Presenter: Sharvari Puri, Bioengineering, Global Public Health Scholars
For my practicum project, I am working as an outreach intern and teaching fellow for the nonprofit organization, Girls Health Ed. This organization provides girls from ages 8-17 in elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States and in Kenya with accurate and comprehensive health education through workshops. These workshops cover a range of topics, including nutrition and body image, physical activity, personal care, and reproductive health, which have the purpose of empowering young girls so that they can make better informed decisions about their futures. As an outreach intern, I have found and reached out to more than 100 low-income schools and centers in Atlanta, GA, Newark, OH, Arlington, VA, Los Angeles, CA, New Orleans, LA, Washington D.C., and New York, NY, in order to find facilities that would be willing to host our workshops. In addition to being an outreach intern, I have also undergone training to become a teaching fellow, which enables me to lead these workshops in Washington D.C. schools.
I was amazed to hear about such a great organization. Empowerment of girls is one of the Sustainable Development Goals that I believe is important to achieve and I'm glad that you were able to contribute to this goal through your practicum project. Knowing that you are making progress is a major factor in making change through interventions, so is there a way you will measure the effectiveness of the workshops when you begin teaching?
This is such a powerful organization and seems like it is making such a difference in young girls’ access to health education. How did this organization get started in the first place, and how is it funded?
Sounds like a great organization doing important work. I wish we were in person to ask all my questions, Sharvari. I’m glad to hear in your presentation that you received training to teach. What is the training process for instructors? Also, how did you learn about the organization?
This is such an interesting topic and one that deserves a lot more attention. How did you get involved in the first place? What was the most surprising thing you learned in this experience?