Jennifer Schlecht

Jennifer Schlecht is a Master's student at Columbia University, currently pursuing a dual degree in Social Work and Public Health. She is originally from Upstate New York, and she received her BA in Anthropology from Boston University. Over the past few years, she worked on refugee projects in Kenya and Djibouti and on HIV/AIDS youth programs in Namibia. Since returning to graduate school, Jennifer has pursued an interest in psychosocial and physical health for displaced persons or victims of war. She has focused largely on community trauma and resiliency, and focused on the needs of adolescents in these circumstances. Her studies and work over the past year have ranged from work with adolescents at-risk in New York City, to work with adolescents in refugee camps. During the summer of 2002, Jennifer worked closely with a Tanzanian NGO to evaluate the adolescent reproductive health programs in place in the region's Burundian refugee camps. Her internship topic was improving women's efficacy in the programming for adolescent reproductive health.