Global health w/o global experience

[sydneyteaches]

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Looking forward to Fall 2013 when I hope to attend an MPH program, how likely am I to find myself in a global health program if I haven't had global experience?

I'm interested in infectious diseases and sexual health education/programming and analysis on a global arena, but my experience is limited to the US. I've volunteered with an AIDS organization in college, a needle exchange/harm reduction program as a working professional, and as a volunteer counselor to LGBT adolescents. I'm also currently a special ed teacher with the NYC Teaching Fellows program (part of AmeriCorps) and am getting a M.S.Ed as a part of the program.

I recently attended an info session at Columbia, and the woman there more or less told me to not bother applying to a global track if I don't have international experience. Though I understand this, is my interest in this field be adequately justified in a statement of purpose? I'm extremely interested in Emory's program especially, and though they don't flat-out say on their website international work is necessary, they do say preference is given to those with that experience.

Am I deluding myself into thinking I might have a change at a global health program? I know at Emory the BSHE program would suit my interests, but it'd be more focused on a national level. On the other hand, I have heard that people have said they didn't go through a global program but still ended up working internationally. I know Emory forwards applications on to another department if you're rejected by one, but I don't want to compromise my chances of getting in if, while being rejected by one department, someone else takes my spot at a different department that would have accepted me!

Sorry for rambling, but I've been trying to figure out the answer to this, and I just can't! Any insight would be appreciated 🙂

 

[364462]

Looking forward to Fall 2013 when I hope to attend an MPH program, how likely am I to find myself in a global health program if I haven't had global experience?

I'm interested in infectious diseases and sexual health education/programming and analysis on a global arena, but my experience is limited to the US. I've volunteered with an AIDS organization in college, a needle exchange/harm reduction program as a working professional, and as a volunteer counselor to LGBT adolescents. I'm also currently a special ed teacher with the NYC Teaching Fellows program (part of AmeriCorps) and am getting a M.S.Ed as a part of the program.

I recently attended an info session at Columbia, and the woman there more or less told me to not bother applying to a global track if I don't have international experience. Though I understand this, is my interest in this field be adequately justified in a statement of purpose? I'm extremely interested in Emory's program especially, and though they don't flat-out say on their website international work is necessary, they do say preference is given to those with that experience.

Am I deluding myself into thinking I might have a change at a global health program? I know at Emory the BSHE program would suit my interests, but it'd be more focused on a national level. On the other hand, I have heard that people have said they didn't go through a global program but still ended up working internationally. I know Emory forwards applications on to another department if you're rejected by one, but I don't want to compromise my chances of getting in if, while being rejected by one department, someone else takes my spot at a different department that would have accepted me!

Sorry for rambling, but I've been trying to figure out the answer to this, and I just can't! Any insight would be appreciated 🙂

No one can stop you from applying to any program offering a global health focus. However, you do take risks in the application, if they implicitly or explicitly prefer applicants with global/international experience. Lest you 'take time off' and do work/volunteer abroad, the risks remains.

If you do choose to apply anyway, you do have control over many areas of your application, primarily making explicit in your personal statement why the global health focus is where you are headed. You can make connections between your experience and the global health curriculum, as I am sure you already know, including speaking not only to the subject of communicable diseases but also to the undeserved/marginalized communities you have worked with - all target areas of global health. Here, I would make explicit lessons learned, including specific or concrete skills, that are applicable to international health, not least of which are cultural sensitivity, openness, ability to adjust in settings with limited resources, etc.

The counter-argument is: if you do have interests in global health, why did you not seek experience in the area? If for whatever reason, however legitimate, you could not, why not take time off now and go abroad before applying? These types of questions are very real for admissions, I think. This goes back to risks of applying without the experience.

In any case I don't think there are straightforward answers. Programs will vary, and as you pointed out, some are more explicit than others about what they are looking for in applicants. Also, I recommend applying to the programs that most interest you. You may end up in an internship or practicum that has opportunities abroad. Post-graduation and into your career, you can certainly aggressively seek positions abroad even if your MPH training was not specially global health focused. Of course, the cycle starts again: are your chances of securing an international position any less precisely because the MPH training was not global related? Again, nothing is impossible in this sense, but you are right to wonder that some experience or training facilitates certain opportunities moving forward.

My sense has been that top-tiered MPH programs are for professionals who are specializing or transitioning into a public health career, whereas other programs (typically) accept applicants out of undergrad or with limited experience. None is better than another, but you can see a (tenuous) correlation. JHSPH, Harvard, Columbia, UNC, etc. are in this category - in global health, anyway.

I say, take the risk, provided you are aware of them and ready for what may or may not happen. In this case, plan for contingencies but also be hopeful for possibilities despite whatever limitations you believe you might have. Good luck!

