By Luke Araujo | Staff Writer
The Global Health Student Network (GHSN) is putting a focus on Global Health Day, a national holiday on April 7 spreading awareness about global health.
The GHSN is a new initiative under the Baylor Global Health Academy in the Office of Engaged Learning. The GHSN helps students connect with global service opportunities and supplies speaker events, research, workshops and resources for Baylor students.
Dallas senior Esther Jeong and Canada senior Celine Rukiidi, co-presidents of GHSN, said the mission of GHSN is to create a multidisciplinary hub for Baylor students to actively seek and grow their passions for global health through the different avenues of discussion, research and projects
“Global health work is prolific across many departments and disciplines at Baylor,” Rukiidi said. “Therefore, the vision of this initiative is to be the connection point to all these ongoing activities.”
GHSN undergraduate student members are expected to attend biweekly journal clubs and general meetings where the network hosts a variety of faculty speakers to educate attendees on their research and life stories in the field of global health.
“For the next academic year, we will expect every average member of the student network to be part of a sphere led by one of our student leaders,” Jeong said. “During sphere meetings, students will be able to participate in network projects, global health discussions and be mentored by our graduate students and faculty mentors.”
San Antonio junior Gabriela Cruz-Mattos, annual events director of GHSN, said its Global Health Day event is a way for the initiative to spread its message on campus.
“It is about showing the importance of the environment on a person’s well-being,” Cruz-Mattos said. “The focus is on pollution and climate change, how those things affect someone’s health and why they need to be emphasized so that we pay attention to how our planet affects our health.”
While the event is expected to be small in scale, Cruz-Mattos said it is still significant in the context of the new organization.
“Along with Global Health Day, I am organizing Global Health Week in September,” Cruz-Mattos said. “There are going to be a lot of different things going on that week.”
Cruz-Mattos said the topic of global health is relevant to everyone, regardless of one’s major or career path.
“It is a great place to start learning and hearing from people,” Cruz-Mattos said. “Anyone who wants to come is welcome, and we ask them to come so they can see what global health is about at Baylor.”
