This global health course really stood out to me, because Manzi and Jen are both such experts and leading figures in this sphere.
Bringing Global Health to Tufts
“Regardless of where you are or where you come from, you are global.” - Dr. Anatole Manzi
Dan Nguyen A24 took EXP-0004: Global Health: A Practitioner's Approach to Real-World Problems during the Fall 2022 semester. A biology, community health, and international relations major, Dan was drawn to Global Health because he “felt like it was more practical” than other courses he had taken before. His final presentation that semester was to develop a new program proposal for Move Up Global, a Rwandan non-profit. Dan’s interest in community health, his goal of being a doctor and a global health practitioner, and the final project launched him along a trajectory that would lead him halfway across the world.
Global Health has been offered by the ExCollege for six semesters, becoming a staple for students with varied interests. The semester begins with macro themes including what global health is, who has shaped those definitions, and the history and systems that create inequities in healthcare globally. Throughout the semester, students in groups of three to five focus on one of five non-governmental organizations delivering care in different countries, paying specific attention to program development, funding, implementation, and assessment. This year students focused on organizations in Guatemala, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar and Rwanda. The goal is for students to complete the course with both a more holistic understanding of global health and concrete skills they can bring to the workplace. Students are drawn to the class for a variety of reasons, one of which is to learn from the course’s two instructors, active and dedicated members of the healthcare field both here in the United States and globally.
Dr. Anatole Manzi and Jennifer Goldsmith have co-taught Global Health since its inception. Awarded the Distler Prize just last year, which aims to fund ExCollege courses that do an exceptional job of bridging the gap between the academic and practical world, Manzi and Jen bring an expertise to the class that truly earns it the title of A Practitioner’s Approach.
Jennifer Goldsmith currently consults in global and domestic health equity with numerous non-profit organizations and serves on the leadership team of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health’s DrPH program. She has worked as the Senior Director for Equity at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Director of Global Health Equity Programs and Administration at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Chief Administrative Officer for Seed Global Health. Dr. Anatole Manzi is Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Clinical Quality and Health Systems Strengthening, at Partners In Health (PIH). Manzi is also the founder and Board Director of Move Up Global, where Jen is also on the board. Move Up Global works to create a bridge between education and health, giving Rwandan students the knowledge they need about health care that can then subsequently be disseminated into the community as a whole.
I feel like this class has helped me develop a more critical lens and perspective on addressing global health inequities with a really big emphasis on community engagement and empowerment.
Dan Nguyen
The goal of Global Health is to demystify the theory and practices behind global heath, using Jen and Manzi’s own experiences and applying principles to the realities of the NGOs, to give students a better idea of what health systems can look like internationally both within and beyond clinical settings. Leaders from each NGO attend a class panel each semester, providing a window into the reality of their work and connecting with students through their learning. A pivotal part of the course is the final project, where students pitch a project that could expand upon their NGO’s existing programming.
We conceptualized this class recognizing how many young people aspire to work in global health but lack exposure to what that can mean practically. Our course focuses on skills and team work to train the next generation of global health leaders. Because Manzi and I are colleagues and friends, we can share with honesty and trust so many lessons we have learned over the years.
Jennifer Goldsmith
Classmates, staff, and a panel of Jen and Manzi’s global health colleagues come to the final class to review the pitches. One of the many benefits of having two practitioners lead the course is that they help students find opportunities to see what global health can look like not just within the classroom, but also on the ground. For student Dan Nguyen, he was further able to see what global health looked like after a trip to Rwanda in the summer of 2023. “I wanted to pursue something in the global health sphere. And by the time I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for that summer, I ended up taking the Global Health course at the same time. It was kind of fate where I was able to get connected to Manzi. He was interested in having a fellowship cohort of students to work in Rwanda and to gain service learning experience. And I figured, why not?”
Funded by the Laidlaw Scholars Program and the Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize, Dan alongside Annie Li A24, Ben Katz A23, and Krystal Lwanga A23, spent last summer working in the Musanze District in Rwanda interning with Move Up Global, and in the country’s capital, Kigali, working with a partner organization, African Quantitative Sciences (AQS). This October, Dan and Annie came to visit the Global Health course to talk about their experience.
I was able to see what we learned in textbooks.
Annie Li
Dan, Annie, Ben, and Krystal each spent time learning and working primarily with one of the two local schools partnered with Move Up Global, Nyabirehe Primary School. There they were involved in developing a variety of health intervention curricula for the students and teachers, as well as assisting other school programs such as soap making, computer and technology lessons, and the chicken farm and vegetable garden. Each program was created with the goal of providing the knowledge and resources that help Nyabirehe students establish healthy and hygienic habits. The four Tufts students worked collaboratively to create modules that focused on water, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as oral health and neglected tropical diseases that they taught directly to students.
Returning to the United States, the four students remain engaged and committed to community health and have forged a long-lasting connection to Move Up Global. During their presentation in Jen and Manzi’s class this semester, Annie spoke about how she hopes to focus on pediatric dentistry in the future after her experience in Rwanda. Dan is the co-director of partnerships for Tufts for Health Equity, where students work on peer-to-peer education, organize fundraising and advocacy campaigns, and are encouraged to apply for fellowships at one of their two partner NGOs, Move Up Global and PHASE Nepal. Dan also currently works with Partners In Health, a connection he made through Manzi, as a clinical quality and health systems strengthening intern. After graduation he will be attending Tufts School of Medicine to pursue a medical doctorate, after which he hopes to earn his master’s in public health. Dan and Ben are still working on two research manuscripts in collaboration with Manzi and the Move Up Global research team.
I think this experience has definitely taught me how education is such a powerful tool to disseminate health information, the importance of education, and how that can manifest into socioeconomic opportunities in the future.
Dan Nguyen
As the title suggests, Global Health: A Practitioner’s Approach to Real-World Problems pushes students to learn through experience, and has helped guide future health practitioners towards a better understanding of global communities. Global Health will be offered again in Fall 2024.
EXP-0004: Global Health: A Practitioners Approach to Real-World Problems is funded by the Distler Family Endowment for Innovation in the Workforce, established by Stephen Distler A74 and Dr. Roxanne Kendall J75.