Expanding the Ivory Tower Creating Educational Partnerships for Global Health

Dilemma: Engaging Students in Program Design Educational value beyond the transfer of essential knowledge

IH 744 Program Design for International Health- Objectives Learn essential elements of program design & proposal development Learn to translate evidence based results to action Build team skills & learn from each other Build confidence in professional skills

Expanding the Ivory Tower: Value Added Objectives Foster real world application of foundational knowledge Provide professional networking opportunities Form mutually beneficial practice-educational partnerships Add photo here

Small NGO Clear mission and objectives Willing to partner

Partnership in Action Student consultants to COHI Learned COHI’s mission & priorities Researched areas for potential expansion Identified funding sources Researched, designed, & wrote program proposal Presented proposals to COHI

Our Partner: Circle of Health International (COHI) Mission: Working with women and their communities in times of crisis and disaster to ensure access to quality reproductive, maternal and newborn care Founded in 2004 by BUSPH Alum

Results of the Partnership: Our Partner’s Perspective Provided potential programs for future work Continued support of COHI in a volunteer fashion amongst BU students Provided quality work that COHI could not complete, given limited means/personnel Allowed for positive feedback on current COHI projects and ideas for programming

Results of the partnership: Our students perspective Fully engaged in the learning process Confident of newly acquired skills Achieved learning objectives BUSPH The Insider, Michelle Salzman, June 2010

Student Feedback on the Course Real-world connection ▫ “Having us develop an intervention program for COHI gave us all far greater incentive and ownership over the work we produced” ▫ “I really felt like a consultant and like what I was doing was important and valuable. This was learn-by-doing to its ultimate extent” Multiple professional skills ▫ “This class builds strengths of students on many levels.... a host of valuable skills that can and will be used in a professional life of a student” Depth of student engagement ▫ “…suggest that students stock up their refrigerators, and make sure they have two-weeks worth of clean clothing because there will not be time to do much other than IH744 work”

Academic Benefits Fully engaged & motivated students Meets practice-based criteria Opportunity to mentor students Students perform above & beyond the norm

Expanding the Ivory Tower: Application Fostering connections in the professional world Small businesses and organizations ▫ Benefit from the students’ work ▫ Willing partners mutually benefit both students and partners

James Wolff – Monita Baba Djara – Leilani Johnson - Thank you!