On a trip to China this summer, a group of students from
the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
gather at Mutiianyu, a section of the Great Wall of China
near Beijing.(Photo by Hiral Patel)
| As Americans get their first glimpses of a changing China during the Olympics this summer, many Tulane students already have gotten a first-hand look through university courses based in the rapidly growing country.
The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine offers China-based classes that allow students to learn much more than just “ni hao” or “hello” in Chinese. They spend time interacting with and learning from Chinese students and industry leaders.
“It was an amazing and wonderful experience,” says Jeffery Johnson, public health associate dean for graduate admissions and student affairs, who recently returned from Shanghai. He accompanied 15 students taking a course on public health in China taught by Lizheng Shi, assistant professor of health systems management. Johnson adds, “China is a fascinating phenomenon from a public health standpoint because of the rapid industrialization of their country. I think it’s a tremendous opportunity" for cultural exchange.
Students in the two-week intensive course studied the country’s public health system and ways it is trying to provide services for more than one billion people. China has gained worldwide attention from how it has dealt with the HIV pandemic, the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic and avian flu.
Shi took students to hospitals, community health clinics and a center for traditional Chinese medicine. Roughly 80 percent of the trip was spent on research and studies. “It is a very serious program, academically,” Shi says. “It’s not like summer camp.”
Shi, who was born in China, says that the enthusiasm and optimism from citizens was palpable as the Olympics approached. The country has the fastest growing economy in the world.
“There is a lot of confidence in how they feel about the country and the future,” Shi says.
August 11, 2008
Keith Brannon
|
