Exploring the growing student interest in global health and activism
by Victor Roy on January 13, 2008
The growing number of students interested in global health and poverty issues across the US is apparent and encouraging. Universities are creating new programs at both undergraduate and medical schools, new student-founded groups are attempting to tackle the issues, and more students want to travel to work and volunteer directly with grassroots health organizations around the world. The idea of students yearning to get involved in global health as a university student was still a fledgling concept in the 80s and 90s – but now, it’s more and more common.
But why? In this limited space, I offer a broad answer, with the hopes of stimulating a conversation. Our generation – largely composed of people who have experienced both high school and college in this decade – know a very different world than generations before us. Our “daily worlds” are infused with technology that brings the world “home” at the nearest screen. We see issues of global inequity not in terms of distant government statistics, but in the stories of families and in the feelings of genuine, cross-cultural relationships. We see an increasingly complex and unequal world because of the capacity of technology to create new (and often jarring) relationships between countries, communities, organizations, and individuals. Combined with direct and easy access to new strategies for involvement and action, largely rooted in online communication and ease of international travel, and one can see why students are interested in global issues. To put it simply: the world is smaller, the inequities are brought closer to us, and avenues for action (whether this action is effective can be debated in future weeks) are more available because of technology.
It’s vital that we not only identify this rising interest as a new trend but expand our understand of the sources and motivations behind this movement, so that we can ultimately deepen and harness this energy and passion to shape the type of engagement and commitment that can allow our generation to address the challenges that face our world. When we forge this sort of understanding together, then not only will our individual action be better informed but the potential for our collective action – as a generation – increases as well. The Roundtable will hopefully serve as a space for us to create this understanding in a collaborative way, so as I’d welcome any of your thoughts, I leave with some guiding questions for the week (look out for the next post next Sunday the 20th!):
- Do you think our generation will be identified in relation to global activism? Is it important for our generation to have such an “identity”?
- What do you believe are the driving forces behind student interest and engagement in these issues?
- More specifically, why are you and others in our generation interested in global health?
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