The Global Health Summer Experience is a competitive fieldwork opportunity where students travel to one of our project sites around the world to gain hands-on experience working in a global health setting. Under the guidance of an ISMMS faculty advisor and an on-site mentor, students tackle some of the most challenging public health issues facing our world today.
Past placements include:
- South America (Peru, Argentina, Brazil)
- Caribbean (Dominican Republic, Haiti, Belize)
- Africa (Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Rwanda)
- Asia (India, Japan, Bangladesh, Thailand)
- North America (South Dakota, Arizona, Texas)
Project Examples
Buenos Aires, Argentina
At a local NGO that focuses on human rights approaches to drug use and drug-related issues, this project aims to implement harm reduction intervention strategies to teach young adults, who consume drugs recreationally, how to practice safe drug use particularly during electronic music festivals (EMFs).
Jinja, Uganda
In collaboration with a local NGO, this project focuses on evaluation and improvement of current health care services and community outreach at a local primary care and preventive medicine clinic. Community outreach efforts aimed to educate the local population on malaria, including disease transmission, signs and symptoms, treatment options and drug resistance, and prevention through long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets (LLINs).
Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic
With support of a local hospital, this project aims to establish a baseline prevalence of mental illness through conducting a mental health needs assessment. Results will help local organizations and activists to define priorities and guide grant application.
Gujarat, India
At an NGO that works to eliminate mental health stigma and provide support for patients suffering from mental illness in developing countries, the goal of this project is to recruit and train Community Health Workers to be local mental health advocates through the use of two training models, and subsequently evaluating each approach to determine the most effective model.
Nogales, Arizona
Students worked with a local health education center whose mission is to recruit, train and retain culturally competent health professionals in rural, tribal and border communities of southeast Arizona. Projects varied from conducting a community environmental health needs assessment, to developing a pre-health curriculum for high school students.
Rapid City, South Dakota
Based at a Tribal Epidemiology Center, the goal of this project is to understand the role of schools on reservations in educating students on substance abuse, prevention, and harm reduction.
The application for the Global Health Summer Experience opens in the Fall Term. Students in all specialty tracks are welcome to apply.
For questions about the Global Health Summer Experience, please contact Peradeba Raventhirarajah, Manager of Applied Experience and Internships at peradeba.raventhirarajah@mssm.edu.