An Exciting New Challenge!
Sophie Jarvis
I am Sophie Jarvis, a second-year MPH student studying Global Health Epidemiology! With the upcoming trip to Grenada, there are a lot of things running through my mind. I am so incredibly excited to learn about a new place and culture and get more experience with international public health work. I hope that I will be a help and not a hinderance to the people on the island and that I will be able to use the skills I’ve learned in school. With any international public health work, I am a little nervous about the perception of what I’m doing. I know when outside groups do work in other countries, the motivations may come into question. My hope is that people are willing to work with me and help me understand their perspective and that I can be as receptive as possible. I am also hoping the Ministry there gets as much from this experience as I do. I want to make a good impression on my behalf and on behalf of PHAST.
Since I spent last summer in Ghana, I was really able to experience living somewhere completely unfamiliar and working closely with the people in the Techiman community. I think that has definitely helped prepare me to not feel quite as nervous about this trip. I went into last summer with no expectations and some aspects of it were very difficult, but overall, I was grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow from the community. While there, I learned to be a better advocate for the needs of the study and myself and how to navigate a completely new area. I have never been very comfortable approaching new people or asking for help, but having to do it every day allowed me to gain confidence and be a little less stubborn about doing things on my own. The whole saying about “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable” has really been true in my experience and helped me be a better researcher and approach situations with more humility. I am very excited to continue learning and growing in Grenada! But I am also anticipating there will be unexpected things that come up that may be difficult, like differences in communication styles and cultural norms. I am very excited to spend time with my groupmates leading up to the trip and during it! It will be fun to work so closely with a group and to have people to bounce ideas off of and I am really glad we have time to prepare prior to the trip and create a solid plan for our time there. I know the trip will be super short, but I am really hoping we can accomplish something that will benefit the community there.
