Hello everyone!

My name is Iqra Choudhry and I am a rising sophomore in the NHS majoring in Human Science. I hope everyone has had an amazing summer and is ready for the upcoming school year. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and reflect on my summer in this blog series. I am a part of the Community Scholars Program on campus and helping my fellow peers who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or are minority students at Georgetown, is something very close to my heart. I hope to be able to guide each and every one of you in any way possible and am so excited to get to know you all. 

Now, this is going to be a shorter blog post but I have a longer one planned for the end of the summer, so stay tuned. Although I haven’t traveled outside of the country, I have been enjoying a relaxing summer with my family and friends here in Virginia. I’m from the DMV area and although I’ve lived here for most of my life, often what happens is we forget to explore our own cities because, well, we live here. But this summer, I became a tourist in my own city and have had a blast. 

I also took the GERMS EMT course this summer, which was an amazing experience. The class consisted of people from all walks of life and from all over America. Through the class, I got to ride in an ambulance, completed an overnight shift at an ambulance service, and got to shadow a nurse in Georgetown Medstar’s ER. I’ve learned everything from back boarding patients to helping with baby deliveries, so to say that this has been my most favorite class at Georgetown would be an understatement. I have yet to take the final NREMT exam to be nationally certified as an EMT, but I hope to do that in the upcoming few weeks. 

Before I sign off, I want to encourage all of you to reflect on this past year, set new goals for yourselves for this upcoming school year, and come in with a positive mindset ready to tackle the next two semesters head-on​. All of us at MHIC are here for you, to encourage you, and to guide you on your path through Georgetown. Do not be hesitant to reach out to any of us. I hope you all have a restful last few weeks of summer vacation!

Best, 

Iqra 

This is a picture from the last day of the GERMS EMT class. This picture is what I would call the calm after the storm. We were put in a multiple casualties situation where wild squirrels were attacking people and we had to treat the patients. The patients were covered with printed out bite marks and fake penetrating objects sticking out of their bellies and legs! This activity tested all of the skills we had been taught in the class and as much as it was fun, it was a great way to apply our skills. This picture is of the whole class and was taken after we had completed this activity. 

P.S. I’m the third from the left, wearing a green shirt and hijab.

Hi! My name is Joon Nam, and I am a rising junior majoring in Global Health. This summer, I have been teaching at a “summer camp” for minority, low-income students. I found this “camp” four years ago with my mom and my brother because most low-income families in my community had a difficult time finding affordable, productive camps to send their kids. So each summer, my family invited those families to send their kids to my house during the summer for free. 

This summer, 8 kids ranging from 3rd grade to 10th grade came to my house from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday. I was in charge of teaching math and English to 5 of the kids, reviewing what they learned the previous year and previewing what they will learn in the upcoming year. Not all 8 hours were spent on studying alone; we would study for about half the time, exercise for 2hr., and play together for 2hr. One weekend, we also went kayaking at a nearby park and had a movie night on another—I attached a picture of us kayaking below. 

Every time I lead this “camp”, I am reminded of the educational  inequality in the US. Most of the kids are from my neighborhood or at least from the same county. Fortunately, the public school system in my county—Fairfax County, VA—is one of the wealthiest in the nation, and kids from this county that I taught were either on pace with or ahead of their grade level. On the other hand, a couple of the kids from other counties were very behind. For an instance, a rising 7th grade boy from Maryland had difficulty doing 3-digit multiplication problems, which he was supposed to have mastered in 5th grade. Yet, he is expected to be enrolled in an honors level math class the following year. I learned that in places where public schools weren’t as rigorous, education-conscious parents sent their kids to expensive private schools. For low-income families, however, sending their kids to private schools is unrealistic. It is ironic that education, which is supposed to be the pathway out of poverty, remains inaccessible to those in poverty. 

