Global Health Initiative LiberalArts+
Global Health Initiative LiberalArts+ The mission of the Wabash College Global Health Initiative is to transform the lives of students through public health education, investigation and service, and in so doing to effect positive change in underserved communities globally. The program, funded through philanthropic partners, provides students from all majors with international and local communitybuilding experiences that prepare them to be global leaders. Students have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of co-curricular activities including: global health immersion; international, regional, and local internships; and networking and mentoring from faculty, peers, and professionals in the field.
“Global health issues are infinitely more complex than just sickness. Education, stronger structures, cheaper drugs, and sanitation will always be the answers. Poverty is very close to us. This experience has shrunk my view of the world. It has distorted and altered my view of what health is. Global health includes business, logistics and analytics, political science, and so much more. I have a new perspective on what it means to be a health care provider. ” –Bilal Jawed ’17, Global Health Fellow
Education
Investigation
The Global Health Initiative has an impact on the intellectual and moral development of students. During their four years at Wabash, students are educated about complex global health problems. Students will experience a multidisciplinary approach to global health by enrolling in classes across the curriculum such as Global Health, Health Economics, Epidemiology, Health Psychology, Bioethics, Microbiology, Parasitology, and Sociology of Politics and Health. Several courses include a service-learningbased research project in which students engage the local community. Â Interested students can also choose to minor in Global Health. In addition, the Global Health course includes a two-week immersion experience in Peru, South America, in which students participate in health campaigns in low-income communities as they learn about various global health issues through experience.
The Global Health Initiative teaches students problem-solving and analytical skills, and integrates intercultural knowledge and competence as well as cross-functional teamwork. Students engage in projects in research labs at Wabash College and local or regional sites, and collaborate with international partners to study the social and biological determinants of health in underserved communities. Through institutional partnerships with universities in Peru, we have focused our international work on the transmission dynamics of parasitic and infectious diseases that impact maternal and child health. Local partnerships facilitate investigation in areas such as vector surveillance and noncommunicable diseases. Students are actually “doing� global health, communicating with the public, managing projects, and developing a complex understanding of healthcare issues.
Service As part of the GHI, students are given the ability to connect their classroom work and mentoring to intense real world experiences through service-learning engagement, volunteering, and paid internships. Moreover, students become advocates for the underserved through ethical reasoning and action. Working with local organizations like the Mary Ludwig Free Clinic and the Montgomery County Health Department, students will experience how their classroom inquiry intersects with the lives of people in their neighborhood. Through regional collaborations, such as with IU’s Fairbanks School of Public Health, students can participate in global health projects in low-income communities; others will participate in the College’s Health Care Immersion Program, or connect to global health projects in their hometowns or other communities. Students in the Global Health Initiative participate in service that matters.
Recent Activities of the Global Health Initiative Recent activities of the Global Health Initiative include selecting Global Health Fellows Bilal Jawed ’17 and Max Gallivan ’16, employing students with community partners, and strengthening our partnerships with the Montgomery County Health Department and the Fairbanks School of Public Health (IUPUI). Recent GHI internships have sent students to study and work regionally in Appalachia, and internationally in the Philippines, Peru, and Uganda.
“If you really want to help, you can’t just throw money at the problems. You need infrastructure to work on the system; it’s societal.”
The Global Health Initiative stimulates students to consider how they might live humanely in our world and cultivates leaders who will make a difference in the lives of others. Examining the social and biological determinants of health on a global scale is fundamentally a liberal arts enterprise. The Global Health Initiative (GHI) at Wabash allows talented students to explore issues of global health from multiple perspectives as they work across disciplines and contribute to health initiatives in their local and global communities. Because global health embodies the liberal arts, Global Health Students can be pre-medical students, social science students, students pursuing careers in social entrepreneurship, or those studying the humanities. Regardless of a student’s academic year, current major or career plans, the GHI will provide him the hands-on experiences to develop valuable skills and inform his future career.
“I came to Wabash with the intent of going to medical school. The GHI pushed me further. I learned people’s personal stories, saw different aspects of healthcare, and found different ways I could help.”
“My time both in Crawfordsville and abroad has taught me how universal the concept of poverty is. While it may look different in Peru and in Crawfordsville, we are surrounded by those who are less fortunate than us. Interacting with patients and watching their struggles has shown me that no one is impervious to bad experiences, and anyone can fall down the death spiral of poor health and poverty.” –Max Gallivan ’16, Global Health Fellow Medical Student, Indiana School of Medicine
Global Health Initiative LiberalArts+
301 W. Wabash Avenue, Crawfordsville, IN 47933 wabash.edu/plus/health Eric Wetzel, Director wetzele@wabash.edu
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765.361.6074
Jill Rogers, Coordinator rogersji@wabash.edu • 765.361.6171 Jorge Cárdenas Callirgos, In-country Coordinator, Peru jmcardenasc.ghi@gmail.com