The Global Health Academic Concentration
Follow UC San Diego School of Medicine's GHAC students around the world.
When I think of my arrival in Botucatu, a small city in the Brazilian countryside, the first word that comes to mind is “hospitality.” From the first day, I was eagerly greeted and introduced to the town, which boasts two large university campuses, several historic buildings, and numerous nearby waterfalls. When I came to the … Continue reading A Lesson in Hospitality
Each morning begins with an 18-mile drive, a 0.5 mile walk across the border, and an Uber ride to the Tijuana General Hospital where I will see patients for the day. In the process I cross the busiest border in the world which also has the largest income disparity in the world. Additionally, this border … Continue reading Border Health: Tijuana
TOURISTING: I was not going to be able to start data collection until four days after we arrived. From the airport, instead of driving north to the university we rented a car and drove south on the Desert Highway to Wadi Musa, the home of Petra. We learned the rules of the road quickly. Lanes … Continue reading Jordan: Touristing
It’s the Fourth of July and I can hear the bombs dropping on Syria. Here in Ramtha we are 5km from the city of Dara’a. It’s loud and constant for months in Dara’a and for years throughout Syria. I used to love fireworks. I don’t anymore. ARRIVAL: I arrived in Jordan on June 29th excited … Continue reading Jordan
Living in Ethiopia for the past two months has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As an American with Ethiopian heritage, it has made it even more personal. Getting to see the land where my parents, grandparents, and ancestors grew up has been a very special part of my work abroad this summer. Prior to coming for … Continue reading Harar Ethiopia: a city of peace and acceptance
During my summer work in Harar, Ethiopia, I have been fortunate to have been involved in many aspects of the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) project. Although my main project this summer was to work on data analysis, I found my most rewarding work to be going out into the rural areas of … Continue reading Community Work in Harar, Ethiopia
I am just finishing up my 6th week (and 400th chart, hooray!) collecting data on post-partum hemorrhaging at Maputo Central Hospital (MCH). To start, Maputo is the capital of Mozambique and is a large city. It has approximately 2 million people spread out over 130 square miles. MCH is the main public hospital serving all of … Continue reading Post Partum Hemorrhaging at Maputo Central Hospital
It was early and the sun was still low when I started picking alpaquinoa. The thick-stalked plants are usually treated as weeds, but the leaves make a delicious addition to salads. Luis, the farm manager, instructed me to pluck off the leaves one by one so they could be put into bags and included in … Continue reading The Cinca Farm in the Ecuadorian Highlands
I have been lucky to gain unique insights into global health challenges by working with this cohort in Santiago, Chile. Chile underwent extremely rapid economic growth when this cohort was recruited at infancy, changing from a low- to high- income country in this time. This rapid progression brought about analogous epidemiological changes with regards to … Continue reading I swear I was doing research in Chile too
This summer in Peru I have worked on a study led by Dr. Laura Fejerman of UCSF School of Medicine that aims to better understand the problem of breast cancer genetics in Latina women, specifically Latina women of high indigenous ancestry. My first contact with Dr. Fejerman was in October 2016, as I started investigating … Continue reading In Search of a Rare Allele: Breast Cancer Genomics in Peru