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| View of the Wisconsin State Capitol from State Street, Madison WI |
I am from Madison, WI and I have lived here my entire life. I
am very close to my family, my parents and younger brother live in Madison as
well. My brother is now a student at UW Madison studying engineering. My mom is
a teacher and my dad works in sales. I
have been working in Madison as a lifeguard and swim instructor for over seven
years now and recently I began working in retail and non-profit work. I have an
amazing base of friends and family here that I will be sad to leave.
I just graduated from UW Madison in May 2012 with a
Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a certificate in Global Health. I am very
interested in and passionate about global health. I have always felt that my
calling is to work somewhere in a helping profession, and I began college on
the pre-med track. Along the way I was bothered by the feeling that western
medicine often focuses on treating peoples’ symptoms, rather than getting at the
causes of illness. Moreover, there are population-wide diseases that are all
being treated at an individual level, i.e. high blood pressure, obesity,
diabetes, etc. That’s when I discovered the Global Health certificate at UW
Madison and began learning about public health, environmental health, ecology,
and community health. I am not sure what I will eventually pursue as a career,
but I know that it will be somewhere in the field of Global Health or Community
Development.
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| Me with my Nepali host sister, Ratika, and my Nepali student counter-part, Jyoti in Shikharpa, Nepal |
With the certificate in Global Health, I was also required to
complete a field experience which landed me in Nepal
for the summer of 2011. I looked at gender disparity in urban and rural
settings and I explored solutions that may help Nepal meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goal for Gender Disparity. I
worked with an International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) called Sarvodaya USA. I participated in a community project
called a Shramadana (meaning the gift of labor) and
helped build an addition onto the school in the host community I stayed in.
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| Sarvodaya USA Staff Team: Shisir Khanal,Shafia Powell, and me |
Sarvodaya USA is an amazing organization that focuses on
empowering local communities to create the changes they want to see in their
own communities. Sarvodaya USA provides the tools and technical skills
needed to help these communities reach their goals. It is a partner
organization of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement,
the largest NGO in Sri Lanka. When I returned
from Nepal, I began working for Sarvodaya USA as a volunteer, an intern, and a staff member. My time working with Sarvodaya USA has shaped how I
view the place of international aid work in society. Often times foreign aid
can make things worse, but if it’s done in a sustainable way that aligns
with the goals and desires for the community, it can be positive.
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| Community building at Tenney Beach through the creation of giant sand turtles, Madison, WI |
Along with learning about community health in school, my work
experience nurtured my passion for community involvement and community development.
Sarvodaya USA was one organization that fostered this passion and another was
working as a Resident Assistant at UW Madison for two years. The job that had the greatest impact on me though, was
working as a lifeguard for the City of Madison.
Madison has four lakes and 10 staffed public beaches. I worked at a variety of
those beaches and I was always inspired by how many connections were made at each
neighborhood beach. Neighbors that didn't know anything about each other would
get a chance to talk while kids that lived on the same street had a safe and fun
place to play together. The beaches are free and everyone has equal access to them. At some of
the beaches, neighborhoods come together in the spring to prepare the
beach for the summer by planting flowers, clearing trash, pulling weeds, and
painting signs. The beaches provide a shared interest and a gathering point for
the community, as well as a safe environment for kids to explore, learn, and play.
This is where the Peace Corps came in. I was looking for
jobs or programs that would give me opportunities for experience in public health. I knew I wanted experience in public
health, I wanted to continue work at the community level, and I really wanted
to go abroad again after my amazing experience in Nepal. Peace Corps seemed
like the perfect fit. After a year-long application
process I received my invitation and will be heading to Nicaragua to
serve as a Health Promoter in March 2013.
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