Rosalind Fennell, an MPH alumna from the Global Health Program Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation program, did her practicum in 2016 for Forcier Consulting. The firm provides data, research and information for challenging environments in Africa. Fennell spent a month in Juba, South Sudan and worked predominantly on the issue of gender-based violence. She chose an international practicum because she loves to travel and knew this would be an important experience for her career going forward.
“My work was focused on supporting the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls in Conflict and Humanitarian Crises project," she said. "This project is led by the International Rescue Committee and is a component of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls Programme, a flagship program from the UK Department for International Development.”
Her tasks included: logistical support, data collection, field interviews, training assistance, budget management and workshop facilitation on conducting field research on GBV. Fennell reflected that the transition from an academic to professional setting wasn’t a huge deal because she already worked part time for Milken Institute SPH's Health Policy and Management Department. And while she wasn't too familiar with the context of the work before her practicum, she said the experience helped introduce her to many of the common terms and concepts around the issue.
During her time in Juba, Fennell learned many valuable lessons such as how to be flexible and adaptable and how to deal with many personalities in difficult circumstances. She says the practicum helped her become “more exposed to gender-based violence as a public health issue, (and) as a humanitarian issue.”
Forcier definitely gave her a lot of work to handle, but Fennell was thankful for the professional support she received. Her advice to future students doing a practicum is to be open to trying new things as well as making connections while abroad and understanding that you can very well wind up doing work beyond your job description. She says her time in Juba was, “challenging, but an important experience to have.”