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The global perspective at the heart of ��ɫӰ��'s Master of Public Health (MPH) program takes students all around the world. Last summer, it took Laura Schulz MPH’24 to Arusha, Tanzania, where she completed her MPH practicum at Kafika House. 

, formerly called the Plaster House, provides rehabilitative surgeries and pre- and post- operative care for children with treatable disabilities, including osteofluorosis, burn scar contractures, cleft lip and palate, clubfoot, masses, osteomyelitis, hydrocephalus, and spina bifida. 

St. Kate’s has collaborated with the organization since 2020, when an interprofessional faculty team began working on a program evaluation funded by the GHR Foundation. The team — which includes faculty in public health, social work, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition and dietetics, and physician’s assistant programs — aims to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation systems that allow the Kafika House to track patient progress. Such systems are key in helping organizations tell their stories and show their successes through data, but the Kafika House’s on-site staff hasn’t always had the capacity to implement them — which is where the St. Kate’s team comes in. 

Before traveling to Tanzania, Schulz spent the previous year working long-distance with Kafika House as a research assistant, so she was excited to use the opportunity to gain further insight into the data she had been working with from afar. As part of her practicum, she conducted evaluations on how Kafika House was implementing tools that measure changes in childhood self-perception. 

“What I found was that it wasn’t being implemented the way it was intended to be, which is why we were getting strange results,” Schulz said. “Through that process, there was a lot of work collaborating with pretty much everyone on the ground, which was so much fun. We were able to, together, put together a standard of practice that Kafika House now uses.”

Hands-on opportunities

For Schulz, the experience of intercultural collaboration was enlightening. Through her experience, she found a newfound appreciation for the work of evaluation — which she now puts to use in her full-time job as a program evaluator with the research organization HACER. 

“It never would have occurred to me to apply to this job had I not gone and done this work,” Schulz said. “It didn’t seem like it was my thing, but then when I actually went and did it with a community partner, it was really cool to be able to implement what I had learned, and see how that changed my experience and perception of that type of work. We learn all the time in the MPH program about how important it is to have community-based, participatory research and evaluation processes. To actually get to go and practice those skills, it really cemented to me exactly why it matters, and how you can do it.” 

The summer practicum, a requirement for MPH students before their final year of the program, is an opportunity for students to gain credit hours and hands-on experience working in placements, both locally and globally. The program has connections with several international sites, where students can travel and support the work of an international organization. Recently, in addition to Tanzania, students have completed in-person practicums in locations like Romania, Ghana, and the Philippines. Other students work virtually with international partners, writing grant proposals, conducting systematic reviews, and researching remotely. 

Leah Wells, MPH program coordinator and a 2021 graduate of the program herself, said that the program encourages students to travel internationally for their practicum when possible.

 “We want them to learn from people who are working and living and existing in other public health systems,” Wells said. “It just broadens their learning experience so much — their cultural humility, their ability to see things from a different perspective and exercise those cross-cultural communication skills, which they will use no matter where they land in the public health field.”