How Grenada Will Teach Me!
Marlene Zahran, HBHE Student
February 28, 2020, Grenada, Practice, Research
Once I added the Public Health 616 class 
to my schedule, I was very excited to know that I was going to Grenada island in the
Caribbean and engaging with a population I have not had a chance to work with before!
I am feeling very blessed to be able to go to such a beautiful place and work with
such a kind group of people. I am looking forward to working with the Ministry of
Education on such a professional level, to help create new data that will lead to
the creation of a public health program that will help decrease the use of drugs in
the youth population. I feel very honored to get the opportunity to conduct a project
like this and have such an influence on the world. I look forward to gaining qualitative
research skills such as collecting data from focus group interviews with both the
youth and couches/admin., qualitative analysis, and working one on one with such a
professional team. I look forward to identifying the current stressors affecting athletes/youth
that leads them to substance use and helping to create a new approach to mitigate
this among the Grenada community.
How Grenada will help me emotionally? Professionally?
Not only will the educational gain be important, yet the emotional gain will be important
for me
as well. Emotionally I hope to gain reassurance that this line of work is my passion,
to help me decide which route to take with my public health master’s degree. The weather
and the tropical breeze will also be a great perk, but the true meaning of this experience
is to be amongst a new nation of people and to learn from them an anthropological
lense. Currently I am not nervous to go, I am actually so excited that I have packed
my bag already! READY FOR THE WARM WEATHER! I have traveled to regions in the world
that are low to middle income regions and this trip only excites me for what I will
learn about the culture of Grenada. I have NEVER led a focus group, but I have led
a one on one interview and support groups. That being said, I am nervous about the
amount of information we will get from youth mainly because SUBSTANCE ABUSE IS SUCH
A SENSITIVE TOPIC. I expect to focus on the main project, but the fun can also come
along whenever we have time.
Through this experience I hope to push myself to lead a focus group on a professional level and to improve my facilitation skills. I have an expectation for this trip, it is the hope to gain guidance in the exact career path I hope to take in the future.
