Second from left: UNMC master of public health students T.J. Ihkena, Abbey Munyon, Andrea Haugen and Kathryn Istas gather with some of the Indian women who participated in a research survey the students conducted during their service learning capstone project in India.

What was the goal of the trip?

The goal of the trip is to establish a UNMC College of Public Health capstone service learning site at the Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH). The students were selected to engage in research with AIPH faculty in the rural Eastern state of Orissa. Each student worked closely with AIPH and UNMC faculty to plan a research proposal to fit the needs of AIPH; conduct research through data collection while in Bubaneswar, Orissa; and analyze and report the findings.

How did this experience shape your future work as a public health professional?

Prior to this experience, social justice motivated me to work in public health. While this is still the case, I feel much more confident in my ability to work with communities to make meaningful and sustainable changes that will benefit health outcomes.

During our project, we also discovered that a survey tool we used didn’t fairly assess knowledge and attitudes so we adapted the survey for the remainder of the study. It was an important experience to see that things don’t always go as planned.