Gaining Practical Skills for Careers in Global Health
The Foundations courses, as a core component of the MSc in Global Health, are designed to teach competencies such as the ability to work in an international team and develop an understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of global challenges. These courses are strategically designed to provide students with the opportunity to experiment with ways of addressing and responding to local and global health challenges.
In Foundations II, as the main course assignment, students are asked to draft a project proposal which responds to a global health priority for a fictitious funding foundation – Global Agency for International Development (GAID).
While students develop their project proposal, they consider the balance between their own values as well as the views of their stakeholders, beneficiaries, and project funders while collaborating with an international team. GAID is particularly interested in supporting interventions that contribute to alleviating poverty and contribute to improved health outcomes for vulnerable and excluded individuals around the globe — an aim that is not far from the SDGs by the United Nations that serve as a pillar for many real-world global health innovation funding institutions.
Throughout the semester, students engaged in weekly meetings with their team, learning the practical skills of managing multiple time zones, languages, and cultures that exist within an international team. The international teams included students from our partnership universities in the Netherlands, India, Colombia, and the Sudan. Their objective is to propose a solution to a global health challenge through the lens of equity, sustainability, and feasibility.
As part of the Learning Symposium this year, several groups were selected to present their project proposals. Three teams were then chosen as winners for their well conceptualized presentations, as well as their ability to pitch their idea to a committee representing GAID.
The finalist teams tackled global health challenges through addressing multiple SDGs and the intersections of various challenges. They considered gender equality throughout their proposals and utilized innovation to address global health priorities on a local and global level.
The finalists are as follows:
Team One: Akorede Adekoye, Krista Ariello, Sigwart Casson, Devika Rajeev, Dheeraj Shenoy, and Riya Srivastava
Focused on three SDG aims: SDG 3 (health and well-being), SDG 1 (alleviation of poverty), and SDG 5 (gender equality). They proposed a co-operative run by migrant women in Thailand, to empower capacity building as a critical part of improving the rights to health and well-being within the community and concurrently reducing the level of poverty.
Team Two: Margarita Cortés Supelano, Bernardo Herrera, Evelyne Onari, Anisha Rao, Whitley Schamber, and Alison Tidmarsh
Focused on SDG 1 (no poverty) looking at the short- and long-term impacts of poverty alleviation, while also considering the importance of SDG 5 (gender equality) in project implementation in India.
Team Three: Kennadie Chaudhary, Michal Leckie, Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma, Natalie Palumbo, Celine Vilters, and Abeer Wasim
Focused on SDG 2 (zero hunger) recognized that global health challenges can also be found locally close to home, in Canada, They considered challenges faced by Indigenous communities in parallel with UN SDG 12: responsible consumption and production as well as the role of alleviating hunger and achieving food security within a marginalized Indigenous community of Northern Ontario.
The experience of collaborating, critically analyzing, and developing proposals provided students with the opportunity to apply and gain practical knowledge. Through this assignment and the course overall, students develop skills that they can apply to their future careers in global health.
Global Health News
Related News
News Listing
McMaster University Formalizes Partnership with University of Alabama at Birmingham
Global Health News
March 28, 2024
March 4, 2024