The GLA Dominican Republic: Global Health Initiative Program is a perfect fit for an aspiring doctor, nurse, or future Peace Corps volunteer.
Have you ever considered the possibility of traveling to experience another culture while at the same time making a difference in an emerging country? Well, here we have a program you might find both interesting and exciting, especially as it allows you to gain hands-on experience in public health. The Global Health Initiative, coming in 2016, will give you the best opportunity to apply your interests in health and humanitarianism to make an impact in a developing country. While on this program, you’ll adapt 7ELEMENTS Foundation’s sustainable health solutions to human security problems and apply them to impact underprivileged Dominican and Haitian families.
As a volunteer providing community service in the DR, you will find that there is much more planned for you than just community service. This is your chance to hike beautiful Dominican landscapes and see the local town’s naturally formed freshwater lagoon. In addition you will visit other local towns like Dajabon on the border of Haiti. There is no better way to experience the Dominican Republic than through working hands on with its people. Imagine the rich culture and people who await you in the DR and ask yourself if learning these perspectives is something you believe will benefit you in your future studies, especially when public health and medicine is often approached apart from interpersonal connections and cross-cultural immersion.
By meeting with community health, sustainability and education leaders to learn how they provide sustainable health care in rural conditions, you’ll uncover what it means to be a caregiver, a medical worker, and a humanitarian. This kind of experience is invaluable to any resume in almost any field, but can be specifically impressive when applied to those aspiring to a career in medicine or public health. This is an experience you won’t get on a college campus summer program or by shadowing at a hospital for a day.
Contributed by Josh Schwartz