Free Money for International Electives!!

[Guest Praeludium]

I'm doing some research as to how much support each medical school provides their students for overseas electives and/or projects. I'm wondering for everyone out there,

 

1. Does your school have a student club or organization that is interested in international health?

 

2. Is the club endorsed by faculty? That is, is there an interest from staff doctors and professors in international issues and do they participate with the club?

 

3. Very importantly, is there any kind of financial support provided by your school's Faculty of Medicine for student overseas projects such as international electives? This can be in the form of research grants or specific faculty led fundraising projects for the purposes of helping students on an overseas experience.

 

Thanks a lot for your help. If you don't have time to answer all the questions, just tell me what school you're from and answer yes or no to the third question.

[Guest Praeludium]

So to answer my own post, at the U of Alberta

 

1. Our school has a couple of international health organizations. The first is SIHA which is not club specifically for medical students but involves students in all walks of undergraduate life. They do numerous fundraising projects, do community work and send students overseas to two project countries. They are pretty established and do their own thing. The other is IHIMS, a new club that was started by medical students with goals such as increasing awareness of international health issues and compiling resources and contacts for overseas elective opportunities.

 

2. Neither of the clubs are really endorsed by the faculty. There is at least on member of faculty who does a lot of global health research and certainly provides support to IHIMS in organization and guidance. She is the one who runs the Global Health Grand Rounds for the U of A.

 

3. I'd say our school does NOT provide any financial support for international projects. There was a time in the hay day of Alberta's boom economy where students were funded, but that treasure pot has long dried up. Anyone who wants to go overseas basically has to fundraise on their own and look for external sources of funding. That's not to say there's no hope at all, just recently, three $1500 research grants have been offered for international projects, but there must be a research component to it.

 

Cheers!

[Guest Dannyboy]

U of T's med school has a nice nest egg set aside for international electives. I know a couple of profs of mine were complaining this year that it was severely under used. I also know that some students "hook" on with facultly and collaborate with research with enables them to dip into research grant money. It takes more work but you might want to consider applying for an international research grant yourself. Canada has two major international research funding agencies but several smaller ones. However, I beleive you've missed the deadlines for this year. Good luck.

[Guest aneliz]

UWO situation:

 

There are a couple of student led initiatives at UWO that are focused on international health.

 

The major ones that I am aware of are:

 

1. Med Outreach - a student run organisation that includes students from meds, dents and nursing that work together to plan an outreach trip to Tanzania each summer. This group has been doing extensive fundraising (I believe that their goal is $30 000) to finance their trip. They are not 'faculty' sponsored, as far as I am aware, but their existence is well know within the faculty.

 

2. MSIC (Medical Students' Initiatives in China) - A fairly new group...they are planning an 8 week trip this summer to China. Again, extensive fundraising...although their fundraising efforts are being supported by the school, I don't know if they are getting any direct $$$ from the school.

 

3. International electives co-ordinated through CFMS - these are 'exchanges' between Canadian med students and international med students...some of our students are going to Holland, Norway (maybe? can't remember). They are getting a small stipend from their host country med student association but they are paying for their own travel and are working for free.

 

As for faculty supported ones:

 

International electives in fourth year - I know that we have a person that is responsible for helping people set them up...don't know about funding though...and I suspect that people are probably on their own with funding.

 

Hope that helps...I am sure that it is far from a complete list of what is available at UWO...

[Guest Praeludium]

Thanks for all your input! Your replies really help.

 

Dannyboy, I know U of T has a really sweet international health club, UTHIP, I think it's call with pretty good backing financially and academically. I'm trying to get strategies on how to set something up at the U of A. I'm interested in how UTHIP started and where they get their funding from. Do you have any contacts with whom I can correspond? (give me an email d_praeludium@hotmail.com) Also you mentioned funding organizations. The two majors ones, do you mean CIHR and MRC? What are some of the others?

 

Aneliz, it's interesting the destinations that are chosen for projects. It sounds like Tanzania is very popular. Our SIHA group does something in Tanzania every year too.

 

Thanks!

[Guest QM6]

1. Here at Queen's three things come to mind - first, there's Queen's Medical Outreach, med and other students go off to places like Belize and Guyana (though Guyana's been cancelled this year for safety reasons, I'm told) on health promotion projects. Queen's Project on International Development is run by engineers but includes students from all faculties, with a range of projects including health stuff. Then, if perchance you've seen our Meds '06 website lately we've been running our Medicine and Activism elective this term - lots of lecturers (faculty and guests) with an international bent.

 

2. QMO and Medicine and Activism definitely have some med faculty involvement; not too sure about QPID. I'd say the School is generally pretty interested in medicine beyond the "usual locales" - through the Weeneebayko Program Queen's has been providing medical service and clinical training in James Bay/Hudson Bay/Moose Factory - 1/3 of students spend some time there at some point. (Not international, but just as much a new experience.)

 

3. Aside from faculty support for stuff above - I don't know exactly how much it comes out to; clubs still do a lot of fundraising on their own (pub nights, etc) - there's also a whole slew of awards listed in the school calendar for individual projects, from $500 to "value variable". One of the Meds '05 did a project on malaria tracking, and the School gave money to send her to Vienna for a UN conference. There's also external stuff - CFMS is sending two of my classmates out somewhere (Finland I think), and government things like CIDA can also give money if you have a project. Religious/mission groups also run their own programmes, there's a lot of them out there too.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Floating back to the top...

 

Ian