Graduating Seniors Give Compelling Speeches at GlobeMed Summit
by Ashley Hagaman on May 8, 2009
In this two-part post, the text version of both Senior Speeches delivered at the closing student dinner at the 2009 GlobeMed Global Health Summit will be pasted for our readers. Christine Lin, former President of GlobeMed at Truman State University, and Jon Lichkus, former President of GlobeMed at Penn State University, were able project their passion and dedication to GlobeMed and Global Health to each individual present. Below is Christine Lin's speech.
"When I first applied to college four years ago, I wrote in one of my essays that my goal was to help the world become a better place. I didn't really know what that meant or how I would do that, but it sounded like a good answer at that time. Coincidentally, a college liked that answer, accepted me, and sent me an intriguing book for summer freshman reading that needs no introduction: Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World.
That college happened to be Case Western Reserve University, but because of some hefty scholarships, I found myself at Truman State University, a tiny liberal arts school in Kirksville, Missouri, around a 3 hour drive northwest from my hometown of St. Louis. Kirksville's official slogan is "Where People Make the Difference". And rather comically, in a rural town of only about 17,000 people, it seems that people really do make the difference.
But, it is true. Since joining GlobeMed during the spring of sophomore year, my sense of community has become stronger, and I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by students that are proactive. These are students that have built up the strength and focused positively on the assets of communities domestic and abroad.
Working with our chapter's health partnership, the Maison de Naissance Foundation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has been a one-of-a-kind experience. Imagine being a pregnant woman in rural Haiti, having to walk over 6 hours to a hospital, and pay money that you don't really have to a doctor or nurse. Imagine being a four year old child, growth severely stunted and belly swollen with worms because of severe malnutrition. Imagine dying from the lack of a 50-cent vaccine, or from the lack of clean water and soap. Now I can only imagine, because I've never been to Haiti or the Dominican Republic. But I cannot imagine all of this happening while people with power decide not to intervene.
However, a few Kansas City health professionals decided to do something in Haiti, where the infant and maternal mortality rates are the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Their initiative to set up a sustainable and culturally appropriate modern birthing home in southwestern Haiti is truly inspiring. Today, the birthing home has helped Haitian women give birth to over a 1,000 babies. And despite four consecutive hurricanes, food riots, rising gas prices, and a lightning bolt, yes, a LIGHTNING BOLT that hit the birthing center, Maison de Naissance continued to be an oasis of peace and care in the midst of unrest.
While my international on-site work has been quite limited, GlobeMed has really opened my eyes to the parallels between international health and local applications. One memorable experience occurred in Milan, a town just 30 minutes west of Kirksville, in the poorest county of Missouri. Milan is a blue collar area whose economy revolves around the industrial pork processing plant owned by Premium Standard Farms (which makes Oscar Meyer Weiner hot dogs). 40-45% of the town's inhabitants are comprised of Spanish-speaking migrant workers, and I was in Milan with the purpose of interviewing a few of the immigrants for an oral history project for my Latin American History class.
When I first arrived at Milan, the first thing that hit me was the smell. Oh, what a smell. The putrid scent of rotting pigs' meat in the warm autumn air from the plant was a rancid surprise on my olfactory system (especially since I'm vegetarian). After a few minutes of adjusting to the odor, I headed over to the small taquería on the town square to meet Pablo and Maria, two retired migrant workers who had kindly agreed to a short interview. Over a few tacos and Cokes, I learned about the horrifying occupational health hazards of working in the plant, the racism and discrimination against migrant workers, and lack of culturally competent practices in the Milan hospital and surrounding clinics.
Upon completion of that oral history project, Pablo and Maria's appalling stories still stuck with me, and even a year later, I couldn't get rid of the awful stench of social injustice. Last year, I went back to Milan with a small group of students to work on bringing medical translators into the Milan hospital. This year, I decided to try something new; I proposed a peer-taught class on global health. Inspired by my service-learning experience in GlobeMed, I am now the head preceptor of Truman's first student -initiated course on the Bio-Social Components of Global Health in Immigrant Populations. Our small class consists of students who want to better understand the marginalization that immigrants face and how this has affected the movement of communicable diseases. Through tangible projects which target actual community health needs in a variety of locations, including Milan, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, our little class bridges our institution with local and international communities.
As part of a growing group of empowered students, we are creating massive health changes. Though it may seem like grunt work, the time that we spend as a chapter raising funds, analyzing data spreadsheets, and grant writing all contributes to the big picture of global health equity. This is the time for our generation to deliver critical leadership and action on issues of global health, and to quote Arnold Toynbee, "Our century will be chiefly remembered in future centuries not as an age of political conflicts or technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of the whole human race as a practical objective".
Health care is a human right, and to be part of an organization that argues that we, as world citizens, have the duty to see that all people have access to health care, is tremendous. We aim to expand our notions of "rights" beyond traditional definitions; although we attach great importance to rights as freedom of speech, religion, privacy, etc., we also believe that human potential cannot be fulfilled without basic necessities such as clean drinking water, food, and health care. Through GlobeMed, I've been able to gain a more pragmatic understanding of global health challenges and the goals that need to be met in order to address those issues, and to see the remarkable success from Maison de Naissance in extending maternal-child health care while empowering community well-being has encouraged me to pursue a career in public service. As a future physician, I will continue to use what I've learned through GlobeMed and my global health experiences to transform myself and the surrounding community.
I've been with the GlobeMed at Truman chapter for almost 3 years now, and have seen some dramatic changes, from our first executive board meeting with 10 students to now a 60 member powerhouse that is working for global health equity. I'd like to take this time to thank the GlobeMed central staff and the GlobeMed at Truman team for all the support and help you've given throughout the years. It's been an honor to work with such inspiring students, and I love being part of a team, a team with different backgrounds and different majors and minors, a team that is a bit unruly and brilliant, a team that I can always talk to on Google chat at 3 o' clock in the morning, a team that can watch the news and know that we can do something about it, and best of all, a team that understands the importance of camaraderie and community. Thank you."
No comments.