We are thrilled to introduce our 2019 Summer Fellows through our annual fellow blog post series. Our first fellow, Jen, is spending seven weeks at Headquarters before she heads on her Grassroots On-site Work (GROW) internship to Uganda. While she’s here, she’ll be collecting post-GROW reflection and feedback data to better inform our programs in the years to come.
Chapter: GlobeMed at UW-Madison
Major: Community and Nonprofit Leadership
Year: Class of 2020
Hometown: Western Springs, IL
What’s your story?
My story will always be one that is driven by passion for global health. My passions run deeply through my veins and have always held the most power in my life, as they are the backbone of the decisions I make. During my passions’ fetal stages of the development, I went on a volunteer trip to Peru. I paid $5,000 to go on a trip to “help people less fortunate than me” abroad. Knowing my audience, I’m sure you’re already screaming voluntourism. I was teaching children English and helping build stoves so that the smoke would leave the home, preventing respiratory illness. As a high schooler, I really believed this project would be effective and meaningful. However, when I arrived in Peru, I soon realized my presence was not needed at all. I began questioning the work we were doing and why we were even there in the first place. These questions wouldn’t be answered until I moved out of my hometown.
I grew up in a predominantly White, upper middle class suburb. Looking back at it, the lack of diversity in my life was limiting and suffocating at times. I had no idea what voluntourism was and not even the slightest whiff of the concept “white savior complex”. My experience abroad made me begin questioning not only the world at large, but my world. What was I missing living in this small suburb? My curiosity about the outside world grew and so began my strong desire to discover it.
In choosing UW-Madison for college, I thought I was going to be surrounded by diversity. Unfortunately, I was naive. I was still surrounded by the same people — the ones who have so much privilege and don’t even know it. I wanted to break these systems of oppression that breed so much privilege and was determined to find people I could do this with. My first hint of these people was my fellow classmates in my Global Health classes. In those classes, I began to gain a new understanding of the world around me. My questions and curiosities had begun to be answered. Those classes refined and redirected my passions, and also gave me the words to articulate them: global health, health equity and social justice. Yet, it wasn’t until I found GlobeMed that I finally found the people I was looking for. I found people that viewed the world in a similar light to me; people who not only acknowledged their privilege, but questioned themselves and how they contribute to the systems they are actively trying to fight. In this place, I felt like I had finally found a home in which I could flourish.
Why GlobeMed?
I joined GlobeMed because a friend of mine with similar passions recommended it to me. It seemed like GlobeMed held a lot of the same values that I did, and I hoped so would the chapter members at UW. I turned out to be right. GlobeMed gave me the soldiers that would be fighting alongside me in the battle for social justice. If I could find this in my chapter, I knew I would find the same type of people at HQ, and so far I have been right again. GlobeMed not only gave me the people I was looking for, but also the ability to pursue my passions in an ethical, thoughtful and sustainable way. Despite the sourness I have discovered about my volunteer trip, I still really loved my experience because of the relationships I built. It was the spark of my passion for global health. I have found that my passions become rewarding when I am able to build relationships with people. I love working with people from different backgrounds and I want to do work that allows me to do that. I know it can be tricky business, but from what I have learned from GlobeMed and will learn as an intern, I hope to do international work in a way that is anti-oppressive and truly impactful. I am forever grateful to GlobeMed for equipping me with the knowledge and resources that will allow me to pursue my dreams and become the person I want to be in this world.
Why partnership?
Through the courses in my Nonprofit Leadership major, I have come to understand that while nonprofits have good intentions, they often lack the ability to truly understand the needs of a community and address root causes in a way that leads to lasting change. The more I learn about the nonprofit sector, the more I struggle to find nonprofits that I trust to be truly efficient and effective. Thanks to its partnership model, GlobeMed is one of the few exceptions.
The way our partnership model is set up ensures accountability, sustainability and impact. GlobeMed holds that idea that while college campuses may have the resources, NGOs have the knowledge and relationships needed to create lasting change. Community leaders are the experts; they are the ones that understand the needs of their community and know what solutions could work. By partnering with this framework, power is shifted to local changemakers as they lead transformation efforts in their own communities. This transfer of power is unlike anything I have seen at other nonprofits.
Equally important to shifting power is building relationships. The impact these partnerships have on the people involved in them is profound. That’s what I’m most looking forward to during my GROW Internship this summer. Our partner is Children of Peace Uganda whose mission is to support those affected by the LRA war in Uganda, particularly former child soldiers. When I hear my fellow GlobeMedders talk about their experiences on GROW, they never focus on their recreational or even day-to-day activities, but rather the people they met. They rave about how welcoming and inspiring the staff is. They share the stories that impacted them. They bring back the voices of those we are working with. That’s what partnership is about: breaking down walls to allow us to share common experiences, and in doing so, revealing our common humanity. Positive cultural exchanges like this are imperative in forging a world where health — the ability to not only survive, but thrive — is possible for all people.
