CONWAY, Ark. (March 13, 2019) – Claire Nissen ’19, a Hendrix
College senior from Austin, Texas, has been accepted into the Peace Corps to
serve as a Community Health Promoter in Sierra Leone. She will begin serving in
June, the month after her anticipated graduation from Hendrix.
A chemical physics major with a minor in biology, Nissen plans
to attend medical school, but her desire to spend her career working in global
health led her to the Peace Corps first.
“I chose to apply for the Peace Corps instead of applying to go
straight into medical school after graduation because I wanted the opportunity
to learn first-hand how to bridge cultural gaps in a healthcare setting,” she
said.
Nissen’s assignment provides a good match for that desire to
learn. The Peace Corps in Sierra Leone aims to improve basic primary health
care knowledge, practices, and services, with the goals of reducing the occurrence
of communicable and preventable diseases and minimizing the effects
malnutrition.
A Community Health Promoter’s work in Sierra Leone centers on
three main areas: maternal and child nutrition; water, sanitation, and hygiene;
and malaria prevention and control. As a health promoter, Nissen will seek ways
to educate and create interventions that have a positive impact on those priorities,
using methods that are sustainable for the culture and that are achievable
using available materials.
“Sierra Leone has a special focus on female empowerment and gender
awareness, which is a mission that I feel very passionately about,” Nissen said
of choosing where to apply to serve. “I’m excited to incorporate that into the
interventions that I will design in the future.”
“I was thrilled, but not surprised, to learn that Claire had
been accepted into the Peace Corps,” said Jamie Groat, a former staffer with
the Hendrix College Office of Career Services, who advised Nissen during the
application process and as she prepared for her interview. “Her accomplishment
is a wonderful example of preparation and hard work paying off. Claire has
demonstrated a passion for public health and gained a lot of great experience
in the field of healthcare during her time at Hendrix; the Peace Corps provides
a wonderful avenue by which she can continue to affect positive change in an
area that is important to her.”
About Hendrix College
A private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix
College consistently earns recognition as one of the country’s leading liberal
arts institutions, and is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40
Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic
quality and rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a fixture
in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has
been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more,
visit www.hendrix.edu.