After a busy eight days, our time at FHI 360 has come to a close. Our last day, was, as usual, full of meetings planned for us. In the morning, we got to sit on the CTID team’s monthly update meeting, and then after a brief break, we presented one of the projects we had been working on for the past 2 weeks – an app based on the challenge presented to a hackathon a month ago in San Fransisco. The original challenge given to us was to improve the data collection process about teen contraceptive preferences, but in the meetings we’d attended we’d heard a lot about user-centric and woman-centric design, so we modified the challenge a bit. Our final product not only collected data through a would-you-rather format, it also ~matched~ women with their perfect contraceptive method based on the data – it was user-centric and researcher-centric. I thought our project would just be something for us to do in the short span of 2 weeks, but the CTID team liked the idea so much they are pitching it to the winner of the hackathon and seeing if they can get funding to combine our ideas into one app/program that could actually be used – we are so excited!
After two weeks at FHI 360, I not only know more about contraceptive methods than I ever thought I would, but I found a work environment I really loved. It was really empowering for me to work with this group of women, many with PhDs and MDs, who are so passionate about their work and mission, and who de-stigmatized contraception + women’s health for me and have really inspired me to think about my future career path. To all the members of the CTID team, thank you for an amazing experience.
