eMagazine June 2023
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OUR PEOPLE,<br />
OUR MISSION<br />
Global Health<br />
<strong>eMagazine</strong><br />
<strong>June</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
Perspective<br />
Global Health Academy<br />
Highlights<br />
Reflections<br />
Welcome<br />
Global Local<br />
Hispanic and Latinx Communities<br />
Voices of Ugandan Students<br />
Global Health Mental Health<br />
Art to Rwmind Us of Who We Can Be<br />
Our Beautiful Planet<br />
Innovation and Technology<br />
Nursing Division<br />
Women’s Health Education<br />
Among the Letters<br />
Announcements<br />
Article of the Month<br />
Video of the Month<br />
Congratulations<br />
Phoro News<br />
Calendar of Events<br />
Resources<br />
Reflections<br />
Reflecting on My Global Health Journey During<br />
Medical School<br />
Written by Jett Choquette, MD, Class <strong>2023</strong><br />
Near graduation (May 21, <strong>2023</strong>) from the Larner College of<br />
Medicine at Vermont University, I find myself reflecting on the<br />
role global health played throughout my medical school career.<br />
Soon I will start a new adventure, internal medicine residency<br />
at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA. As<br />
I reflect on the large role global health has played in my life so<br />
far, I’m also curious how it will continue to be part of my training<br />
at VCU.<br />
I started medical school knowing I wanted to be part of global health, but I was still formulating<br />
what that meant to me. I’d been a community health volunteer in the Peace Corps in Paraguay<br />
prior to starting medical school. From my time in the Peace Corps, I knew several things: I<br />
wanted to be based in the US, I believed in equal partnership, and (when I worked abroad) I<br />
ultimately hoped to develop a long-term relationship with one community to which I’d return<br />
over the years.<br />
The Nuvance/LCOM Global Health Program welcomed me as I started my first year of medical<br />
school. I was set to go to the Dominican Republic (DR) the summer after my first year of medical<br />
school, something I couldn’t have been more excited about. I couldn’t wait to see what global<br />
health from the medicine perspective was like as the Peace Corps had already given me a<br />
glimpse of global health from the public health perspective. Then COVID came and everything<br />
changed.<br />
My trip to the DR was canceled. Further no one, new or seasoned, in global health could<br />
travel easily as the COVID pandemic raged. The leaders in global health around me, who had<br />
previously looked abroad, looked inward to their local communities as they could no longer<br />
travel. Was it possible to address global health on a local level?<br />
I helped with flu clinics for migrant workers in Vermont. I took part in early discussions and<br />
projects of the UVMMC Emergency Department Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee as<br />
part of the New American Subcommittee. I helped develop longitudinal global health curriculum<br />
to be included as part of the LCOM regular curriculum. I found a community in the Global<br />
Health Program, but still hadn’t found a project that blended my love of health and Spanish in<br />
the way I hoped.<br />
I moved to Connecticut for my clinical years of training (years three and four of medical school),<br />
as a member of the LCOM Connecticut campus <strong>2023</strong> class cohort. Dr. Sadigh connected me<br />
with Elvis Novas, a leader of the Dominican Community Center (DCC) in Danbury, CT. The DCC<br />
is a non-profit that seeks to empower the Dominican community and other Hispanic/Latinx/<br />
Latino communities in the Danbury, CT area. Working together over the past two years, the<br />
DCC and I built a partnership between the Latinx community and the Global Health Program.<br />
As part of this partnership, we designed projects to promote health literacy.<br />
I was grateful for the kind welcome and dedication of the DCC members as our partnership<br />
blossomed. Earlier this spring, a new third year medical student took over my role as the<br />
Community Liaison from the Global Health Program to the DCC, as my graduation was looming.<br />
The DCC is currently planning a summer youth leadership academy that will include a health<br />
literacy component.<br />
Despite the unexpected twist the COVID pandemic caused in my global health journey, I<br />
ultimately found my medical school global health home in Danbury, CT working with the DCC.<br />
The opportunity to collaborate with an important population within the community where I was<br />
training as a medical student resonated with me as especially important. I was glad that the<br />
Global Health Program was prioritizing local global health efforts.<br />
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