Virtual Global & Public Health Internship - Bolivia

During my CFHI Global Health Program in Tarija, Bolivia, I had the opportunity to rotate through several different healthcare settings that gave me a well-rounded perspective. I spent one week in a city clinic, two weeks in a rural clinic, and one week on the OB/GYN floor of the main hospital. As a fourth-year medical student applying OB/GYN, I especially appreciated how the local team made sure I had plenty of women’s health exposure. I was able to attend surgeries, follow patients on the wards, and even visit the Chagas Center. The doctors and nurses were welcoming and inclusive, always making sure I was involved while keeping within the ethical guidelines set by CFHI. Beyond my clinical duties, the local team and community made my experience unforgettable. My host family was incredible; they welcomed me into their home as one of their own, and I had some of my favorite memories sharing meals and conversations with them. The Spanish classes were also excellent, completely tailored to my needs, and helped me improve both my medical Spanish and everyday communication. I always felt supported by the CFHI staff and the local team, who went out of their way to make sure I was learning, comfortable, and safe. Tarija itself was the perfect setting for this experience. It’s a beautiful, calm city surrounded by nature and filled with kind, welcoming people. From exploring the plazas to enjoying the local food and culture, I loved every moment of living there. This program not only strengthened my clinical skills and Spanish, but also gave me a much deeper appreciation for global health and the ways providers adapt to serve their communities. I’m leaving with new friendships, meaningful experiences, and an even stronger commitment to serving underserved populations in my future career.

Going into the program, I was unsure what to expect, but I'm glad I was able to experience it! I was able to learn about Bolivia's healthcare systems and improve my skills in Spanish, which was a main goal of mine. I realized that Bolivia has a healthcare structure that we in the U.S. should envy. I thought that I was pretty well educated and held little bias, but by learning more about Bolivia, I began to recognize all the ingrained biases that stemmed from the United States media. It inspired me to aspire to learn more about Global Healthcare. Truly, it was a worthwhile experience!

This is a wonderful opportunity for any student that desires a cross-cultural internship experience to add to their CV. The support from CFHI and my site preceptor really made me feel engaged, connected, and valued and I felt like I really learned a lot throughout the experience!

I would recommend this program to anyone that wants to gain a bigger perspective on our world. My program highlights were gaining new ways of asking intelligent questions and learning to be courteous to new customs. I like the activity where I set goals for myself at the start of the program.

Meeting with Gonzalo was the most valuable to me. Speaking with the expert and being able to get the first hand stories or analysis was very valuable to the work he had me do. I loved learning about nutrition in general. It was not something that I was overly knowledgeable about in the beginning of this experience and the general, baseline knowledge that I was able to learn was incredible!

I would recommend this program online but also if possible to do a in person version I would recommend that as well. The highlights of the program were the case studies and virtual tours of the health services, and Spanish courses. I liked learning from traditional doctors and learning about the clinics patient centered care and intercultural practices.

The cultural events and meeting our instructors were the highlights of the program! I would recommend this program, it was a very worthwhile experience and I feel that everything we did improved my knowledge on global health. The lectures with our medical directors were the most interesting.

I loved the cooking classes that we had through CFHI; it allowed me to see a bit deeper into the culture and daily life in Bolivia. I absolutely loved my language classes with Gonzalo and I learned so much from him everyday about different health topics that were all so interesting. I also loved the lectures of Dra. Uribe who was absolutely fantastic and so knowledgable. I absolutely loved it and I feel like I learned so much from this program. Language learning has helped me so much especially going into my study abroad experience next semester.

I really enjoyed each of my classes, and I felt that the program had been adapted well to an online platform. I mainly enjoyed my language classes and learning about the local health system from the professionals who work there. I also liked the medical director seminars and language learning sessions.

I would recommend this program to others, particularly because it was so well organized and everyone was working to make sure we had the best experience possible (even with the limitations). I think one of the main highlights of the CFHI virtual program was being able to hear directly from the medical professionals and experts in Bolivia and feel connected to the people there. Even though the program was remote, I found it very valuable to learn about the culture and I feel as though I will be much more educated for when I come to visit in the future.

I had a really great time, and will likely look into some of the other programs CFHI has to offer, especially once in person opportunities begin to open up again! I really enjoyed this experience! Although I wish it could have been in person, I found the cultural activities, such as the tours of La Paz, to be fascinating. Also, the Spanish classes were very helpful and intriguing, since they were centered around various health topics.

This program was my first real experience in the field of global health. The knowledge and experience that I gained has been invaluable. My perspective about what health looks like has been changed, as has how I view interculturality and the role of culture in an increasingly globalized world. I cannot recommend this program enough.

It was an incredible learning opportunity. Although I would not describe it so much as an internship, I had an excellent experience learning language skills, cultural skills, and building my public health understanding. Building an increased awareness of different cultures and understanding the complexities of public health were both main highlights of my program experience

Yes, I would recommend this program to others as it provided me with a greater understanding of the broader health problems that affect lower income nations such as Bolivia and the barriers in Latin America that deter the country from achieving optimal health outcomes for different chronic and communicable illnesses. The exposure to a different culture allowed me to interact with individuals who shared different perspectives than myself and came from a diverse set of backgrounds. Engaging in dialogue with other participants and researching a specific health concern in Bolivia enabled me to apply the knowledge that I learned in the lectures to a tangible project that synthesized my learning. Overall, this program did an excellent job of exposing participants to the host country's culture and introducing them to a wide array of global health topics.

I think that an in-person experience would be amazing, but I completely recommend the virtual experience as well. It is a great alternative for people unable to travel and still had an amazing effect on me.I thought the facilitators were absolutely amazing! I was so excited for this experience, and it exceeded my expectations 10 fold. I loved the variety of presentations, from CFHI-led global scale presentations to patient interactions and panels with local clinicians. It really helped with perspective, and I really loved how passionate our leaders were in all the presentations.