 

[MolBio]

Looking forward to Fall 2013 when I hope to attend an MPH program, how likely am I to find myself in a global health program if I haven't had global experience?

I'm interested in infectious diseases and sexual health education/programming and analysis on a global arena, but my experience is limited to the US. I've volunteered with an AIDS organization in college, a needle exchange/harm reduction program as a working professional, and as a volunteer counselor to LGBT adolescents. I'm also currently a special ed teacher with the NYC Teaching Fellows program (part of AmeriCorps) and am getting a M.S.Ed as a part of the program.

I recently attended an info session at Columbia, and the woman there more or less told me to not bother applying to a global track if I don't have international experience. Though I understand this, is my interest in this field be adequately justified in a statement of purpose? I'm extremely interested in Emory's program especially, and though they don't flat-out say on their website international work is necessary, they do say preference is given to those with that experience.

Am I deluding myself into thinking I might have a change at a global health program? I know at Emory the BSHE program would suit my interests, but it'd be more focused on a national level. On the other hand, I have heard that people have said they didn't go through a global program but still ended up working internationally. I know Emory forwards applications on to another department if you're rejected by one, but I don't want to compromise my chances of getting in if, while being rejected by one department, someone else takes my spot at a different department that would have accepted me!

Sorry for rambling, but I've been trying to figure out the answer to this, and I just can't! Any insight would be appreciated 🙂

Yes, yes and yes to all your questions. I think you have a great background for working on HIV, sexual health and substance abuse both domestically and also internationally, so yes - I think you can get into a global health program. And yes, the larger and well established schools will have plenty of international projects in departments other than global health (epi, behavioral, etc.). And yes, having a well written and convincing statement of purpose can definitely make up for a lack of international experience. What I would probably do is apply to the Emory BSHE program and if accepted, ask if you can work with an overseas project. Then for other schools that are less competitive, just apply directly to their global health program.

You may have also seen on this forum a debate on whether or not a degree in "global health" per se is even useful -- I'm not going to wade into that here, but I will say you won't cripple yourself for global health careers by joining an MPH in a non-global health department.

Good luck.

 

[Lemon Meringue]

Looking forward to Fall 2013 when I hope to attend an MPH program, how likely am I to find myself in a global health program if I haven't had global experience?

I'm interested in infectious diseases and sexual health education/programming and analysis on a global arena, but my experience is limited to the US. I've volunteered with an AIDS organization in college, a needle exchange/harm reduction program as a working professional, and as a volunteer counselor to LGBT adolescents. I'm also currently a special ed teacher with the NYC Teaching Fellows program (part of AmeriCorps) and am getting a M.S.Ed as a part of the program.

I recently attended an info session at Columbia, and the woman there more or less told me to not bother applying to a global track if I don't have international experience. Though I understand this, is my interest in this field be adequately justified in a statement of purpose? I'm extremely interested in Emory's program especially, and though they don't flat-out say on their website international work is necessary, they do say preference is given to those with that experience.

Technically speaking, global health encompasses certain diseases, public health issues, of global import and does include work being done in the United States. The term international health is being phased out in favor of global health which, sort of from a PR standpoint, challenges the notion that issues such as TB are "international" public health problems that affect only countries outside of the United States. Look at West Nile, multi-drug resistant TB, these diseases will affect the United States more in the future. Even public health issues such as smoking, diabetes, cancer all are increasingly being seen as global health problems.

For example, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Washington DC area is as severe as the HIV/AIDS epidemics in some hard hit countries in Africa, and lessons learned in Africa are being applied to DC, and vice-versa. So, I think that the ideal global health student is aware and available to travel to, or at least seek out, information that allows him/her to analyze data between different countries, and is inclined to view the world through the global health lens.

That being said, I think it is good advice to take Columbia's and Emory's advice at heart. If they had a ton of applications to go through, then they might just separate out the ones with international experience and go from there.

It is going to be hard to write an essay, "Why I Love Global Health and Want to Study This Exclusively", without the experience, it might diminish the rest of your application as they committee might get the impression that you have made career decisions without the pertinent experience. I think most MPH candidates romance the idea of global health, and sort of put it on their bucket list, but beyond contemplation, do they actually seek out this experience?

In terms of commitment, actions speak louder than words. Though I would certainly view your work/volunteer experience as speaking to an excellent career in global health, I would take the school's stated preference at face value, and consider getting some experience abroad.

Maybe you could spend a month volunteering at an HIV/AIDS education program in another country, and then you could analyze how the experience was meaningful to you in the essay as it seems you are looking for a 2013 admission date. You can always update your application with various schools after having gotten this experience. Yes, you can do global health work via other concentrations, but it would probably help to get a little international health experience anyway before grad school even if you go the BSHE route as it would help inform your decision of what type of global health project you would be most interested in.

 

[Lemon Meringue]

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