Kayla spent her summer in Moyobamba, Peru working with Conservation International (CI). Kayla supported several interdisciplinary projects that are supporting farmers to undertake integrated approaches to economic growth and conservation in the Alto Mayo Protected Forest. Through participatory research, she helped to organize and facilitate farmer convenings as part of the Future Scenarios for Alto Mayo: Planning and Action for Sustainable Communities and Ecosystem workshop. Kayla than worked on the analysis and reporting of the insights from the workshops that explore the uncertain future of coffee farming in the region.

Fiona spent her summer working with the Lao Rugby Federation and ChildFund Pass it Back in Laos, where she undertook a number of research projects. These included identifying the impact of salaried positions for female coaches in the Pass it Back program and understanding the motivations and perceptions that led girls aged 14-16 to exit the program in Vientiane. She designed and implemented an M&E system for quantifying English learning and trained staff on reporting to donor agencies. Additionally, Fiona conducted trainings for coach group leaders on interviewing and soliciting reflective stories. Over the summer, Fiona also organized the Asia Rugby U20’s Sevens tournament, which was held in Vientiane at the end of her placement. The tournament brought together 13 international teams from across Asia.

As a graduate research assistant for The Carter Center, Melania conducted research on the political participation of women in Nepal. The goals of the project were to refine key concepts, indicators, and data sources exploring women’s political experiences, and to build capacity of TCC’s civil society partner, DRCN, on violence research. Based in Kathmandu, Melania facilitated key informant interviews and field observations. She also designed and facilitated a workshop on ethical and safety procedures for data collection and dissemination. The project’s initial findings are being used to inform The Carter Center’s prominent groundwork at the intersection of gender, politics, and violence.

Chase Gorishek worked with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as a Public Health Advisor, conducting a mid-award review of the agency’s environmental health disaster recovery projects funded in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Through direct daily interactions and observations, as well as key stakeholder interviews on activity process and progress, Chase was able to obtain, aggregate and operationalize information for the CDC and territories that will inform and guide the final year of the project.

Ian Hamilton worked with Worldreader in Ghana, monitoring their digital reading program, Ghana District Scale, across the Kwaebibirem District. He conducted focus groups with Ghana Education Service officials, teachers, parents, and students to understand the integration of digital reading into the primary curriculum. Ian also collaborated with the University of Ghana’s Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy on the Inspire Us project, where he assisted in finalizing the project’s story collection and establishing book clubs that focus on issues West African women face in order to better understand current trends of female empowerment throughout the region.

Lauren worked on the Vaccine Exemplar project in Nepal for the Freeman Research Group of Emory University. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the project was formed to identify, understand, and communicate lessons from Nepal in order to better inform future global vaccination efforts. While in Nepal, Lauren facilitated a qualitative research training for the field team, supported the pilot research in Kathmandu Valley, and completed a country-specific literature review on the role of female community health volunteers in Nepal’s immunization program.

Laura Linde spent the summer in Zimbabwe with UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Program, predominantly working on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM). She managed a national mixed methods formative research study on MHM, as well as supported the creation and procurement of MHM kits and educational materials to be distributed to those affected by cyclone Idai. She also analyzed gender mainstreaming in the WASH work plan and supported UNICEF Zimbabwe’s work on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

Laila Mousa worked as an intern for CARE Jordan’s Sustainable Development team, where she researched and wrote stories about CARE Jordan’s work in areas of gender-based violence prevention, civic engagement, and economic empowerment. The programs primarily serve refugee communities, as well as other Jordanians in need. Laila also worked on editing donor reports for CARE Jordan’s strategies. While visiting the field, she interviewed beneficiaries and translated these interviews from Arabic to English. These success stories were used for CARE Jordan’s social media sites, as well as for reports documenting the successes and challenges of the programs.

This summer, Bianca Patel worked with the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Mumbai, India. As part of the Climate Resilience Practice team, she helped draft Madhya Pradesh’s State Action Plan on Climate Change. Her focus was mainstreaming climate adaptation for several sectors including Agriculture, Forest, and Water. This state plan supports India’s National Action Plan for Climate Change, with Madhya Pradesh leading efforts as one of the largest and most climate-vulnerable states in India. Additionally, Bianca created a documentation system to track the implementation of climate adaptation and development projects across India.

Yacob spent the summer in Ethiopia working with QED Group,  a global consulting firm dedicated to applying innovative technologies to devise data-driven solutions to development challenges. Active in nearly 100 countries, the firm provides expertise in monitoring and evaluation, organizational learning, and data visualization and operates in a range of fields, including global health as well as security, defense, and diplomacy. Yacob was based out of the Emory Ethiopia office in Addis Ababa, and helped with a number of data visualization projects related to health, WASH, and gender equity in Ethiopia. He also planned and facilitated a capacity building workshop held at Addis Ababa University’ School of Information Science, which included training on the use of the Tableau platform for data analytics and visualization.