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Review
I decided to join the Child Family Health International Virtual Global Health Comparative internship with the determination to get more than just experience in public and global health but also connect to other students and global health professionals. My one-month program focused on Ghana, and I've learned a lot from our weekly lectures on Ghanaian culture and public health.
I would like to recognize Dr. Nwobu, our main lecturer in Ghana region, for his work in moderating our discussions and sharing his personal experiences of being a public health practitioner in Ghana. Likewise, I learned a lot from the webinars on comparative and professional aspects of global health in general. During some sessions I got an opportunity to share my personal experiences with health care in Turkmenistan (my home country).
Even though CFHI was offering primarily in-person internships before, they perfectly managed and executed virtual internships. I was lucky to study with a diverse cohort of students from Canada, the USA, Ghana, Turkmenistan and India, who shared their culturally-unique perspectives on topics that we discussed in class. Our sessions were interactive and informative, which helped me to stay engaged during information-intensive sessions.
Even though my internship didn't include a Spanish aspect to it, I still got an opportunity to practice my Spanish listening during round-table discussions, where delegates from Latin and South America shared their perspectives on different health-related topics in Spanish.
My internship ended two weeks ago and I can't help but keep thinking about what to try next. I gained immense insight into public and global health from the CFHI virtual Global Health Comparative Internship and this positively contributed to my decision to study global and public health in graduate school. Hopefully, I will have another opportunity to participate in CFHI internships (next time in person) to get a different experience and share it with my friends.