Hi everyone! My name is Kelsey Williams, and I am thrilled to have been awarded a grant by the Newcomb College Institute to participate in a summer internship and research experience in Nairobi, Kenya with Ngong Road Children’s Association (NRCA). I am a rising senior public health major, and the internship relates perfectly to my post-graduation plans to pursue graduate education and work in sexual and reproductive health epidemiology.
NRCA is an organization that supports young people in Nairobi whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. It financially supports them to attend school and ensures that they have enough food and access to medical care, among other things. Like most places around the world, teen pregnancy has been an issue for some of these adolescents, which results in expulsion from school and much narrower opportunities in adulthood. In December of last year, Dr. Patricia Kissinger at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine began working with NRCA to develop a sex education program. This summer, I will have several tasks related to the original program. I will work to improve to program and ensure its sustainability, aid Dr. Kissinger in evaluation research on the program, and investigate the landscape of sexual and reproductive health resources in Nairobi. By the end of the summer, I hope to be able to connect students in NRCA to better reproductive health resources, particularly contraception. I am also excited to improve many components of my research skills, including conducting interviews and evaluating qualitative data and also learning how to manage and analyze survey data.
I have been working with Dr. Kissinger and another graduate student, Kate Murphy, on this project since January, and over the past few weeks have been preparing the details of my summer schedule and sorting out my travel logistics. Last week I met with Dr. Sally Kenney (pictured above), the executive director of the NCI who is also involved with NRCA’s work, to learn more about the existing reproductive health resources in Nairobi and being making connections with those organizations. I have also been communicating with the NRCA program director, Maureen Mulievi, to set up my stay with a host family. Though not a formal part of my internship, I am grateful that I will have an opportunity to connect with a Kenyan family and learn more about their culture while improving my Swahili language skills.
I am so excited that the NCI chose to support my project this summer because it is a great embodiment of their mission of educating undergraduate women for leadership in the 21st century. I know both the young people at NRCA and I will benefit greatly from this work, and I am so looking forward to starting!