Bonding with USC colleagues and learning how to lead a study abroad trip
As a global health researcher, I have been traveling to Tanzania and Haiti frequently in the past few years. I have been enjoying the opportunity of collaborating with the local scientists and learning more about the contexts in both countries. Last year I became interested in exploring opportunities to take students to Tanzania and Haiti. However, I had no formal experience in organizing global health research opportunities for students. With this in mind, the opportunity to join Dr. William Pruitt on the 2019 International Perspective on Higher Education (IPHE) trip to Colombia came at a perfect time. I expected that the IPHE trip would offer me a chance to gain experience in traveling with a group compared to traveling alone as I have done in the past. I was also looking forward to learn about the process of establishing partnerships with universities in comparison to individual professors.
My expectations were exceeded during this trip. The first experience that moved me the most was how I was bonding with the faculty and staff from University of South Carolina who were on the trip with me. Even though we work at the same university, we do not often have the opportunity to spend one week getting to know one another as a group as we were doing on this trip. I was able to learn about the different research and study abroad programs that some of the USC faculty and staff have done in Cuba, Aruba, Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.
Another observation was how we were received by the International Affairs Offices of the different universities we visited in Bogota and Medellin. This experience allowed me to see the difference between collaborating with individual professors compared to having an institutional contact or partnership. As a result, I expressed to Dr. Pruitt that I would like his assistance in establishing similar contacts with the University of Dar es Salaam and the School of Public Health and Social Sciences at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. This, I now know, will be a crucial step prior to developing a formal partnership. My hope is to leverage this partnership to bring students, faculty, and staff to those two universities for collaborations and study abroad opportunities and have their faculty, staff, and students visit USC.
I also appreciated the leadership of the IPHE trip. Dr. Pruitt and his co-leaders were adamant that all group members stayed together, ensured that we had a planned itinerary in each of the cities, and encouraged us to write our reflection about our positive and negative experiences. I have decided to incorporate a similar activity for the students who will participate in the Global Health Research Experience in Tanzania trip (GHRE) this summer. The IPHE trip instilled the importance of being proactive in developing a clear and concise plan for the GHRE students who will travel to Tanzania with me this summer as part of the University of Alabama Minority Health International Research Training program and the USC Magellan Scholar Award program.
The students will spend approximately two months in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania working with our local team on the STEP (Self-Testing Education and Promotion) Project, which is a National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded study https://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/public_health/about/news/2018/r00_grant_conserve.php#.XI8_BihKg2w[LU1] While I have developed a research plan for the students, I had not begun to think about how to structure the social and cultural activities for the students. After learning from the leaders of the IPHE trip, I have decided to prepare a social and cultural program for the students and look forward to receiving more guidance from the IPHE team with this process.
Another pleasant experience was having the chance to introduce my graduate student, Akeen Hamilton, to the IPHE group and have him join us during part of the day in Medellin. Akeen happened to be visiting the same three cities in Colombia that we visited but in reverse. He started off in Cartagena and we started in Bogota. During our time in Medellin, I shared the purpose of the IPHE trip with him and learned about his experience in Cartagena. Upon arriving to Cartagena, I was able to see the vibrant and diverse nature of the city the opportunities for research that Akeen had mentioned.
Overall, the IPHE trip allowed me to meet new USC colleagues, developed a better sense of community at USC, and strengthened the relationship I had with faculty members I already knew. It also provided me the opportunity to learn about the process of establishing institutional partnerships and different activities I can incorporate in the upcoming global health research experience I am leading this summer.