<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Marie Claire interns Rachel Cooper and Claire Cruickshank sat down with Americans for UNFPA Student Award Winners (who blogged for MC) to find out more about their life-changing trips. MC: Tell us a little about how you came to win an Americans for UNFPA&amp;#039;s Student Award and what it has meant for you.  Michaela Maynard: In college, I had always been really interested in health and medicine, but near the end of my time at the University of Rhode Island, I became very interested in public and reproductive health. There was an announcement in the honors department about the award and I applied for it; I was amazed that I won! Afterward, I traveled to Malawi with a group of other delegates and toured the programs there that the UNFPA supports. I&amp;#039;ve been happy to be a part of their work ever since.  Fatima Hassan: I grew up in Cady, Texas, but my family is originally from Somalia. I found out about Americans for UNFPA while I was studying at Stanford, and I was interested in how culturally sensitive approaches can be implemented to help communities overseas. After winning the award, I got to travel to Uganda and Rwanda and see a lot of the projects that the UNFPA is involved in and came away even more inspired to help than I was before. I&amp;#039;ve since graduated from Stanford and am working for UNFPA in Geneva.  Nicole Paprocki: I have always been interested in medicine and women&amp;#039;s issues, but I never thought to put them together until I started college at Loyola University in Chicago. I found out about the award and for two years I thought I had no chance of winning it. Even last year, when I applied, I thought, &amp;#039;This is way out of my league.&amp;#039; I&amp;#039;m very blessed to have received this honor and had the opportunity to travel to Bangladesh to see first hand how this organization is changing lives.   MC: How do you think we can create change while still being sensitive to the cultural differences that exist between any two countries?  NP: One of the things that I noticed when I went to Bangladesh was that Americans sometimes have the mindset that they know the way that a given program should be run or that we always need to be the ones facilitating these programs. But when you travel, you find out that it&amp;#039;s the people there that really know the root of the problem they&amp;#039;re facing and are the ones with the most power to effect change.  FH: It&amp;#039;s important to realize that we&amp;#039;re not there to do what we want to do; we&amp;#039;re there to do what the community wants us to do. Culturally sensitive programming doesn&amp;#039;t mean creating projects in the boardroom; it has to incorporate local leaders and bring their ideas into play. We should always take a stand against social injustice, but we&amp;#039;re not going to make any traction on these issues unless we really partner with local communities.  MC: You&amp;#039;re all interested in global women&amp;#039;s health issues. With all the controversy over health-care reform in this country, how do you think we can awaken American women to the fact that there are women all over the world whose health-care needs are not being met?   FH: The fact that this issue is so prevalent in the United States, as well as abroad, just goes to show how important health care is. I really hope that the struggle for health-care reform in the U.S. reawakens this idea that access to basic health care is a fundamental human right, no matter what country you&amp;#039;re from.  MM: A struggle is a struggle no matter where you are. In Malawi, the struggle is a bit different because you&amp;#039;re dealing with women who may not even be allowed to make the decisions about their own health \u2014 their husband may be making those decisions for them.   MC: I suppose a lot of people would describe you three as feminists. What does it mean to be a young feminist these days?  NP: As &amp;quot;young feminists&amp;quot; we are starting to look more globally and see even though we have achieved a certain level of equality here in the U.S., the social gains we have made are not necessarily shared throughout the world.  FH: I think we should refashion &amp;quot;feminism&amp;quot; so that everyone can be a feminist in their own way. We should move beyond the prescribed image of the &amp;quot;bra-burning feminist&amp;quot; and the sort of &amp;quot;it has to be my way&amp;quot; kind of feminism that&amp;#039;s associated with the word.  MM: I don&amp;#039;t know if I&amp;#039;d actually say I&amp;#039;m a feminist. I believe in women and I believe in their rights \u2013 maybe that automatically makes me a feminist. What I think is important is to be open-minded and to be proactive in learning about global issues. In Malawi, I met women who were empowered were finding new ways to care for themselves and for their families.  Want to apply? Americans for UNFPA wants students to witness UNFPA&amp;#039;s programs firsthand. In addition to the trip of a lifetime, we are offering a $1,000 scholarship and the opportunity to blog about your trip on MarieClaire.Com. Apply at student.americansforunfpa.org. Contest ends on December 10. [Photo: MC&amp;#039;s Jihan with the winners] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a4167/unfpa-award-announcement/>