Penn State students find community and learn about global health abroad

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sleeping in the Amazon rainforest, working with local health clinics to help people with HIV/AIDS, and watching a woman give birth are just some of the things Global Health Minor students did on their five-week fieldwork trips to Ecuador or South Africa this summer.

The Global Health Minor is a program for all Penn State students interested in understanding health care in diverse settings around the world.

Since 2012, this program has taken students to Senegal, Tanzania, South Africa, Mexico and Ecuador to provide lessons about the complexities, challenges and opportunities of global healthcare that cannot be communicated in a classroom, according to Dana Naughton, associate teaching professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State and director of the Global Health Minor.

Maddie Walsh, a fourth-year student majoring in biobehavioral health, was part of a group of nine students who went to Ecuador this summer. Like many students, Walsh had never traveled abroad without her parents. Walsh said she was surprised to find herself sleeping in the Amazon rainforest in a hut under a mosquito net.

For Walsh, this experience led to a greater understanding that, “your health is the outcome of so many different factors, and not just your biology," she said.

Before Walsh went to Ecuador, she was unsure of what field of medicine she wanted to pursue as a specialization for her graduate studies to become a physician assistant. After shadowing obstetricians and gynecologists in Ecuador, she said, she decided that she wanted to provide maternal health care to those in need.

Walsh said the field experience changed her life.

“As a second-generation Puerto Rican, I've always been passionate about helping under-resourced communities,” Walsh said. “After seeing the level of need in Ecuador, I decided to help women in lower-income areas who have a hard time accessing the healthcare that they need.”

For Naughton, the Global Health Minor seamlessly bridges classroom knowledge and hands-on experience.

“Through interdisciplinary coursework, students begin to develop the skills and perspective needed to understand and address global health challenges,” Naughton said.

Students in both countries shadowed hospital workers, visited local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and attended seminars on global health topics. They saw firsthand how culture and every aspect of life, from nutrition to public policy, impact public health.

“Each student gets the opportunity to grow both professionally and personally,” Naughton said. “Students meet leading health care administrators, physicians, nurses and other health  professionals while immersing themselves in local customs and cultures, as they live with host families in Ecuador or on campus and among a university population in Limpopo, South Africa.”

Undergraduate students apply to the minor during the spring of their second year. They begin taking courses during their third year, in preparation for their fieldwork the following summer.

“The trip takes all these statistics and facts that you learn in class, and it layers humanity onto them,” said Ariella Pedajah Biney, a fifth-year Schreyer Honors student majoring in biology. She will begin her Master of Public Health program at West Chester University this Spring before pursuing medical school — a decision she said was largely shaped by her experience in the minor.

Classes, including those in epidemiology and nutrition, were selected to give students a solid foundation in critical topics of global health, according to Naughton. The coursework is designed to give them the tools to understand the social, environmental and medical factors they will encounter.

Biney was a part of a group of 11 students who did their fieldwork experience in South Africa.

“From the textbook to real-world applications, it gradually became easier for me to be able to apply the principles that I was learning,” Biney said. “You go from learning about how a treatable disease like tuberculosis still affects millions worldwide, to seeing a patient suffering from it. Ready or not, it forces you to see the world and global health in a different way.”

Students are required to take BBH 305: Intro to Global Health, which Naughton teaches, among other courses to give them an overview of global health and to understand factors that differ between nations, including health systems, local nutrition and the burden of disease.

Biney said she didn’t know much about global health coming into Penn State. After taking a few classes and by listening to a friend's advice, she realized the field perfectly fit her interests. She said it was interesting to learn more about South Africa, since she is Ghanaian herself.   

“The Global Health minor has been such a rewarding experience; it has given a new perspective about healthcare. If you are thinking about applying, just go for it,” Biney said.

With a rigorous nine-hour schedule every day, Biney said she found solace in cooking dinner with the other Penn State students in the student house, where they stayed on the University of Limpopo campus in South Africa.

Despite the powerful impression she said the work part of the trip made, what stood out most to Biney was the people. Immersing herself in the local community, she recounted a South African proverb that continues to remind her about the community she made and the impact of a shared goal: “I am because we are.”

Learn more about how to apply to the Global Health Minor.