Using international university partnerships to educate undergraduate peers about global health challenges

Purpose:

International education and service-learning experiences among undergraduates facilitate the cultural and knowledge exchange required to solve future global challenges. For such challenges related to global health, international university partnerships can offer hands-on, collaborative experiences for peer groups of undergraduates from different countries. We discuss one such partnership, between a US and a Ghanaian university, that uses this framework to expose students to a variety of urban and rural public health determinants in Ghana.

Methods:

This partnership was developed leveraging interdisciplinary collaboration and expertise on both sides, including grassroots community organizations and public health professionals in Ghana. A critical element was a pilot grant to cover planning including travel costs for each administrative team to travel to the other country. The program’s funding is sustained annually through a financial aid-eligible program fee applied to participants from the US university. 

Major results:

Many participants have pursued a global health path including funded-research for improving maternal health outcomes in Ghana, and designing biomedical devices for use in low-resourced settings. Ghanaian students have also used this experience to pursue other funded-global experiences. Importantly, this partnership attracts US undergraduates of color and students in the professional schools – including Nursing and Engineering -  who are normally underrepresented in global programs.

Recommendations:

Global university partnerships with peer-cohorts can successfully leverage field experiences to expose students to the interrelatedness of social issues, technological and infrastructural challenges, and health outcomes. US campuses can successfully mobilize groups traditionally underrepresented in abroad experiences through these types of programs.