It's the Little Things...

This past Tuesday marked midterm elections here in the U.S. I was a little depressed as I watched the results come in last night, particularly as I thought about where America stood just two years ago.Unfortunately, I wasn't able to vote. It's a long story - and I won't try to create excuses - but upon reflection, I feel ashamed that I didn't make the extra effort to ensure that I was a voice for the betterment of this nation. Sometimes, I think that people at HSPH (and any health/medical field that's not policy-focused) forget the importance remaining engaged in politics. The lies, deceit, and negativity can become overwhelming. But the truth is, changes in our political make-up will have huge implications for areas like healthcare, government spending, job creation, poverty...all of which are our problems. 

I think politics focuses on the big picture (which is, of course, incredibly important). But, a classmate and friend of mine reminded me that the little things, those random acts of kindness, make a really big difference, too. She gave a speech which I found to be so incredibly moving about how she went to Guatemala hoping to change the world. She returned to the U.S. one year later, feeling discouraged and defeated. A friend reminded her, however, that you can make a difference in the world, one little act of kindness at a time. Her speech was a powerful reminder of the importance of a commitment to service, which is a focus that HSPH really lacked last year.


In a similar class I'm taking, I've had the opportunity to reflect on my values, passions, and goals. I gave my own speech about how my grandfather and my mother have been inspirations to me in using higher education for the good of public service. The fact is that several of us were admitted to HSPH based on the platform of a commitment to service; it is our choice to uphold that.


The courses that my friend and I took -  Marshal Gantz's Public Narrative course and Timothy McCarthy's Art of Communications course - are not HSPH courses. In fact, we both felt that there was too little emphasis on practical skills such as communication at HSPH. But the beauty of our curriculum is that we're allowed to take courses at other Harvard schools, so we both chose two of the most popular courses at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

I can say without a doubt that the course I am taking is one of the best and most inspiring courses I have ever taken. Professor McCarthy doesn't just want us to give speeches and improve our ability to communicate; instead, he wants us to really search within ourselves for why we have the interests and passions that we do and use that understanding to convey and call others to action. Professor McCarthy is an absolutely amazing professor whose course has really changed my life! I know it sounds so cliche, but it's really true. His course has done a few things for me that I really needed at this point of my academic career:

1. This course reaffirmed my commitment to investigating cultural competency in global health policy. I'm much more confident in my future aspirations to pursue doctoral studies in this area (although I know that I need to do more research on what institution would be the best fit for me). 
2. This course reminded me why I became interested in public health and where my passions lie. In high school, I believed that I was going to try to make it big on Broadway! I really had a passion for musical theater and believed that someway, somehow, that would be my destiny. But in 2003, my mom had a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and conduct research in the southern African country of Namibia, so I ended up spending a year in international school. Among my experiences there included a one year volunteer term with the Roman Catholic AIDS Center, where I became moved by the AIDS orphans I worked with. The little bit that I was able to do in regards to creative expression and empowerment inspired me to pursue International Relations, which then translated into global health policy, which brings us to today. 

One thing I have really struggled with while at HSPH is having direction.  I came in with a very clear idea of my interests and future trajectory; I was interested in HIV/AIDS policy. But upon arriving, I realized that much attention has shifted from HIV/AIDS to chronic diseases, and much existing research at HSPH is biomedical or economic analysis (neither of which are my preferred approaches to the issue). I began pursuing other paths - Maternal and Child Health, Human Rights, Monitoring and Evaluation - and these have all provided interesting learning experiences. However, Professor McCarthy's course has really allowed me to realize that I am very interested in children in adverse settings - whether as a result of HIV/AIDS or conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. I feel much more confident in expressing my passions, even if several of my professors and the status quo try to tell me that my own interests are no longer relevant or as important. I'm much more mentally prepared now (as compared to this time last year) to be able to apply the lessons I've learned from other experiences to issues that are important to me! I guess that's what this process is all about.

Hasta lavista! 

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

-From African-American Poet Maya Angelou

The Beginning of the End...

Today marks the first day of the second week of the new Fall 2 term! In other words, only three more terms and exactly 206 days until graduation! Do I seem eager to get out of here? Well, in some ways I am. Not that this year plus hasn't been a great experience in many respects. I can say, for example, that I have successfully completed a grueling course in Calc 1, 2, 3 and Matrix Algebra (combined) in an 8-week period! (Pretty disgusting, right?). I can say that as co-president for the HSPH Africa Health Forum Student Organization ,  I helped coordinate a Senegalese Welcome Dinner that hosted more than 60 students, and I am currently planning a Dec. 1 World AIDS Day Event. I can say that despite all of my academic commitments, jobs, and extracurricular activities, somehow I've managed to get everything done. That's pretty exciting and empowering, too!

Pics from the HSPH Africa Health Forum (AHF) Welcome Dinner

See the girl in the black shirt, cheesy smile...that's me!

2 HSPH Alumni and 1 current AHF E-Board member

Look at all that yummy West African food!

HSPH students who live in Shattuck International House (where I also work) joined the festivities

Friends and classmates of all backgrounds came to meet, greet, and eat

Me (right) and three of my favorite HSPH classmates!

On the other hand, it's frustrating to take courses that I don't see the relevance of at this stage of my life. Demography, biostatistics, economics...and the list goes on. I know that the methodologies these courses teach are useful in calculating public health-related data, and I know that I'll probably see the use for these courses more once I enter into the real world. It's just that all these numbers make my head spin! Who would have thought that an MSc in Global Health and Population would be so quantitative?!

Do these courses really have any use? Well, let's do a subject profile: take demography - the study of human populations. Last January, I spent 3 1/2 weeks in Mumbai, India - one of the top 5 most densely populated cities in the world.

