The Global Health Academic Concentration
Follow UC San Diego School of Medicine's GHAC students around the world.
I was born in Guatemala and raised in Southern California. Growing up, I remember my mom always telling me, “En la casa hablamos Español, en la escuela puede habalr Ingles,” which translates to, “At home we speak Spanish, at school you can speak English.” In my early childhood, I remember struggling with both languages. There … Continue reading Found in translation
When I joined the GHAC program, I knew that I wanted to travel to Sub-Saharan Africa. I was eager to understand more about the region, and to have an opportunity to learn from physicians, fellow students, and patients there. Fortunately, I found a project working with American physicians Dr. Sierra Washington and Christy Zachek, and … Continue reading Mapping maputo
In Amman the buildings are dense, piled on top of each other, no spaces in between - evidence of a city that grew out of necessity. During the day the sight can be overwhelming, but at sunset the repetitive architecture reflects back a pink light that captures the city and you can feel a collective … Continue reading learning & Surveying compassion in Jordan
Training with UCSD research team on campus to learn blood and sputum processing techniques so I can successfully collect samples in TJ This summer, I am conducting a clinical study at Tijuana (TJ) General Hospital’s Clinica de Tuberculosis in TJ, Mexico to improve the accuracy and usability of a prototype assay which was designed to … Continue reading Teamwork in Tijuana
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
Brief recap of what I did this summer. 16 June: MS1 ended (whoo) 17 June – 21 June: kicked it in Santa Barbara, LA, and Big Bear, where I climbed Sugarloaf Mountain to train for Mt. Kilimanjaro 22 June: flew from LAX à Amsterdam à Kilimanjaro 23 June – July 3: climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with … Continue reading Mountains Beyond Mountains: A Peripatetic Mzungu On the Hunt for Drugs in Uganda
It was 11:00am on a hot July day. Inside a small green tent in a rural fishing village on the banks of Lake Victoria, an HIV counselor was speaking with two local women about a new study related to alcohol use and intimate partner violence. Outside, an intoxicated fisherman staggered around the tent, hollering unintelligible … Continue reading Integrating an Alcohol and Violence Screening and Brief Intervention into HIV Post-test Counseling: Observations from a Ugandan Fishing Community on Lake Victoria
Hola! This will be my first time fully explaining what I’ve been researching here in Quito in English. I’ve become accustomed to giving brief synopses of my work to my host family, new friends I meet, cab drivers, store owners, etc. in Spanish and actually, my research has been conducted 100% in Spanish as well. … Continue reading Research in Quito
Força! A professor enthusiastically told me after I described the project our team was working on, and I thought to myself: force? What did he mean? Força is a term of encouragement offering energy and motivation to keep doing what you are doing. Everyone here has been very supportive, enthusiastic, and dedicated to the research … Continue reading Força