Student Handbook for Global Engagement

Carrie Rheingans

Since September 2009, I’ve been working with over 30 other U-M students from schools and departments as diverse as engineering, public health, philosophy, economics, social work, medicine and nursing to create the campus-wide Student Handbook for Global Engagement as part of our work as Student Associates of the Center for Global Health. After a year of meetings and revisions, we published the first edition in August 2010, using a Creative Commons license instead of copyrighting the Handbook. We published using the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License, meaning that others may edit the work and use it as long as they attribute the appropriate sections to us, that they don’t make money on the resulting work (just like us), and that they share their work using the same Creative Commons license as we did.

Creative Commons - Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike

Since we finished the Handbook, we’ve been trying to distribute it across the nation and globe for others to use. We’ve presented at multiple conferences, and will continue to do so. Eventually, we hope that this Handbook could be part of the basic training students will have to complete before departing for global work. We’re currently working with University of Michigan offices, such as the Center for Global and Intercultural Studies and the Open.Michigan office, to get the Handbook distributed across U-M campus.

The Handbook has been recognized both at the U-M Center for Global Health’s Student Global Health Day and at the 138th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, and was first presented at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Annual Meeting in Seattle in September 2010. Please consider downloading a copy and distributing it at your university or institution!

Student Global Health Day poster with many of the contributors

Hello from Denver – the 138th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association

Carrie Rheingans

I’m in Denver, Colorado this week for the 138th Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Public Health Association. It’s been really exciting so far, and I’m looking forward to reporting more over the next couple days. This year’s theme is “Social Justice: A Public Health Imperative”. I really like this theme because it very nicely ties together my two degree programs. I’m here to present a poster about the Student Handbook for Global Engagement that I worked on with over 30 students from across campus for the last year through the Center for Global Health.

Student Handbook for Global Engagement

One aspect of the annual meeting I’m excited about is how much social media is being incorporated into the meeting. You can follow the conversation on Twitter by searching the hashtag #APHA10 (and I’ll be tweeting with my handle @crheinga). The two highlights so far were the opening session and the Aaron Neville concert last night. The opening session had two keynote speakers talking about increasing health parity: Dr. William (Bill) Jenkins and Dr. Cornel West. I’ll write more about these activities later, as well as give a recap about how my poster session went and the two U-M networking events I’m attending later today – one for the HBHE department and alumni, and one general U-M SPH reception. Today will be an exciting day!

Dr. Cornel West fires up the crowd at the opening general session of APHA 2010

Aaron Neville and his Quintet at APHA 2010

$$ for International Internships

Carrie Rheingans

Finding funding for an international internship or field placement is probably the most daunting task of the whole experience. Most international placements cost a few thousand dollars, the largest part of which tends to be airfare. Be sure to talk with your academic advisor and your department to see what internal funding sources are available before expanding your searches.

There are a few steps that you’ll want to take before applying to the various campus offices for funding.

1. Make a list of all things you need to pay for
2. Determine how much each thing costs
3. Transfer this information into a budget
4. Find funding applications, due dates
5. Get letters of recommendation for those applications for which they are required
6. Get letters of invitation from host agencies for those applications for which they are required

Here’s a list of some things to consider for your budget (most funders won’t allow you to use their funds to pay for U.S.-based expenses while you’re abroad, like car payments, rent, etc.). Here’s a tentative budget I’ll be using for my work this summer in China and Bangladesh.

1. Passport/Visa costs – be sure to check WELL in advance if a visa is necessary, to ensure you have enough time to get one
2. Immunization costs – the University Health Service at U-M can help you determine this
3. Housing in your host country – will it be provided? Apartment? University housing? Living with a friend/family member? Host family?
4. Transportation in your host country – will you travel inside the country? What’s your daily commute?
5. Airfare to/from your destination – check a variety of locations to get a good average, and be prepared for it to change as the departure date gets closer.
6. Food in your host country – will you be eating out all the time? Cooking at home? Can you pay a flat rate, like if you’re with a host family or in university housing?
7. Internet/Phone in your host country – many students find it comforting to buy a local cell phone; check prices and how much minutes/plans cost. Will you be paying separately for internet at your host agency/home?
8. Allowable internship/project costs – some funders allow you to include this, some don’t. Will you need to make copies? Buy disposable cameras? Pay for an interpreter? Pay for your internet use?

