Women's health issues are at the heart of Scholar's research in Africa
5/4/2012
By Megan Dutill '13
College Relations Intern
Note: This week, the Schreyer Honors College is showcasing five Schreyer Scholars who are members of the spring 2012 graduating class. A women’s hockey player who has attacked her studies and her activities with the same zeal she’s shown on the ice. A student who is completing the requirements for so many majors (four) along with a graduate degree that he has had to complete his graduation forms the old-fashioned way – on paper – because the computerized system doesn’t have enough fields to accurately reflect his academic record. A budding physicist who found time to complete two honors theses in between spending a summer in Switzerland working on the collider and competing on Penn State’s ultimate Frisbee team. A geography major who fielded marriage proposals while conducting her thesis research in Africa. And an environmental advocate who is leavingPenn State and its residence halls a bit greener than when he arrived on campus. Today: Sarah Layton, the geography major whose thesis work addressed the status of women in eastern Africa.
After two trips to Namibia in one year, graduating senior Sarah Layton could have racked up some serious frequent flyer miles. Instead, she earned a thesis. The Schreyer Scholar’s journey began in the fall of her junior year, after she returned home from a summer service trip to Namibia full of questions about why women and hospitals there weren’t communicating.
"I was talking to my adviser, and I said it’s probably unrealistic for me to go back there by myself to research this,” Sarah says. "And he said, ‘Oh, I don’t think it would be crazy to go back by yourself – you’d need an adviser and funding.’"
He gave her a list of geography faculty to talk to about funding and research and sent her on her way. Over the course of that year, things began coming together: Sarah received travel and research grants, found an adviser and settled on a specific research topic.
"My thesis is about how a mother decides to reduce the risk of HIV to herself or her children,” Sarah says. "I was really trying to get at how they understand this process and make decisions. I wanted to understand this, and I knew it was something that I cared about enough to want to commit the next two years to figuring out what is going on. It was a complex, serious and tough issue that I thought would keep my interest, and I knew I wouldn’t stop caring about it. I’m not going to change the world, but this matters."
And so she set off to Caprivi – the region with the highest rate of HIV and poverty in Namibia – for seven weeks in the summer of 2011 to conduct interviews and focus groups. But her goal was to do more than just gather information: Sarah wanted her research to give something back to the women, too.
"Sarah knew that working with women in the context of HIV/AIDS is obviously a tricky topic and it is really, really important to create a safe environment for women to feel comfortable and heard and understood," says Petra Tschakert, an associate professor of geography who served as Sarah’s thesis adviser. "During her research, Sarah tried purposefully to create these spaces of reflection, empowerment and responsibility where people have access to new information so they can make better decisions."
During her time in Namibia, Sarah talked with women, hospital doctors and workers at non-governmental organizations. She also learned the names of all the taxi drivers, how to be creative in turning down marriage proposals – she scared off one suitor by playfully suggesting a wedding on Monday – and how to carry water on her head.
"It was really fun to just be able to live in a place for several weeks and build relationships with people and be independent," Sarah says.
The journey continued at home as she analyzed her research. "What I didn’t expect was that women had a really good working knowledge of the nature of HIV, how it’s transmitted and prevented – it definitely wasn’t that they don’t know," Sarah says. "Women do see the hospitals as credible, but they have stronger influences around them which revolve around their goal of obtaining security, whether that’s economic or household security. The ‘sugar daddy’ concept is very prevalent. It revolves around women’s search for security, and because of that her understanding of HIV gets relegated to the side."
"The assumption very often is that women are not empowered enough, or smart enough, or interested enough to engage seriously in safe sex and protection," Tschakert says. "What Sarah found is that there are so many uncertainties and risks and worries a woman has to face, and then she just has to juggle them. It’s an entry point to HIV research that is centered clearly in the woman’s mind, rather than in strategic objectives of hospitals or NGOs, and that is unique."
Although Sarah admits that her thesis required a lot of work and dedication, she still found time to be involved on campus. As a resident assistant in Atherton, one of the Honors residence halls, Sarah says that she’s loved being surrounded by people who are ambitious and caring.
"It’s just a cool community of people and you can really do a lot with it if you get involved, so it’s definitely personalized my Penn State experience," she says.
But the research won’t end with her upcoming graduation: Sarah will be attending Ohio State University to begin earning a Ph.D. in sociology and geography.
"Doing my thesis has basically pushed me in the direction of doing a Ph.D. and staying in academia – it was that influential," Sarah says. "I loved the experience."
That first service trip back in 2010 turned out to launch her career. For Sarah, her journey for her lifetime started not only with a single step but with thousands of miles.