Global Health Internship in Bolivia |
Before I interned abroad in Bolivia, I had never put too much thought into my identity. Although I am a Chinese/German American from Port Townsend, WA, I grew up without much of a heritage-based culture and saw myself more as a unique individual than part of any regional, racial, or ethnic group. Living and working with Bolivians in La Paz and Tarija, I felt at various times a strong sense of national, regional, and racial/ethnic identity in my new friends. This experience helped me reflect on my own sense of identity, forcing me to confront what identity meant to me and who I really thought I was. Upon my return to the United States, I was hired as a student ambassador for IE3 Global Internships, for which I created the digital storytelling video below to share my experience exploring the concept of identity in Bolivia.
Research on Socioeconomic Inequalities & Health
Someone once told me, "Experience is informed perspective." During this internship, my real-world experiences gave me a new, informed perspective on the theories and concepts I had learned in my global health minor coursework at UW. Using Bolivia as a case study of the greater theory that socioeconomic inequality correlates with poor health on the levels of both the individual and society, I integrated general theory, current academic literature on Bolivia, and my own observations and encounters to analyze how this phenomenon manifests in Bolivia and propose policies to address the problem. Below is my research paper. My work was inspired by Dr. Stephen Bezruchka of the UW Department of Global Health and based highly on the book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. Click here to watch a "TEDTalk" by Dr. Bezruchka.
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Learning to Travel Independently
“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” – G.K. Chesterton
After my internship, I spent three weeks traveling through Bolivia and Peru on my own, which was a huge growing experience for me. I learned how to be a traveler rather than a tourist, meaning that I limited my expectations and discovered things I had never imagined I would find. Although navigating a foreign landscape independently, I was never alone for long, and I made some great friendships with other travelers and with local people.
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