone who considers herself an introvert and a homebody, who finds herself content in a variety of situations.

All that being said, I am proud of the work I have done and I’m still confident that my report will turn out well. I’m incredibly grateful for this two-month peek into policy research and advocacy, and for the connections I’ve made with such wonderful people halfway across the world.

This past weekend, I escaped to Asheville to enjoy the summer for a brief moment as it was meant to be enjoyed; roadtrips full of music (a given), a day hike and swim, ice cream, good meals with loved ones—refreshing the mind to end my practicum strongly and start the new semester just as bright-eyed as when we began a full year ago.

Here’s to the incredible work we’ve all completed this summer and to a rewarding upcoming year full of learning and human connection.

– Keely

Maybe it’s nearing the end or maybe it’s just the beginning

Posted on by nayavill

When I started this practicum in the middle of May, I had originally planned for this coming week to be my last week. I recently decided, along with my team, to extend the end date since the really interesting part is just beginning. Although the past couple of weeks have been filled with data cleaning, I am finally ready to begin the analyses we proposed as the basis of my practicum. We are using data from a household survey and combining it with data from health facilities across Zambia in order to gain a more holistic understanding of the services, equipment, and patient satisfaction with the country’s health care system. To our knowledge, this comprehensive picture of health facilities and services has not been examined before; prior research has focused on either just the health facility capacity/readiness or just the consumer experience.

Although I will likely have more final thoughts in the coming weeks, I am grateful to have been a part of this project and team. At the start of the practicum, I learned about antenatal care/nutrition recommendations and health facility quality measures, as well as gained a better understanding of the amount of work and careful organization required to select the variables of interest. These variables are the basis for our exploratory analyses and due to the nature of real-life data, have provided me with an opportunity to learn about and practice more advanced statistical methods. Our ultimate goal is to run a series of statistical models to better understand client satisfaction with antenatal care as well as growth, monitoring and promotion services. We will then publish a paper to share our findings.

Perhaps the greatest lesson I’ve learned from this practicum is the value of “thinking outside the box.” Doing so has helped my preceptor, Dr. Stephanie Martin, and I, organize our thoughts about which variables to use and how to carry out the analyses, it helped us overcome some issues with a messy dataset and methodological concerns (e.g. missing values, yes/no questions, issues merging datasets, lots of interesting variables to explore, etc.), and it prompted our research questions. Although I am nearing the end of my practicum, I also feel as though it is just the beginning. I look forward to digging further into the data to see what sorts of discoveries can be made, and using those to circle back to the big picture of reducing childhood stunting and understanding health care satisfaction and quality in Zambia. I hope our findings will not only be informative and worthwhile to the Zambian government and USAID, but will help others conducting similar research.

– Liana

Wrapping Things Up and Reflecting

Posted on by nayavill

My summer practicum flew by and as we’re all getting ready for in person classes soon, I find myself reflecting on my practicum work. I’m working with the North Carolina Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA) on creating a toolkit on preventing and detecting human trafficking on college and university campuses. While I still have a long way to go in finalizing my writing, converting it to a final toolkit, and presenting to key stakeholders, I feel like I have learned a lot in the anti-human trafficking sector. Working with NCCASA has strengthened my passion for the type of work I want to pursue. It is enraging to see on the news and in personal connections the pervasiveness of sexual violence. Before beginning my practicum, my anger was my motivation to work in the reproductive and sexual health justice field. After meeting with anti-human trafficking specialists, program implementation managers, and my preceptor weekly, I’m inspired by the type of work they do in such a compassionate manner. It is eye opening to experience working with individuals that care so deeply about the communities they work with and the anti-sexual violence movement. I feel hopeful when I see all that NCCASA does, and after reflecting, I realize that hope has been my motivation the last month or so – admittingly, a feeling I haven’t felt in a long time.

I’ve learned a lot about human trafficking in North Carolina and on how to engage universities in creating prevention and response strategies. I was able to assess survivor and student needs and propose strategies and programs for key stakeholders to adopt or adapt for their campus communities. My preceptor and I also highlighted the importance of working with communities who are disproportionately affected.

I only have two more weeks of my practicum left and I still feel like there is a lot to do in a short amount of time. While I work to ensure my deliverables are complete in a comprehensive way, I’ve been taking advantage of working online and have been able to travel safely. I visited my friend in New York City for a couple of weeks and we then took some time to wind down and work from home in upstate New York on a beautiful farm. While I miss working in person, I’m glad that I was able to travel around and visit good friends this summer.

Drinking our morning coffee on the porch at the farm.
Overlooking Manhattan from Williamsburg!

Reading through my peers’ blogs, I feel proud and impressed! I am excited to get back into the groove in person this time and hear about everyone’s experiences this summer. Here’s to meeting everyone face to face soon!

-Hadas