There are many places on campus that provide funding, and if you decide to apply to many, it might be helpful to create a spreadsheet to keep all the requirements straight! Here’s what I’m using for my summer work in China and Bangladesh as an example (beware – this spreadsheet is a bit ugly with the long links…).

1. your home department in SPH
2. Center for Global Health
3. International Institute
4. International Center
5. Ross School of Business
6. School of Social Work
7. Ginsberg Center for Community Service & Learning
8. Nonprofit and Public Management Center

Please leave comments about your experiences with finding funding or with suggestions of additional places to look. We’re all in this together – although it may seem like we’re competing, consider the fact that we’re all going to be colleagues shortly and we’ll all benefit from working with the best-trained colleagues we can possibly have!

Leave any tips you have for others in the comments below!!

Center for Global Health Symposium

Carrie Rheingans

Friday, 13 November 2009 marked the first-ever Center for Global Health Symposium and Student Global Health Day. I had a great time and learned a lot – especially about things to consider when applying for jobs in global health in a couple years. It was great to meet global health leaders from around the world and hear about health systems in three countries – South Africa, Ghana and India. The speakers’ presentations should be up on the CGH website soon.

The morning symposium featured three members of the External Advisory Council speaking about health systems in each of their countries. Dr. Marian Jacobs discussed the public/private health systems and the relationship that South Africa has with other global partners, particularly how many South African doctors leave the country for other, richer countries, and many Cuban doctors go to South Africa to work in rural areas. Dr. Peter Donkor spoke about health systems in Ghana, specifically highlighting how traditional health practitioners have a trusted role in healthcare and how Ghanaians’ changing lifestyles are leading to more non-communicable disease burden. Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, the President of the Public Health Foundation of India, talked about how the Indian health systems are very decentralized, with much of the control in the hands of individual states and districts. He said this leads to two things: 1. more culturally-relevant care and 2. possibly higher care disparities between regions. All three speakers spoke about the human resources in their respective countries, and stated that they are facing a shortage of professionals born, raised and trained in their own countries.

The Student Global Health Day in the afternoon was also educational. Another External Advisory Council member, Joel Lamstein, kicked off the afternoon activities with a brief talk about a possible future of global health. Mr. Lamstein is the founder and President of John Snow, Inc. and the President of World Education. He gave a lot of great career advice for people interested in going into the field of global health. His big take-away message was that neither business students nor public health students had all the skills that are useful in such careers, but that business and public health students should learn across disciplines and be sure to gain analytical skills as well. The student posters were very high quality and the two student presenters explained their great work about blood cancers in Egypt and maternal health issues in Liberia. Global health-related student groups also had tables with info and ways to get involved during the Student Global Health Day.

CGH Student Associates Katie Bush and Carrie Rheingans

Student research poster by Julia Finkel, CGH Student Associate Alice Zheng, Eunice Yu, and CGH Student Associate Sujal Parikh

You can become a Student Associate or Faculty Associate by submitting an application at any time. For more coverage of the annual Symposium and Student Global Health Day, you can become a fan of the U-M CGH on facebook. I was also live-tweeting during the day, and you can see all tweets marked with hashtag #UMCGH here.

Swine Flu, part deux

Carrie Rheingans

Since I wrote my first post about swine flu, ahem, “2009 H1N1″, many things have changed and we know a lot more. It’s not as deadly as first thought, and this year’s flu shots are not effective against it. On June 11, the World Health Organization declared this strain of flu to be a world-wide pandemic.

Dr. Sandro Galea, Epidemiology Professor and Director of the newly created Center for Global Health at U-M, spoke to National Public Radio about the reactions of the general population to what public officials say about disease outbreaks. You can also listen to the interview online.

I’m in Perú now for my extra internship, and it’s been one of the most talked-about topics in the news – radio, newspapers, and TV. It’s starting to get really bad here, since it’s winter. School is on vacation for two weeks for the national holidays, but the Ministry of Health is considering extending the vacation a week or two to combat the flu epidemic. I can’t help but wonder how often I’ve been exposed to it since I ride the overcrowded micros, combis and busses… I got my flu shot, but it doesn’t help against this new strain. Too bad!