Jessica Brown, GHA Intern, 2008-2009

In a first-person article for the Spring 2009 GHA Newsletter:

Last summer, as I walked through the foyer of Global Health Action toward my interview, the dappled colors from flags of different nations floating in my peripheral vision, I knew already this internship was more in line with the career I wanted to pursue. After four years of undergrad work spent steadying miniscule-sized scissors under a high powered microscope to snip the sheaths off of neural cells, I was more than ready to start focusing on the bigger picture.

I was interviewing for a position with GHA's China Program. After visiting China and choosing it as a country of focus for most of my first year studying public health at Rollins, I felt ready to answer any question. Little did I know that part of my interview would be conducted in Chinese! After stumbling through that with my beginners-level speaking ability, I was told to take a look at the files on the computer to get an idea of what goes on here at Global Health Action.

What I found was everything! From networking to project design and proposal writing, from translation to monitoring and evaluating, from fundraising to program implementation to community presentations, Global Health Action is involved every step of the way with projects as different as goat farming, adolescent self-confidence, and clay cooking stoves helping in the battle against HIV! For me, the most exciting part was seeing how much the interns got to do. Just sorting through the files, I could feel the excitement of all the young people like me who had interned at GHA in the past, pouring their passion for public health and innovative thinking into their work.

The numerous, full, and scattered files were perfectly analogous to my thoughts at that moment. I was particularly happy that I would be given real responsibilities as an intern, but what would my niche be? Which skills would I develop the most? Which topics would I have a chance to work on? How could I be the most helpful?

As it turns out, nine months later, I still can't narrow my experience at GHA down to a specific niche. I've done needs assessments, developed proposals, searched for funding, prepared presentations and curriculum, designed and implemented an evaluation plan, and improved my language skills. I've also worked with a great group of co-workers, who I've come to consider friends. There is no single experience that has added as many broadly applicable bullet points to my resume as my work at GHA.

So, even though when my family and friends ask what I do at work, it often results in a long "ummm," the truth is that at Global Health Action, we are doing public health: the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals (Winslow, 1920). And, when I say "we," I even mean - and especially mean - me.