Student Opportunities

Below are some possible student global health opportunities. Please be sure to check with your faculty mentor and McGovern for permission to participate in any global health activities as students/residents/faculty representing McGovern.

Featured McGovern Medical School Faculty Projects for Students

Swami Vivekanada Youth Movement (SVYM)

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) is a development organization engaged in building a new civil society in India through its grassroots to policy level action in Health, Education, Socio-economic Empowerment, and Training & Research sectors since 1984.

Nuoy Reconstructive International (RICE- Reconstructive International Cooperation Exchange)
McGovern Faculty Contact: Phuong D. Nguyen
Hanoi, Vietnam

Dr. Nguyen serves as faculty for the Center for Global Health at McGovern Medical School. As a previous refugee from Vietnam, he returns to Vietnam every March with his own NGO, Nuoy Reconstructive International, previously called RICE or Reconstructive International Cooperation Exchange). We have obtained ACGME accreditation for the rotation, so our residents earn credit for their mission trip cases. Dr. Nguyen has taken students from other institutions and mentors them through research projects rooted in their experiences there.

Nuoy Reconstructive International has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital (VNCH) in Hanoi, with plans to expand our bidirectional relationship there beyond plastic surgery to include pediatrics, pediatric general surgery, and trauma.

Nuoy has a number of surgeon faculty volunteer collaborators from other institutions (University of Pittsburgh/UPMC, Johns Hopkins, Wake Forest, University of Wisconsin, among others).

Dr. Nguyen also volunteers as a surgeon with Operation Smile. We encourage out trainees to apply to their Regan/Stryker fellowship to obtain funding.

UCLA South American Program in HIV Prevention Research (SAPHIR)
The SAPHIR program is an NIH-funded 11-month training program in HIV prevention research in Latin America for pre- and post-doctoral physician researchers from the U.S. SAPHIR trainees participate in a combined program of didactic and practical training in one of the key areas of HIV prevention research in Lima, Peru or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Contact Dr. Lake for questions or to express interest.

Additional Opportunities for Students

Opportunities are not school-sponsored unless otherwise stated and generally from independent organizations that are unaffiliated with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.

Child Family Health International (CFHI) Virtual Electives
CFHI Virtual Global Health elective offers inter-professional trainees a unique opportunity to build key Global Health competencies. The elective is open to final-year medical, nurse practitioner, dental, physician assistant, pharmacy, and allied health students/residents/fellows. Students will explore global and public health issues broadly, highlighting how health systems around the world deliver healthcare in a variety of environments, examining cultural interplays, developing agility for making healthcare decisions in diverse settings, and expanding self-awareness. Read more. Please contact Rebecca Mathews for funding opportunities.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship
The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston is a one-year interdisciplinary, mentored fellowship program focused on health-related community service and leadership development. Prospective Fellows should be prepared to partner with a local community agency and design a community service project that seeks to provide direct service to an underserved population.  This project should focus on addressing health and/or the social determinants of health in the population served. Fellows receive a monetary stipend to fund planned project activities. Applicants are strongly encouraged to attend an information session before completing an application.

Project ECHO: Palliative Care Africa (PACA)
The Palliative Care in Africa (ECHO-PACA) is a collaborative effort between MD Anderson Cancer Center, Barretos Cancer Hospital (Brazil), Aga Khan University Hospital (Kenya), Cancer Diseases Hospital (Zambia), Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, Highway Hospice (South Africa), Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (Ghana), Korle Bu Palliative Care Team (Ghana), Project PINK BLUE (Nigeria), National Hospital Abuja (Nigeria), and University College Hospital in Ibadan (Nigeria). The overall goal is to use the Project ECHO model to increase the number of providers in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia with the knowledge and skills to provide quality palliative care for patients with life-limiting cancer diagnoses.

Global Health Peru: Clinical Experience (Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia)
The Global Health Peru Program is offered by the School of Public Health at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, the premier biomedical research and teaching university in Peru. Located in Lima, the capital and largest city in Peru, which hosts a diverse mix of ethnic and racial groups, the university provides an ideal location to experience public health firsthand. Build a strong foundation in public and global health alongside Peruvian peers and engage with world-class researchers from a myriad of backgrounds, including women´s health, environmental health, and health systems research.

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Learning Opportunities for Medical Students
The VSLO program helps medical and public health students connect with institutions offering short-term elective opportunities that can enhance their medical education. These elective opportunities include observerships, summer research programs, clinical opportunities, away rotations, away electives, clinical rotations, and visiting opportunities. Offered by participating host institutions in the U.S. and around the world, elective opportunities are available in teaching hospitals, community clinics, and urban or rural sites and are open to preclinical, clinical, or final-year students, as determined by the host institution.

Unite for Sight

Unite For Sight supports eye clinics worldwide by investing human and financial resources in their social ventures to eliminate patient barriers to eye care. Unite For Sight applies best practices in eye care, public health, volunteerism, and social entrepreneurship to achieve our goal of high-quality eye care for all. The programs are locally led and managed by ophthalmologists at Unite For Sight’s partner eye clinics.

  • Global Impact Corps
    Immersive Healthcare Delivery Experience in Ghana, Honduras, and India
    Review complete details and application instructions.

Participate in a hands-on, immersive, and unique global health experience for weeks or months in Ghana, Honduras, or India. Students and professionals support and assist local doctors as the local doctors provide care in villages, slums, and refugee camps to those who are otherwise unable to access or afford care. During the past decade, Unite For Sight has worked with our local partners to provide care to 2.7 million patients, including more than 106,000 sight-restoring surgeries. Unite For Sight’s program offers extensive learning opportunities for those interested in any aspect of public health, medicine, international development, and social entrepreneurship. Participants support and learn from the talented local doctors who are social entrepreneurs addressing complex global health issues.

The Global Health Leadership Internship provides outstanding undergraduate, public health, medical, and graduate students, as well as recent graduates, with an opportunity to engage in high-impact front-line global health delivery programs. This internship has a minimum of a full-time 4-week commitment, but at least an 8 to 12-week commitment is preferable. A minimum of a 6-week commitment is required during the summer months. The internship opportunity is available year-round. In this position, the Intern will work closely with Unite For Sight’s Core Management Team on global health programming. Interns work from our New Haven office that overlooks the Yale campus.