We’d like to highlight emerging leaders who are former interns or fellows at Feminist and continue to empower and advocate within their communities. Whether it’s a magazine release, a blog feature, or a scholarly article, we want to recognize and celebrate these leaders for everything they continue to add to the world as reproductive justice advocates and activists.
Our next spotlight highlights the work of Joanna Caldwell, a summer and fall 2018 intern. We briefly interviewed Joanna about her past internship. Check out her responses below.
Can you briefly summarize your work during your internship
“I completed my practicum with the Feminist Women’s Health Center, Lifting Latinx Voices Initiative. I was able to translate materials, develop, facilitate, and evaluate identity and sexual health education workshops with high school girls, prepare for and participate in an annual health fair, and create a prospective grant list. I gained a lot from doing the work, and I hope that through encouraging language justice, more people have access to health and reproductive justice becomes more of a reality!”
Can you give us a brief excerpt from your recent research?
“Using pre and post tests for our health education sessions with the Latina Growth Group at North Atlanta High School we found many helpful findings (listed below).
Key Evaluation Points 11.14: • The students already reported knowing a lot about the importance of women supporting each other, and their mean knowledge went up only slightly.
• Only 40% of the students reported knowing a lot about how to spot sexual harassment laws before the workshop compared 100% after the workshop.
• 13.6% of students know a lot about sexual harassment laws before the workshop compared to 76.2% after the workshop.
• 75% of students were very confident they could identify sexual harassment when it happens after the workshop compared to only 40.9% before the workshop.
• Students confidence in helping a friend or family member who experienced sexual harassment went up after the workshop (45.5% before verse 68.4% after), but this is a topic area that could use more focus.
• When asked how the workshop could be improved, students suggested more activities and more opportunities to get engaged with other students • When asked what they liked about the workshops, students indicated that they learned a lot about sexual harassment and women empowerment.”
Read more of Joanna’s research here.