One of the first pics I took in India through the window of the little "tuk tuk," the tiniest version of a taxi I've ever seen!

A tour of the Shiva god cave-temples on Elephanta Island with some Harvard Business School students that I met in India

Me getting mehndi (henna) work, a traditional Indian art applied for special occasions

Fellow classmate and close friend (left) and I pose with Deepak Mazumdar and Jhelum Paranjape, two traditional Indian dancers who performed "Geet Govind" ("a symbolic representation of the love of Krishna and Radha - a metaphor of human yearning for divine union") at the National Center for Performing Arts

No matter where we went around the megacity, there were streams and streams of people, cars, and traffic of all sorts! Even in all my travels around Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, and southern Africa, I had never seen anything like it! 

Me inside Haji Ali's mosque, home of the tomb of Muslim saint Haji

Hundreds of people wait for the train...

Now, I didn't go to India just for vacation; I went for a Winter Session field study program on health in urban slums with Dr. Richard Cash, one of the inventors of Oral Rehydration Therapy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Cash). I worked closely with a small team of students to conduct a mini research project on hand washing and food preparation techniques among female adolescents in Cheeta Camp Slum Urban Health Center, with the goal of better understanding what factors contribute to positive habits that avert related illnesses in this community. 

Me, HSPH group, and Dr. Cash (left, back)

Group of young women taking vocational training classes at Cheeta Camp Urban Health Center pose with me and my research group members

More young women that we surveyed in vocational training classes

Students we surveyed at one school near Cheeta Camp Slum

While our research didn't lead to any ground-breaking discoveries, the experience did teach me a few lessons about interventions in public health:

#1) Cultural competency is incredibly important in creating effective health programs and policies.

• Anyone who knows me knows that this is my platform! If policies and programs don't demonstrate an understanding of the cultural contexts in which they are meant to be implemented, they will never have the impact on improving the situation in these communities. 

#2) Statistical methods such as what we learned in demography could actually help us to better understand disease patterns in a particular context.

• Towards the end of demography, I remember we talked briefly about methods whereby you can model what the pattern of disease would be among a population if one disease were to be eradicated. In situations where we have to set priorities (i.e., everywhere!!), this can help to identify which interventions may have the largest impact. 

#3) I definitely need to work in the field upon graduation if I want to make the most of the theory HSPH is teaching me.

• The downside to classes here at HSPH are that they largely focus on theory and research, research and theory, great information but little implementation. Courses are taught by some of the leading researchers in their respective fields, but unfortunately, that doesn't translate to providing me with a tangible skill set (outside of number crunching) that will allow me to make the difference I hope to make.

So, I say all of this to admit that my being ready to graduate because the information is useless is a little melodramatic. There is a lot of value to these methodological courses that I detest; I just wish I would have realized that I was required to take them before choosing this pathway. I think what I've also learned is that science and numbers don't tell the whole story. Yes, they can be effective tools in prioritizing and allocating resources, but if an intervention for HIV/AIDS isn't more cost-effective than for malaria, does that mean that we shouldn't put any resources into it? What about the millions of people who are infected or affected? Aren't they entitled to assistance, too?

An economist, demographer, or biostatistician might disagree with me, but I firmly believe that the answer is yes! Because behind every number - no matter how many or few - is a face and a name. That's part of the reason why I'm now working as a research assistant conducting qualitative research...a very exciting and rewarding project that I'll have to share more details on next time!

Ila al-liqaa! (until we meet again)

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

-From German Playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Welcome to Harvard!

Welcome to Harvard! That's exactly what I was thinking when I arrived in Boston last year. I graduated with a B.A. in International Relations the year before, and after extensive research on global HIV/AIDS policy, I felt that pursuing a Master degree in the field of public health was the next logical step. I looked at (and was admitted to) other top institutions and considered accepting a Fulbright Fellowship to go abroad for a year, but in the end, the opportunities and prestige associated with Hah-vahd won. And here I am today!

My first year of the 2 year Master of Science (SM2) in the Department of Global Health and Population was, in a nut shell, cRaZy!! Reflecting on that first year, I think I went through every emotion from happy to sad, ecstatic to distraught, sleep deprived to lazy...you name it, and I probably felt it! The courses were time-consuming and covered subjects I'd never even heard of: epidemiology (which I thought was the study of skin), demography (something to do with graphing?), and biostatistics (biology and statistics combined...ugh!!). There were several times when I'd be at school until 3 am and consider sleeping there to avoid missing my 8:30 am class. I even spent my Saturdays and sometimes Sundays in the computer lab with a cup of instant noodles and a can of sugar-free red bull nearby...Those are some days that I won't miss!

While my first year was academically challenging for me, I also found it to be very socially rewarding. I developed a handful of relationships with some of the most remarkable people I have ever encountered including world travelers, people who speak 4 languages, doctors who are also phenomenal musicians, and so many others! And the best part was that somehow I was a part of this group too! I had my first real long-term relationship, which sadly ended in heartbreak for me, but I guess it's all a sign that I'm growing up. Whether attending student mixers at the Business and Law Schools, coordinating the HSPH Africa Health Forum Student Organization cultural show, conducting research in the slums of India over the Winter Session, or just going to a lounge to have a drink and unwind, my first year at Harvard wasn't just hard, it was fun!

So with that, it's time to hit the books again. I'm entering Fall Term 2 (the second half of the semester), and it has already proven very eventful. Stay tuned for details about my coursework, jobs, extracurricular activities, and maybe a few juicy personal bits too! It will really get you thinking if you want to go to Harvard...

A Bientot! 

All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.
-From British Lt. Col. T.E. Lawrence