Category: Jamison posts

“This term opened my eyes to how much we take for granted in the medical field today. Now it’s just assumed that we’ll be able to identify a disease’s source and method of transmission within weeks of an outbreak, but none of that was obvious only a few centuries ago” observed freshman Katrina Keating. Katrina attributes her light bulb moment to a Great Issues Scholars event from earlier in the term, in which the scholars, guided by Professor Jonathan Chipman, analyzed maps of an unknown disease’s spread around an unknown city. The scholars wrongly attributed the scenario to a modern outbreak in the developing world, while in reality, the context was the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak in London. Now, three weeks later, Katrina and her fellows Great Issues Scholars shared a meal of seafood paella, fresh roasted vegetables, and an assortment of Spanish desserts reminiscing and reflecting on this and other global-health themed events from the past term.

For some students, the term solidified a preexisting interest in global health. Grace Li, an aspiring linguistics and Chinese double major, plans to pursue medical school after Dartmouth. Great Issues Scholars opened Grace’s eyes to a variety of ways a medical degree can be applied to a career. The discussion with Dr. Kate Horan from Doctors Without Borders particularly resonated with her. Similarly, Briana Beach appreciated how the term complemented her classroom experience. As a student in Abigail Neely’s “Global Health and Society” course, Briana came to GIS equipped with background knowledge that allowed her to be a leader in group activities and ask GIS guests challenging questions. She hopes to extend her participation in global health on campus next year through a different Dickey Center program, Global Health Fellows.

Program Director Casey Aldrich does not expect the global health focused term to inspire each and every Great Issues Scholar’s future career path – stories like those of Grace and Briana are just icing on the cake for her. What Casey does hope Scholars leave with, however, is an appreciation that global health cannot be isolated from the other international themes addressed by the program. Freshman Nate Neumann picked up on this idea without prompting. To illustrate his point, he cited the health effects of natural disasters and sanitation crises, and the emergencies that often emerge from political instability or war. “If a government is struggling to survive, it’s not going to prioritize scientific research or cleaning water,” Nate observed. “Even if you don’t plan on a health-related career, you can’t ignore it if you’re working on other big issues.” Briana chimed in, positing that issues of race and socioeconomic class are also tied to inequities in the provision of health services. GIS sophomore mentor Ally Block praised the introductory event of the term for prompting students to think about these connections from the very start, describing how Professor Colleen Fox wove issues of security, environment, and gender into a case study of refugee health.

The Great Issues Scholars of the Class of 2020 left their term-end reflection with bellies full and minds racing, chatting about their plans for their next three years of international exploration as they meandered toward the door, and toward their sophomore years.

All best to the Class of 1957– it’s been a delight reporting and sharing with you,

Freya Jamison ’17

We are living through the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. According the UN High Committee on Refugees, 21.3 million individuals worldwide have been forced by war and persecution to leave their homes countries and seek refugee abroad, and this number grows by 34,000 every day. More than half of this 21.3 million come from three countries alone: Somalia, Afghanistan, and Syria. Milan’s work with the International Rescue Committee is a shining example of the work being done here in the United States to advocate for and support refugees on our own shores. Yet despite these incredible numbers and the work of dedicated groups like the IRC, many misconceptions about who refugees are, why they seek resettlement, and what can be done to facilitate their integration into host communities abound in political rhetoric and the media. The protection of human rights during wartime is particularly important to me, as civilians often lack functional law enforcement and legal systems to support them in times of crisis. With the generous support of the Dickey Center’s Lombard Public Service Fellowship, I will spend the year after graduation advocating for these rights at the International Refugee Assistance Project in New York. But I, and students with similar interests, do not have to leave campus or pursue careers in human rights to gain exposure to this critical international issue.

This spring, Dartmouth hosted two events highlighting the human toll of refugee crises. On April 7^th, 22-year-old Sarah Mardini spoke to an overflowing Oopik Auditorium about her journey from Damascus to Berlin fleeing Syria’s civil war. On April 22^nd, the Global Village hosted a screening of the film “The Good Lie,” which highlights the story of the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” and followed the film with a panel discussion featuring two Sudanese refugees from the Lost Boys community in Boston and a policy expert from the Enough Project. Although the Sudanese civil war that created the Lost Boys occurred nearly three decades before the Syrian crisis of today, the themes of resilience and community resonated across both events. Regardless of their personal beliefs about immigration policy, attendees left both events understanding how policy affects refugee lives in very tangible ways.

Before war broke out in Syria, Sarah Mardini was a normal teenager – she attended school during the day, and spent her evenings and weekends training and competing as a swimmer. When life in Damascus became unbearable, both because of the omnipresent fear of bombs and the threat of sexual violence that is so common during wartime, Sarah and her younger sister Yusra undertook a dangerous journey to seek safety in Europe. When the motor on the small raft that was carrying the Mardinis and twenty other refugees failed in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Sarah put her athletic training to use, swimming for three and a half hours to guide the boat to the Greek shore. Twenty-five days later, the sisters made it to Berlin, where they built a new life swimming for a German coach. In 2015, Yusra swam for the refugee team at the Olympic Games in Rio. Sarah, unable to forget the suffering of her fellow refugees, returned to Greece, where she now volunteers full time with the Emergency Response Center International, helping other refugee rafts land safely.

Both “The Good Lie” and the discussion with Lost Boys afterward impressed upon the audience the challenges of integrating into a new culture after losing everything. Viewers chuckled as they watched the boys in the film marvel at McDonalds and mistake a ringing telephone for an alarm on their first night in the United States. We thought critically about aspects of our own culture during a scene in which the Lost Boys are disgusted by the amount of “expired” food thrown in a dumpster daily by a grocery store owner. The panelists identified with these struggles, and emphasized the importance of having a community of other Sudanese refugees in Boston to share and process these novel experiences with. Brian Adeba, Associate Director of Policy at the Enough Project, reminded the audience that South Sudan remains incredibly fragile today, and that the international community and regional actors need to use their political and economic leverage to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict and prevent the creation of further refugees.

Not all students have the resources or skills to spend a term working with underserved populations, but through opportunities like these two events, Dartmouth equips all of us with the exposure, knowledge, and tools to be advocates in smaller ways. Meeting refugees in person dispels some of the myths surrounding forced migration, and allows us to connect to these issues on a human, rather than policy level. It also facilitates cross-cultural understanding, by shining a spotlight on aspects of culture that aren’t usually talked about.