As part of Cornell's new Global Health Program, students spend eight weeks in a resource-poor setting. This summer, 47 of 74 Global Health students made the program's first trips, which varied widely -- from assisting faculty studies on Chagas disease in Mexico and malaria in Tanzania to volunteering with a hospital train in India.

Twelve students participated in the new Global Health Summer Session Program in Tanzania, which combines "some academic and classroom work with an internship," said Rebecca Stoltzfus, who taught the summer program. A Cornell professor of nutritional sciences, Stoltzfus directs the Global Health Program, a multidisciplinary undergraduate minor and graduate program funded by the National Institutes of Health.

In collaboration with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College (KCMC), Stoltzfus taught 12 KCMC students and 12 Cornell students, basing her curriculum on team projects focused on policy case studies. Students spent four weeks in the classroom and four weeks in community internships, which varied from health and nutrition education to assisting doctors in clinics or hospitals. Students also interacted with the community through home stays.

"There was a lot of cross-cultural learning … and mutual benefit between the two groups of students," said Stoltzfus.

"It's a very realistic program because if you want to do public health and policy work, you're going to be working with international students and international policy makers, and having that appreciation early on and the challenges that [this collaboration] entails are really important," said Brenna McGuire '10, who attended the Tanzania program this summer.

While the Tanzania trip offers students a well-organized and varied experience, some Global Health students opt to organize their own field experiences.

"For example, one of our students [Sanchit Gupta] was in India, working with Impact India Foundation," said Jeanne Moseley, the program's coordinator. "He assisted the Lifeline Express, a hospital train that supplies free health care, including surgeries, in remote areas of India via the railway system."

And 15 students worked in Honduras through the Partnership for Honduran Health, a Cornell student-led organization that arranges public health service trips to Honduras once or twice a year. They conducted health surveys and worked in a local clinic.

"There is really a spectrum of ways in which students go about fulfilling the global health minor requirement," said Moseley, adding that 23 of the 47 students who traveled this summer received Global Health travel grants.

"One has to be realistic and really humble about what an American student can contribute in a short-term internship," said Stoltzfus. "I would certainly say our [Tanzania program] students did more learning than they were probably able to contribute to the host organization, and yet our students provided friendship, expertise and material support."

Sarah Palmer '10 is a writer intern with the Cornell Chronicle.