For twenty Harvard Chan School doctoral students in public health this year, the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator provided welcoming creative learning space to explore out-of-the-box questions about career aspirations, leadership style, conflict management, networking communications, and how to develop teaching tools based on winter immersion experiences. The sessions grew out of student interest first expressed during the intensive inaugural orientation course, “Fundamental Concepts of Public Health,” that Incubator Director, Dr. Sue J. Goldie led with former Chan School dean, Dr. Julio Frenk in August 2015. The group met monthly from December through April, co-facilitated by DrPH candidates Vanessa Brizuela and Pablo Villalobos, with input and support from Dr. Goldie and Incubator staff and contributors Renuka Pandya, Terry Aladjem, Cherie Ramirez, and Rachel Gordon.
The sessions were fun. Students gathered over lunch or late afternoon snacks at tables scattered with a rainbow of markers, colored paper, and non-figural artwork to suggest global health concepts. Following an entirely student-generated agenda, they used drawing and games to think seriously about interdisciplinary tools for leadership in public health. Some of the activities included a staged talk show interview about a health management program in Kazakhstan, a role-play based on an imaginary Ebola crisis at the Chan School, and experimental drawing to illustrate personal styles for a public health career. Participants particularly appreciated guided dialogue about the non-linear challenges that students encounter in their professional journey. “Because we are in such a high-achieving environment, it often sounds like others had a clear, straightforward determined path,” said Brizuela.
The DrPH program is intense and demanding, so participants said they especially valued the student-led feel of the meetings. “People liked that it wasn’t on campus,” remarked one student during the group’s final session of the academic year, in late April. “Most helpful were discussions we had as a cohort, the Incubator helping to create atmosphere and camaraderie.”