The Cross Continental Experience Blog by Jessica Will, C-C MPH Student
Pictured Above: A few C-C MPH students posing for one last photo before heading to the airport to fly back to the U.S.
It’s hard to believe, but our semester in Buenos Aires is over! It feels like we landed yesterday.
I’ve met so many amazing people through classes, fieldwork, and general life stuff. I don’t have enough space or time to share everything that happened while in Argentina, but here are a few highlights.
Classes: Since it’s an accelerated one-year Masters program, we learn a lot every semester, and this semester was no exception. From research methods to statistical analyses, our public health and epidemiology knowledge has grown exponentially while in Buenos Aires. Beyond the content of the classes, our professors were awesome. They are all leading public health professionals in Argentina, so having the opportunity to learn from them was great.
Fieldwork: We finished our 180 hours of fieldwork - well, almost. We still need to finalize our deliverables, but the majority of the work is complete. Personally, I can’t say enough good things about my experience at Casa FUSA. Working with all the amazing, intelligent, and overall inspiring women at Casa FUSA was magical. The entire team is doing life-changing work to improve reproductive rights in Argentina. Our fieldwork research examined demographic and other patient characteristics to aid in developing new interventions and to advocate for policy change. We had the opportunity to share our findings and join a panel discussion surrounding Reproductive Rights at the NYU Buenos Aires campus earlier this week.
Pictured: Presenting our fieldwork findings at a Reproductive Rights in Argentina panel discussion featuring two prominent leaders in the field, Dr. Sandra Vázquez, Executive Director of the FUSA Civil Association for Integral Health and Dr. Paola Bergallo, Lawyer and Associate Professor at the School of Law and Adjunct Researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).
Trips: On top of what we accomplished in classes and our fieldwork, we all took advantage of our location to explore Argentina. Argentina is huge, so every region offers something different and exciting. While I had the chance to visit a few regions (Patagonia, Mendoza, Salta and Jujuy), I definitely plan on coming back to see more.
Pictured: Students hanging out in Tilcara, a town in Jujuy province in northern Argentina.
Now I have to finish papers for my electives, and even tougher, pack all of my stuff!
See you in Madrid!