Ten Wayne State College students and Dr. Barbara Engebretsen attended the Global Health Conference Midwest (GHCM) hosted by Creighton University on Feb. 3.
“This is the second year I’ve attended, and it has exceeded expectations each year,” Engebretsen said.
The conference targets a plethora of healthcare professionals and focuses on local and global health issues.
“This year’s theme was ‘Empowering Our World,’” she said.
The Multicultural Center provided the funds to send the ten students to the conference, and they said it was money well spent. The students came from a variety of majors and backgrounds.
One student, WSC junior Veronica Lawrence, submitted a proposal that was accepted for a poster presentation: Choosing Between Faith and Reality: A Case Study of Catholics Coping with Contraceptive Guilt.
According to Engebretsen, Lawrence’s presentation was very well received.
“American students wanting to ‘save the world,’ desire a good thing. But acting before listening, learning, thinking and partnering together with those we serve robs our partners of dignity, creates dependence instead of independence and perpetuates a patronizing neo-colonial hierarchy, rather than bridging the divide between fellow human beings,” Engebretsen said.
She said that learning about the global health problems and meeting leaders who are addressing them opens eyes and can inspire students and others to want to do something to help.
As Dr. Jamie Van Leeuwen, founder of Global Livingston Institute, Denver Colorado was told by the needy people of Uganda that he wanted to serve, “We don’t need your help. We want your partnership.”
This was a message, powerfully and consistently communicated by GHCM speakers throughout the conference.
Engebretsen, who has been involved with the Multicultural Center at WSC for the last four years and a CO-Chair of the President’s Council of Diversity, highlighted some of her experiences from the trip.
“I have taken many students to conferences over the years I’ve been a faculty member at WSC. I have never had the privilege of such a diverse, thoughtful and engaged group of students as this,” she said.
“I hope to bring more WSC students and faculty next year, as this conference has potential relevance for colleagues and students from a wide range of disciplines at WSC.”
Engebretsen said she is excited for future conferences and believes it is a great opportunity for WSC students to learn and meet new people.
“This is an outstanding local conference with global perspectives – an extraordinary opportunity for our students regardless of disciplines. This conference brought ‘kindred spirits’ together.
“I am confident that WSC was well represented by these extraordinary students, and they will indeed be ‘Agents of Change Across Our World,” she said, referring to one of the objectives addressed at the conference.