43 Seniors Graduate with Global Health Certificate

The Duke Global Health Institute awarded 43 individuals with a global health certificate at a special commencement ceremony last Friday, with family and friends by their side to congratulate their accomplishments. The largest group of global health certificate students to date, they represent 17 different majors, 10 minors, and a wide range of intellectual interests.

“You have taken your diverse talents and backgrounds and learned to work together, which is the very nature of global health,” said Sherryl Broverman, certificate program director and associate professor of the practice of biology. “You are the first class who could participate in the global health certificate from their first year, and you are teaching us what it means to study global health at Duke.”

The global health certificate, in its fourth year at Duke, is among the most popular certificate programs on campus, and students say it has been the highlight of their undergraduate experience. 

“Global health has definitely been my defining experience at Duke and the area in which I’ve learned the most and am excited to continue learning and serving after graduation,” said global health certificate recipient Chrissy Booth, who received a degree in religion last weekend and will begin a job at Teach for America. “The program has an incredible impact on students and provides amazing opportunities both on campus and everywhere else on earth.”

The six-course global health certificate provides students with an interdisciplinary understanding of the causes of global health disparities and encourages them to consider strategies for addressing these issues in underserved communities in the US and around the world. In addition to coursework, the certificate requires students to engage in a summer fieldwork experience.  The program culminates with the Capstone, in which students design an intervention for a global health topic of their choice.

“The global health courses were my most fascinating classes at Duke,” said Katherine Rock, who majored in public policy studies. “Particularly, the Capstone course was a unique opportunity because it allowed me to create a project that could have real-world applications.”

Rock’s capstone project focused on mental health issues among slum dwellers in Colombia. She also completed a fieldwork project on nutrition in Durham with a drug rehabilitation program called TROSA.  Rock plans to attend culinary school, and hopes to someday combine her passions for global health and cooking to work on nutrition and health policy.

As they begin their careers, global health certificate recipients will take with them new knowledge about the most dire challenges of the world.  Speaking to the students, Michael Merson, founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute, said he expects new graduates “to build on the accomplishments made in global health by taking the field in new directions through your creativity, intellect and compassion. Whatever your path, I know you will make a difference.”

Global health certificate and history graduate Lizzy Do, who found a passion for reducing health disparities and maternal health while in the program, is interested in becoming a physician’s assistant and may eventually pursue a career as an OB/GYN or primary care physician.

“For my Capstone project, my group and I considered new ways to help improve pregnancy outcomes among at-risk populations, which included group therapy and a local birth and wellness center in Durham,” said Do, whose degree is in history with a concentration in medicine, science and technology. “I’m really interested in patient-centered health care and maternal health, and I look forward to working with the underprivileged.”

Another global health certificate recipient, Yaoli Pu, has been accepted to the University of Rochester Medical School, where she hopes to incorporate international medicine in her training and return to Tanzania, where she completed a fieldwork project on maternal health.

“The global health certificate has been life-changing. It altered my perspective on life, culture, and my identity as a citizen of the world, not just of the U.S.,” said Pu.  “It’s a two-way street when we walk into the lives of people in underserved communities, and they definitely walked into my life.”

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See more photos from the Global Health Certificate Ceremony on DGHI’s Flickr page.