Overview
Why study public health in Chile?
Live in ethnically diverse Arica, Chile, home to many cultural worldviews and health practices as well as unequal access to health services. From this strategic location near the borders of Peru and Bolivia, you’ll learn about transnational issues such as infectious disease management and examine healthcare from international perspectives at health centers and government offices. You’ll also learn how to collect, analyze, integrate, and report social and public health data, and use that knowledge while completing independent research or an internship.
You will have the opportunity to learn firsthand about the work carried out by public health teams of Chilean Health System to combat COVID-19, their successful vaccination programs, challenges, and lessons learned.
During excursions, you will spend more than two weeks with Mapuche and Aymara communities, where you’ll learn about indigenous and intercultural medicine and examine how healthcare policies and politics affect indigenous people. Throughout the program, you’ll engage with health officials, policy makers, and traditional medicine practitioners and have homestays with three different families in both urban and rural areas.
You will also develop Spanish language skills related to health sciences through classroom learning, cultural immersion, homestays, and excursions.
Highlights
- Study urban and rural healthcare systems, including indigenous medicine.
- Examine national healthcare policies and intercultural and traditional healing.
- Hear from government, medical, academic, and indigenous sources.
- Learn how the Chilean Health System has faced the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Learn public health research methods; complete field research or an internship.
Prerequisites
Previous college-level coursework or background in public or global health, development studies, anthropology, community, social sciences, or other related fields. Three recent semesters of college-level Spanish or equivalent and the ability to follow coursework in Spanish, as assessed by SIT.