Kristin Unzicker (Rollins School of Public Health)
The Rollins School of Public Health supports approximately 50-75 master’s level students each year with Global Field Experience Funding. The purpose of the Global Field Experiences is to provide students with opportunities to apply and enhance what they have learned in the classroom to real world settings around the globe. The program started with the funding of thirteen students in 1998. Ten years later, it has expanded to about 75 students. Three endowments primarily support the continuation of the program including, the Eugene J. Gangarosa Scholarship Fund, the Anne E. and William A. Foege Global Health Fund, and the O.C. Hubert Fellowships in International Health. Students also assist with additional fundraising by publishing a GFE calendar each year, among other efforts. The calendar depicts the student experiences abroad and helps to educate the larger RSPH community about their efforts.
The process for receiving support requires that students submit an in-depth proposal to the GFE committee (made up of faculty, staff and other key stakeholders). Any student from any department in the school is eligible to apply. Proposals must show there is a significant learning experience to be gained by the student, collaboration from a community counterpart, sound research design (including IRB approval), and an important contribution to the field of public health. Priority for funding is given to those who are using this for a practicum or thesis experience. While any student may pursue a global field experience, Global Field Experience Funding requires this specific proposal process. In other words, there is dileniation between doing a global field experience and applying to receive Global Field Experience Funding.
Students have completed GFE’s in over 75 countries around the world, although most students study in East Asia and Africa. In past years, students have carried out a wide variety of projects on topics ranging from HIV voluntary counseling and testing, food consumption patterns, the spread of avian flu, and health savings account use. They have done so in collaboration with highly respected agencies and organizations such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CARE, UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Population Council, and the World Health Organization. The scope and impact of the research projects is limited only by the creativity and enthusiasm of RSPH students as they work to develop international opportunities.
Once students return from their field experience overseas, they are asked to present their experiences and findings at Brown Bag Seminars throughout the year. This is also a mechanism for incoming students to learn about GFE sites and projects. Students, staff and faculty learn about these experiences and can better understand the challenges and opportunities that global research provides. There is a strong GFE web presence, where prospective, incoming and continuing students can access information about the program and search specific student experiences by year, country and student name. For more information, please visit www.sph.emory.edu/GFE.
Students recently returning from 2008 Global Field Experiences share their feedback on this unique opportunity:
 Laura Ellis, MPH candidate in the Department of Global Health, spent 3 months in South Africa working with African Religious Health Assets Programme (ARHAP) with a research team that held workshops with young people and with religious leaders, NGO workers, nurses, educators and other community leaders to understand how religion contributes to the sexual health or well-being of young people in these two South African cities. “This experience enhanced my MPH program by giving me the opportunity to see qualitative research methods in action. I learned about the complexities of research design and recruitment and am grateful for the diligent and talented team members who let me share in this important work. I look forward to the data analysis, which will hopefully lead to the implementation of more effective HIV prevention programs.”
Brittany Eddy, a Global Epidemiology MPH student, worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Leogane, Haiti, overseeing a retrospective clinical research study with a cohort of patients who suffer from lymphedema secondary to lymphatic filariasis (LF), a mosquito-borne parasitic infection. She describes this experience by stating, “My summer experience was absolutely incredible. I was able to apply the knowledge I have learned in the classroom to a real world setting and was able to get the type of experience that cannot be taught in a classroom. I gained experience working in a developing country and also learned about all aspects of a conducting a study—from questionnaire and database development to patient recruitment to the details of running an effective study and finally analyzing a dataset with real world applications. Not only did this experience enhance my own education, but it will provide insight for the future treatment of individuals suffering from lymphatic filariasis.”
 Carolyn Vance, a Health Policy and Management MPH candidate shares her summer experience in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with Instituto Promundo, whose mission is to reduce gender disparities and prevent violence toward women and children through work with men and boys. “I am very interested in reproductive justice, and it was a huge learning experience for me understanding how men and boys can be, and should be, engaged in this movement. As part of this work I was taken into different favelas (low-income or "ghetto" communities) to conduct workshops on gender and sexuality with youth. Part of the work of engaging youth living in favelas dealt with reducing discrimination against them from the middle and upper classes. This reinforced the notion that the best major public health advances also serve to equalize socioeconomic status, and that health and wealth cannot be separated. Living and working within the Emory community, it is often easy to become comfortable with the luxuries we are afforded and think of our target populations as very far removed from ourselves. Being able to work with the community members we are trying to serve was not only rewarding, it reminded me of why we all came to Rollins, and how we might help others find luxuries we have come to enjoy by creating social change.”
Lizz Mueller, a student in the department of Global Health, states, “My research experience was great! I learned a lot and it helped me figure out what I want to do in the world of international NGOs.” She spent the summer working in Kigali, Rwanda with the Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group (RZHRG) with Project San Francisco (PSF). She conducted a research project to determine ways to improve data collection and reporting methods for couples voluntary counseling and testing (CVCT) services at health centers in Kigali.
Paul Schramm, 2nd year Environmental and Occupational Health Student, spent the summer at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Kibbutz Ketura, Israel mapping waste disposal patterns in two recognized Bedouin communities. He further explains, “I administered surveys and collected GPS data points in two Bedouin villages. I hope that my research will highlight the environmental hazards posed by lack of infrastructure and education in Bedouin villages. This experience has allowed me to analyze a problem based on knowledge from coursework here at Rollins. I am using mapping strategies I learned in a Geographic Information Systems class, as well as extensive use of analysis techniques from two semesters of biostatistics and an epidemiology course. Overall, this opportunity to conduct environmental research abroad fit perfectly with my goals as a student in the global environmental health program. The costs of researching in a developed country such as Israel are quite high. Without GFE funds, the research may not have been possible.” He also shares an example of the students’ emphasis to connect with their communities by sharing one of his favorite moments of sleeping on the roof with a Bedouin family in Tel Sheva. “I stayed with the Abu Srehan family for about a week while administering surveys. At night, the inside of their house would still be sweltering hot after baking in the desert sun all day. To avoid the heat, we would put mats up on the roof and sleep outside in one long row - husband, wife, six children, and myself all lined up. It was comforting to feel like part of the family.”
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