Initially, my summer plan was to travel to London and spend time with my family. After all, it is only the summer after my first year of college. Now this is my first time in the United Kingdom and upon observation, I can say that there lie multiple health disparities in the city of London. It is especially evident in the borough where I stay: Newham. My plan for the summer still remains the same, but now I am more attentive on the differences between the UK and America and how certain structures or practices here can affect the health of people in a positive or negative way. This is basically how I plan to grow in my involvement and understanding of general health and minority health. Wherever borough I travel to in London, I make sure to analyze everything around me and try to think about how different things could’ve been done better. I also categorize places and determine how wealthy the borough is based on how clean and neat it appears, which shows that the borough has access to multiple resources that promote health. I look at small things whether it be toilets or the trains I ride on. It’s honestly been kind of fun so far. Even though I cant directly make a difference now, I know that I can take back skills and better practices that would even help America’s health system. I am here for more than 2 months, so it’s better to find something to do while I enjoy my stay. So far, I have noticed that the bathroom stalls in London are much lower and private than the ones in America. But in terms of the ones in homes, there is usually a room with just a toilet and then a room next to it with a sink and bathtub. This is a very peculiar practice because that would mean that when you use the toilet, you cant wash your hands before leaving so there is probably a ton of germs and bacteria on the door knob itself. They should at least put hand sanitizer in the room with the toilet. But while in London, I did end up meeting some awesome people so I’m glad I went. Overall, 10/10 highly recommend. I’d probably go again real soon.

Over the course of the past couple of weeks, I have been participating in a translational health internship program in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The past 5 weeks have been full early morning shifts in different public children’s hospitals and primary care centers surrounded by crowded waiting rooms full of crying babies, coughing infants, and tired parents. Our afternoons are spent at the lab where we have been learning how to conduct various different wet lab assays and to explore more about the disease at the center of this internship, Respiratory Syncytial Virus. A disease of seemingly little to no consequence in high socioeconomic countries such as the U.S, RSV, is an often fatal plague for many infants in lower socioeconomic countries like Argentina. Learning about the different epidemiological risk factors that can play a role in the potential outcomes of an RSV infection through our research and witnessing it first-hand in the lab has been incredibly insightful. This internship has allowed me to better understand how much of a role the structure of a health care system, access to it, and to a proper health education can play in determining the course of a child’s life. Moreover, seeing both the lab work and the treatment of pediatric patients with respiratory ailments has really given me a clear perception of what is meant by “translational science.” Being a part of the entire process from the testing of patient samples to extrapolating key risk factors from the results to further inform the treatment of RSV in communities in Buenos Aires with a heavy disease burden is truly the best way to understand how the translation happens. As the internship comes to an end and we wrap up our group projects, I look forward to seeing what kind of conclusions other groups come to about their respective queries into RSV and what kind of bigger picture our collective analyses will paint about the future of treatments for this disease.

Hello! My name is Ezlie Perez and I am a rising Junior majoring in Global Health.  This summer I am studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina with 12 other Georgetown students.  We are participating in the Translational Health Science Internship that incorporates classes, lab research, and shadowing pediatricians in hospitals. While working in the lab I was able to learn about procedures such as cell culturing, polymerase chain reactions, and ELISA. I learned a great deal because many of the procedures were new to me.  The first photo attached is my group at Hospital Elizalde where we got to meet and listen to pediatric patients with different respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Experiencing first hand the healthcare system in another country opened the door for me possibly wanting to work in a developing country in the future. This opportunity has granted me with the valuable experiences that I will always remember when I am a pediatrician in the future.

In addition to the education side of my trip, I also traveled within the country to visit places such as El Calafate, Iguazu Falls, and Mendoza. All three trips introduced me to beautiful and unique scenic places.  Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate, my favorite visit, is pictured in the second photo attached. I rode a boat which allowed me to see the glacier up close. Later, I walked trails around the glacier that were miles and miles long.  The walking trails were empty for the most part so it was extremely quiet, which allowed me to hear things like pieces of the glacier breaking off. The scenery was breathtaking and inspired me to want to visit other glaciers in the future.  Overall the trip has been better than I ever imagined and I am blessed to have had the opportunity to experience it.