Fall Semesters Westmont's Global Health Uganda
Go Deeper. Challenge your understanding of healthcare, culture, faith in action and international development in beautiful Uganda.
Westmont’s Global Health in Uganda Program provides undergraduate students in health-related disciplines the opportunity to complete global health coursework and to participate in an international field internship in Uganda. Recent internship locations include local hospitals, clinics, child development centers, and public health organizations. Global health courses and internships allow students to cultivate applied knowledge, develop intentional relationships with local clinicians, and engage broader issues of aid, development, and medical missions.
Students will grow in their understanding of public health and interventional health by learning from and observing Ugandan professionals working in various health-related fields. Each student will have the option to focus in geriatric, pediatric, maternal/child, pharmaceutical, herbal medicine, or community health education internships. As students engage in their internships and are mentored by Ugandan and American faculty, they will gain valuable insight into the expanding field of global health and grow in cross-cultural awareness, developing competencies that will help them work effectively with diverse populations around the world.
GHE students can apply to live on campus in the dorms at Uganda Christian University or with a local host family in Mukono. Learn more about living context here.
This program is a partnership program between Westmont College and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Global Health Semester, embedded in the local Ugandan context, allows students an opportunity to regularly participate and become part of the Ugandan community through attending worship and prayer services, volunteering in the local community organization, participating in a community-based health internship, and living with a Ugandan family or collegiate peers at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, 15 miles outside of Kampala.
Fall 2021 program has been cancelled.
Email ocp@westmont.edu, to make an appointment to learn more or to be notified about future programs.
Since 80% of the population lives in rural settings in Uganda, you will visit healthcare initiatives implementing education, counseling, and clinical care alongside community healthcare workers, volunteers, and others mobilized for improved health and livelihoods in the countryside of Uganda.
The largest state-owned hospital in Uganda, built in 1962, with around 1,500 beds.
Multi-sector clinics: Child-Family Health International Programs in Nutrition, Food Security, and Sustainable Agriculture.
The program also exposes students to a week-long learning excursion to Rwanda and a rural homestay in the beautiful Kapchora and Sipi Falls region.
Courses
On Westmont Campus Spring Semester before departure in the Fall.
This pre-semester course will focus on providing you with an overview of the most important health challenges facing the world today, with particular attention to sub-Saharan Africa. You will gain insight into how these challenges have changed over time. You will also spend significant time exploring your own cultural values and perspectives and how they inform your faith, scholarly work, and calling in the world.
Satisfies GE Communicating Cross-Culturally requirement.
Required on-site course.
Course provides students with the opportunity to enrich their understanding of culture as well as further develop and practice their own cultural competence through active service learning and participation and integration into a Ugandan community. Students will complete a minimum of 72 hours at an approved practicum site, interact with guest speakers, make site visits and travel in Uganda. (Cross-Cultural Internship/Practicum: 2-4 units of major credit in Kines or Bio.)
Upper-division elective credit for biology majors; all tracks (4 units)
Microbiology in Global Health Context counts for either Microbiology credit OR upper-division elective credit (4 units)
- GE Reading Imaginative Literature: African Literature (3 units)
- GE Thinking Historically: East African History from 1800 to Independence (3 units)
- GE Understanding Society: East African Politics since Independence (3 units)
- GE Working Artistically: Community Art in Uganda (3 units)
- GE Modern Language:
- Luganda I (3 units)
- Luganda I & II (6 units-can fit in one semester)
- Kiswahili I (3 units)
- Kiswahili I & II (6 units-can fit in one semester)
- GE Thinking Globally:
- History & Culture of Africa (3 units)
- Religions in Contemporary Uganda (3 units)
- Understanding World views (3 units)
- Understanding Ethics (3 units) - Elective Credit
- Health & Wholeness (3 units) - Elective Credit
On Westmont Campus Spring Semester following semester abroad.
In this course, we will explore local responses to contemporary ecological and social issues in ways that take account of the integrated nature of local and global processes. Global concerns are important but so are our local ones. You will be asked to undertake a community-based research project that builds from your internship experience in Uganda and further expands your comparative perspective on health.
Faculty
Professor Toms serves as director of Westmont's Global Health Semester in Uganda. Having lived and worked at Uganda Christian University before joining the faculty of Westmont College, she instructs the pre/post immersion courses, advises students, and remains an active global health advocate and advisor for organizations working in Uganda, including Save the Mothers Uganda, Child Family Health International, and ChildVoice International.
Program Costs
Westmont tuition (2021-2022), program fee to be determined (includes room and board), plus round trip airfare.