Rocky and Me - Megan Nalamachu '22

            When I first came to Dartmouth, I was not sure how involved I would be with the Rockefeller Center. I came into college knowing that I wanted to be an English major and Public Policy minor, but I was not sure what the center offered beyond public policy courses. After taking Public Policy 5 and participating in D-Lab my freshman winter, I became more involved in the center. It was Sadhana Hall who encouraged me to join the MLDP program my sophomore spring, and that program taught me that no leader is built the same way. The program allowed me to understand which qualities I value as a person and how to apply those when working with others on different projects.

            I then took Public Policy 45 with Professor Shaiko my junior fall. This course offered me the opportunity to work with the Class of 1964 Policy Research Shop, which allowed me to directly work with public policy in the Upper Valley. In this class, I worked with the faculty and other students to produce a policy brief regarding child restraint laws in residential facilities in New Hampshire. The program taught me how to conduct policy research, write policy briefs, and write grant proposals. I was able to use these new skills in my internship that winter when worked with Save the Children.

            As a Save the Children fellow, I worked remotely to provide support on several projects, many of which are centered on monitoring and evaluating programs and projects that were established in response to the current COVID-19 outbreak, specifically in Guatemala and El Salvador. I also worked on the READY project which has been working to support the global GOARN Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) sub-working group on community engagement in low-resource settings to collect and curate case studies on community engagement during COVID-19 that show evidence and impact of the programs implemented.

            I would not have been able to work with Save the Children had it not been for Rocky. With the help of Robert Coates, I was able to procure funding for my fellowship because of the Rockefeller Internship Program.

            The Rockefeller Center has given me the opportunity to develop my skills as a leader and as a future health policy advocate. The different programs that the center offers has positively shaped my undergraduate experience, and I am excited to take these skills into the workforce.