‘Health’ and ‘care’ are words that we often use in daily speech as well as in research and policy — but that
we do not always fully unpack to ourselves or each other. This cohort’s activities and project will focus on one of the most pressing health issues in the United States: the opioid epidemic, or what economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton call “deaths of despair;” through collaboration with other organizations this cohort hopes to shed light on the issue and brainstorm potential avenues to a better future. The cohort will also meet over dinners to critically reflect on your personal and community service experiences of health and caregiving, and explore what it might mean to conceptualize health as human adaptation to changing environments and care as human
presence. As we consider how biosocial and medical realities shape each other, we will delve into questions of how we imagine the concepts of ‘health’ and ‘care’ and the social/medical implications thereof, including how definitions of such terms vary from community to community to create disparity in treatment.
Precious Insights into Healthcare
By Mary Davis We’ll call the baby in this story Precious, because his mother looked at him every day like he was the best gift the universe had ever given her. Precious was a newborn baby who I first saw this summer in the minor theater of Levolosi Health Center in Arusha, Tanzania when he was […]
A Night in the Life of a Levolosi Health Center Volunteer
The photos above depict the labor ward of Levolosi Health Centre. The right photograph shows the labor beds and nurses station, while the left photograph shows the bench where babies are placed after and the hand/tool washing station. I spent the first four weeks of my summer internship volunteering in the labor […]
My 8 weeks in Cambodia
By Leah Smith As many of you are finding I am sure, mere words cannot contain the realm of experiences that one is given when weaving the paths of their lives in with communities that are not of our origin. If the service life were a very large flowered quilt, these experiences would be the […]
A Day in the Life of a PICS Intern at Montefiore Medical Center
By Mina Musthafa As I reflect upon my internship at Montefiore Medical Center’s Housing at Risk Program, one particular day comes to mind. That was when I truly understood how diverse a day could be while working with my team, where we help patients with chronic and complex medical conditions find suitable housing. Such a […]
A Week in the Life of a Global English Camp Intern
By Grace Simmons This summer, I am working as a Global English Camp intern for a company called Come On Out Japan. The goal of the program is to help Japanese high school students improve their English speaking confidence and reflect on their future goals with a 5 day curriculum. So far, my days have […]
