On March 5, 2020, the cohort of Columbia University master’s in public health students who are also earning their Global Health Certificates presented posters of their practicum experiences at the annual Poster Showcase. Of the 38 students who presented, six students had completed their practicums with ICAP and presented their work at the showcase. Students’ posters detailed the background of their study, the research they conducted while in-country, and the results of their research—as well as any limitations they observed and calls for future research.

Jessica LaHote (picture 1) was in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, for three months and focused on Assessing the Impact of a Peer Mentor Program for Adolescents Living with HIV in Côte d’Ivoire.

Marietta Ojo (picture 2) was in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, for three months and focused on program assessment to improve quality of services provided by mentor mothers to support HIV care for pregnant/breastfeeding women and their infants at six sites supported by ICAP.

Katie Thompson (picture 3, with mentor Yael Hirsch-Moverman) was in Eswatini for three months and focused on Using a Systematic Approach for Developing Attributes for a DCE on Preferences for TB Preventive Therapy (TPT) in Children in Eswatini.

Lirica Nishimoto (picture 4) was in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for three months and focused on Responsive and Resilient Health Systems (RRHS) Project: A baseline assessment in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Janki Tailor (not pictured) was in Mbabane, Eswatini, for six months and focused on Strengthening Differentiated Services Delivery (DSD) in Eswatini.

Alejo Carbajal (not pictured) was in Maseru, Lesotho, for six months and focused on the PROMISE (PROvide MIner-friendly SErvices for Integrated TB/HIV Care in Lesotho Study) project.

All six students are part of ICAP’s Next Generation program. Next Generation interns spend two to six months engaged in the design, implementation, and/or evaluation of ICAP-supported programs in Africa, Asia and New York under the mentorship of ICAP staff. During their internship, students learn about health care delivery systems in low-resource settings while working on a discrete programmatic project with ICAP team members.

Learn more about ICAP’s Next Generation program

A global health leader since 2003, ICAP was founded at Columbia University with one overarching goal: to improve the health of families and communities. Together with its partners—ministries of health, large multilaterals, health care providers, and patients—ICAP strives for a world where health is available to all. To date, ICAP has addressed major public health challenges and the needs of local health systems through 6,000 sites across more than 30 countries.