Despite my lack of familiarity with the Downtown Durham area, I was able to find the FHI 360 office with ease. Upon arrival, Hope, Caroline, Maddie and I were greeted by Celia and Lauren, two interns from Duke and UNC respectively, who gave us a thorough tour of the building. I admired the contemporary style and layout by area of research, but more importantly the plethora of photographs taken from various employees’ travels around the globe. We were trained on the unofficial “do’s and do not’s” as well as shown the go to hang out spot: the cafe that overlooks the Durham Bull’s stadium. Lastly, we were given our very own badges, schedules and pamphlets containing general statistics/facts.
After receiving our very own (temporary) cubicles, we prepared for the first of four hour long meetings. Our first meeting was with Jill Sergison, an associate scientist and nurse midwife. We learned a lot of introductory information regarding FHI 360, their mission and current areas of contraceptive research, in addition to Ms. Sergison’s background. One particularly interesting part of this nonprofit is that the employees come from widely-ranging pasts, revealing the versatility of the team. Following this initial meeting, we went to lunch with our mentors, providing a relaxing break and opportunity to get to know them better outside of the office.
We then met with Lucy Wilson, a technical advisor, who discussed potential mentee projects: research on financial and political commitments for family planning, modernizing presentations on contraceptive technology, artistic outreach, and a social media outreach for the contraceptive technology innovation initiative. We broadened our knowledge on FHI 360, and more specifically some of the current problems they are facing (i.e. a major one being potential funding cuts). The rest of our afternoon included two more meetings, with Celia Mizelle and Aubrey Weber, who explained our group project that targets social media for contraception. In short, we were tasked to come up with a means to survey adolescent girls globally to retrieve data, allowing the opportunity for modifications to current technology as well as providing direction for devices made in the future.
5 o’clock came quickly, and we left the office exhausted from a packed first day of work. However, we are extremely excited to return tomorrow and I am looking forward to many of the activities they have in store for us in the future, including meetings with Dr. Nanda who is a director of medical research, and Marga Eichleay who is an expert on drone use in public health.
