RACHA was lucky to welcome interns from Brigham Young University, Columbia University, and the University of North Carolina, helping out in various departments during the summer of 2013. Read a bit about them below:

Codie Walton is a 21-year-old public health major at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. While she has enjoyed her time in Utah, she is happy to call Colorado her home. Cambodia was certainly a change from her hometown where there is still visible snow on the mountains!

Kira Anderson is from Chugiak, Alaska. She is currently earning an MPH degree at BYU, where she also studies Hindi and French. Kira came to Cambodia to work with RACHA, whose community-based projects interest her immensely. Under the direction of Dr. Ketsana, Child Health, Kira studied the acceptability of a new ready-to-use therapeutic food in rural areas, as well as helped to implement the new Mobile Kitchen project in Pursat province.

Brittney Okada is an undergraduate student from Brigham Young University located in Utah, USA. She majors in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Promotion and a minor in Business. Her passion and interest areas are women's health, immigrant and refugee health, and adolescent health. While interning at RACHA, her scope of work entailed observing and evaluating a developing initiative: the Joint Mobile Kitchen Project. Brittney is from the small town of Cody, Wyoming.

Spencer was born and raised in Utah in the US as the youngest of 10 siblings. At the age of 19 he went off to Vancouver, Canada to live for two years. When he returned home he enrolled in university at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah where he currently studies Entrepreneurship.

Amanda Johnson is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa,and is working towards her Masters of Public Health degree at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She came to RACHA because she is interested in working with women's health in developing countries. She spent her time working with RACHA's Safe Motherhood department. 

Rosemary Sou Taing (Lyly) is a Cambodian Chinese American from Falls Church, Virginia. Rosemary has just completed her first year of her MPH at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in the department of Population and Family Health. She is most interested in using her technical skills in public health to empower the communities she works with in order to drive social change. Her experience at RACHA has really helped her connect the dots between the things she has learned at Columbia and the real life applications and complexity in the field. This has been a personally fulfilling experience for her since her parents met in the camps during the Khmer Rouge and together escaped as refugees to start a new life in the States where she would eventually be born.

 

YangSing Lim is from Singapore and is currently pursuing her Master of Public Health degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She used to work with children with special health care needs as a pediatric occupational therapist and is very interested in early childhood development and child health promotion. Volunteering in suburban and rural Cambodia last summer has taught her to work creatively in resource-limited areas and she remains deeply touched by the warm hospitality of her Khmer colleagues.

 

Landon Gardiner was born and raised in Nebraska and moved to Salt Lake City to study at the University of Utah. He is currently working towards a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and International Studies. Landon would eventually like to earn a Master's Degree in Political Science. Landon is particularly interested in how NGO's function and operate successfully. Landon worked in the Capacity Building department at RACHA, and took frequent trips to RACHA's provinces to conduct a survey about Quality Improvement and Hygiene in Health Centers.

 

In January and February of 2013, RACHA welcomed five interns from Touro University in California, USA. They conducted a needs assessment in order to determine what kinds of incentives will keep VHSG's working longer in the program. While they were short on time, they managed to accomplish quite a bit and they realized that "despite all the political unease and developing world conditions, the Cambodian health volunteers are genuinely happy". They felt that living in Phnom Penh and "experiencing daily life and interactions with the Cambodian people every day was a very unique experience".

 

You can read a little bit about them here:

Angela Nguyen is a Vietnamese American from California. She is currently pursuing a joint Masters Degree in Pubic Health and Physicians Assistant Studies (MPH/MSPAS) at Touro.

 

Matt McCartt is a MSPAS/MPH student interested in pediatrics.

 

Autumn Fingerson is from California and is a current MSPAS/MPH student. Eventually she would like to work in the field of women's health.

 

Jennifer Glazier is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, and is now living in California to complete her MPH/MSPAS degree.

 

Brigette Beyer is also from Salt Lake City, Utah, and is studying to receive her MPH/MSPAS.