Second-year MPH candidate Theandra Madu was one of two students chosen by the Department of Global Health to participate in the University of Copenhagen School of Global Health’s cross-disciplinary field research course in Sri Lanka last summer. The three-week course helps to broaden participants’ knowledge of health research through fieldwork in the South Asian nation.
Madu studied health care technologies and researched the connection between waste disposal and disease breeding. She says she gained a better understanding of the many types of health research methods and designs that are used by clinical and epidemiological researchers.
Through her research, for example, she learned about the promise of the health indicators in Sri Lanka—a country that, while lacking the most up-to-date health care technologies, has conditions that are comparatively much better than those in other countries within its WHO region.
Madu, who hopes to become a medical epidemiologist using clinical medicine to improve population-based medicine, was extremely excited at the chance to gain hands-on experience in her field during this three-week program.
“With 28 students coming from 11 countries and a variety of graduate-level studies, I learned so much regarding how problems can be analyzed and contextualized based on different standpoints,” Madu said of her experience in the course, which she knows will be an invaluable asset as she pursues her career in public health.