Internship Spotlights: Dharmi Desai (HPM)

Career Goal

To work with NGOs [non-governmental organizations], international organizations, and governments toward improving access to primary healthcare and increasing health equity.

Internship Outline

My responsibility was to find relevant data on NCD [non-communicable disease] models of care in Primary Health Care (PHC) in India and compile them into case studies that can be included in the Global Compendium being developed by the World Bank, which includes case studies on NCD models of care in PHC from all over the world.

Value of Experience

Since the project was essentially my own, I was able to work flexible hours which were convenient for me. I was very grateful for that, since I was working remotely with the Washington, D.C., office while being based in India. My supervisor was also very supportive and mindful of my time, and ensured that I didn’t have to attend any meetings at odd hours. I did miss the feeling of being on a team, though. Since the project was essentially mine, I didn’t have to attend any team meetings and only had to report to my supervisor.

This internship is very valuable to me, since it was a very positive working experience on the whole. I come from a medical school background, where working with superiors can often get very toxic, and this was a very nice change of pace from that, and I am very grateful for that!

Best Moment/Experience