Location
  • Colombia
    • Bogota
Term
Summer
Subject Areas
Conflict Studies Global Studies Hispanic Studies International Relations Medicine Peace Studies Political Science Pre-Med

Program Details

Program Type
Direct Enrollment
Degree Level
Bachelors Masters
Housing
Apartment Dormitory
Language
English

Pricing

Starting Price
3900
Price Details
The four week course is arranged as a package that includes the academic course and site visits and excursions, bed and breakfast accommodation (a private room in brand new student residence), an airport pickup on arrival, and a busy calendar of social and cultural activities during evenings and weekends designed to help students explore Colombia and its culture.
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Airport Transfers Classes SIM cards Some Activities Some Meals Wifi
What's Not Included
Airfare
Jul 01, 2019
Oct 01, 2019
12 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

The Public Health in Colombia course was launched in summer 2018 in partnership with the prestigious Institute of Public Health at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia.

The four week academic course teaches students the challenges of providing healthcare in a post-conflict society. Students visit a range of medical and governmental organizations to explore the practical considerations for Colombia's healthcare providers and policy makers. The site visits and excursions are accompanied by lectures on campus at Javeriana, which constitute approximately 50% of the course hours.

The course includes accommodation in brand-new student halls of residence in central Bogota, complete with private rooms, cooking and social areas, and amazing views of Bogota and its beautiful mountains.

Participants also have the chance to explore Colombia and its culture with a range of social activities and excursions which include a waterfall trek, city bike tour, and tejo.

Video and Photos

Program Highlights

  • Gain unique insights into the Colombian Public Health System and the impact of the recent conflict there
  • Join practical excursions and site visits to governmental and charitable organisations
  • Study alongside undergraduate and postgraduate students from a range of academic disciplines and nationalities
  • Take part in exciting cultural and social activities that allow you to explore Colombia's highlights
  • Enrol at one of Colombia's top universities, Javeriana

Related Programs

Program Reviews

4.73 Rating
based on 15 reviews
  • 5 rating 73.33%
  • 4 rating 26.67%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Academics 4.35
  • Support 4.8
  • Fun 4.95
  • Housing 4.95
  • Safety 4.9
Showing 1 - 8 of 15 reviews
Default avatar
Don
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Amazing

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.

What was your funniest moment?
The food!!! And drinks as well. Coca is so good, as well as agua de vanila.
87 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Maria Jose
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Public Health in Colombia

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.

What would you improve about this program?
My complaint of the program was regarding site visits, which became repetitive and unnecessarily general. From what I understood, site visits were supposed to be a continuation of the academic lecture, with the purpose of giving an empirical perspective to the subject at hand. However, site visits many times either strayed from the subject, echoed the subject in a repetitive manner, or did not complement the subject in an informative way.
89 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Brian
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Great trip

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.

What would you improve about this program?
The information was geared towards students without a background in public health. For say a masters level the information may have seem not challenging at all. Also the field visits were't really field visits. Most of the field visits turned into a lecture, usually a repeat of the lecture we had in the morning. I think because we were the first group to participate in the course there were a few kinks. They'll figure it out.
88 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Elena
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

An Unforgettable Experience in Colombia

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!

82 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Jeffin
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

A Great Experience!

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.

What would you improve about this program?
As many of the other reviews have said, the site visit were great but a little boring because they were presented in lecture format and reiterated a lot of what the morning lecturers had presented. I was hoping our lectures would be more interactive so that we could talk to each other and share experiences.
82 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Abigail
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Public Health in Colombia!

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.

What would you improve about this program?
One thing I'd suggest to improve everyone's academic experience is to maybe have different classes for different education levels. For instance, I am a graduate student with knowledge on epidemiology. We had approximately 1 week talking about measures of mortality and morbidity, epidemiological and demographical transition and so on in the most basic way; which I understand because we had some undergrad students. However, for me at least, that time felt sort of monotonous and not very academically challenging, it was more like a review.
82 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Laura
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Studying abroad in Bogota!

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!

What would you improve about this program?
The one thing I would recommend is that site visits could be less "lecture format" and more interactive.
84 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Lizette
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

My first trip to Colombia

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!

What would you improve about this program?
Better coordination between lecturers and creating a more engaging environment during site visits.
86 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers