Public Health in Colombia

My experience of the program in Colombia was absolutely amazing. If the program is replicated I don't think there will be any possible better outcomes. I felt the most of academic content, lectures and materials are intellectually stimulating (although one or two went slightly irrelevant from/ my point of view).
I was given a chance to communicate with experts in a range of fields. The most productive conversation I had was a lady who experts in digital healthcare system. While I could sense there was the atmosphere of athusiasm created by my peer students. All of them are from top universities, smart and creative. The exchange of ideas (intellectual conversations) happens everyday.
Ana was extremely helpful. There was an incidence in which I lost some money, that was beyond her obligation but she still investigated and actively helped me. I am very touched.
If there is anything negative, I would say it's the temporal order of lectures. Sometimes I have the feeling, although I cannot recall the details, that the morning lecture and afternoon activity do not match.

The Public Health in Colombia program was a really cool experience. Exploring a system with so many complexities, built around an ongoing historical struggle and during a time of both social and politically transition was really insightful. The course was very informative and engaging. Exploring the dialectics of the subjects from the different perspectives and expertise of the professors gave great depth to the academic aspect program and made it incredibly insightful! The activities all provided a feeling of cultural immersion, and the coordinators were all incredibly helpful and welcoming. Bogota is such as incredible city that represents a part of an incredibly country, and I'm glad this program allowed us to explore its complexities among brilliant people, who along the ride, became friends.

My experience in Bogota w/RTS was great. Bogota is a unique city in a culturally diverse country. The course was structured in a way that there were lectures in the morning and field visits in the afternoon. It was a jammed pack month, we learned information that it would take semesters to learn. The professors of different background and disciplines also provided unique insight from their field and specialties. I'd definitely recommend this course to people interested in studying abroad.

RTS organized an amazing program from the academic courses at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana to the social and cultural activities that enabled us to get a real feel of Colombian culture. The public health classes were interesting and informative because they looked at public health from many different lenses. The afternoon site visits, although a little repetitive at times, re-enforced and expanded on the knowledge we had learned in the morning lecture. The social and cultural activities were always a blast from learning how to play tejo to going on a graffiti tour around Bogota. The accommodation was clean and beautiful and I never felt unsafe when going to sleep. Lastly, the staff went above and beyond to make sure our time in Colombia was incredible. I highly recommend this program and this country to everyone!

This program is so unique in so many ways. It introduced me to much of Colombia's great culture and background. During the educational portion we were able to learn a lot about the Colombian healthcare system and its flaws. The coordinators of the program are extremely helpful and eased our transition to Colombia immensely. They were there to guide us along if we needed help but left us to our own devices so we could figure out the city by ourselves and form a unique connection with it.

My overall experience was great. Both, academically and culturally. Bogota is such an amazing place to visit, as well as Colombia as a whole. I would have loved to visit other cities, but I'll leave that for another visit to Colombia. The classes were very educational. We basically learned a whole semester course in one month. The lectures and the university made it as easy-going as possible but still rich in content. I appreciate that we have different lectures with great expertise on the topics they were teaching us. I like that it was split into two sections: Morning with lectures and afternoon with site-visits. Everyone was really kind and knowledgeable and always welcomed our questions and doubts.

Overall this was a wonderful and thorough introduction to the public health in Colombia. Every day we heard from a different expert/leader in the field on their area of expertise. We also had the opportunity to visit different institutes with wide-ranging roles in the public health field. In addition to the academics, Red Tree Study also arranged many cultural and social activities for us to take part in. For example, there were opportunities to go on a graffiti tour, visit the beautiful Monserrate, and to play Tejo. The facilities that we stayed in were also top notch and I felt very safe my entire stay in Bogota!

Traveling abroad is an amazing experience, but Colombia was by far my favorite experience abroad. From our morning lectures and afternoon site visits (which, as previously mentioned, were often repetitive and difficult to engage with) to our social excursions through Red Tree Study, the past month was nothing short of enriching. Through Red Tree and Javeriana's interdisciplinary approach, we were able to learn about Colombia's public health system after the armed conflict that lasted 50 years. Our lecturers came from a variety of backgrounds and specialties and provided valuable insight regarding the Colombian public health system and history of the country.

Our outings with RTS were incredibly fun. I loved the hike to the waterfall at Choachi and playing tejo. Definitely a must!
Overall, I had an amazing time in Colombia and I am very grateful to Red Tree Study for making this possible!