Engaging In Global Health Conference: A Conceptual Analysis

Throughout the weekend at the Engaging in Global Health Conference, I learned many new things about the world, health issues, and even myself. I have always had a desire to help others, especially on a larger scale; I just didn’t quite know how. With the numerous speakers, readings, and group breakout sessions we had, I have had more exposure to new ideas and perspectives than I have ever had before in another course or personal life experience and was inspired in many different ways. During the conference, I was introduced to many ideas I had never heard of since I am new to global health. One idea that really made an impact on me however was the fact that no matter what I study or what I have for a future career, I can always find a way …show more content…
Even though the concept of One Health is not new, I had never thought about considering the triad of health that she presented being the connections between humans, animals, and the environment and the ways each impact each other. During her speech, I was fascinated by her speech about the world of diseases, and she made one point that stood out to me: comparative medicine and research between human, animals and the environment is critical. Dr. Petersen highlighted her point with a few statistics showing the connections of diseases between animals and human telling us that 75-85% of all our emerging infectious diseases came from animals, therefore we should be watching the animals and their interactions with humans and the environment to predict possible future outbreaks of diseases and develop a way to stop them before they start. Her passion for finding these connections in her research of protozoa was very refreshing as she was very enthusiastic to be presenting these ideas of One …show more content…
The first news article I read was titled “UI Students Work to Develop Sustainable Toilet”, and I was fascinated by the work students are doing to provide solutions to sustainability issues in developing countries. I chose this article because I am very interested in the many ways myself, as a student, can offer up my skills to help a group of people in need. The article explains that through the course at the University of Iowa called Design for the Developing World, one group of students worked to create a toilet to “turn urine into fertilizer, compost feces, and use the roof as a rainwater collector” (Morin). This was very interesting for me to read about because the object of this course is to design an effective solution to a problem for a certain culture based on their own desires and means. In this case, they were designing a toilet for people of Kobriti, Ghana that could benefit their community in other ways besides serving as a regular toilet for community members to use. Also, I found it very interesting that although the course is offered through the College of Engineering, it is open to any students in any major that seeks an interest in the subject. The inclusion of students from various educational backgrounds really helps broaden views of others to add more depth to the project of building for the needs of that certain