Internships and Graduation

Now that the year has closed, and we're getting ready for a new one, I thought I would reflect on some of my past experiences and one I did not get to comment on thus far: my internship.

My internship was with the Global Health Council, (they have an office in White River Junction, VT-- http://www.globalhealth.org/) and they hold the premiere conference in global health at the end of May in Washington, DC. Helping plan the conference was awesome, but attending it was even more so. I met Hans Rosling of Gapminder Inc. (www.gapminder.org) who not only gave a wonderful talk, but was a lovely funny man to meet... when my boss told him I spoke of him often, he said, "I talk about you too," simply hilarious. I got to hear Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director of the U.S. National Security Council, speak, watch Professor Sir Andy Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine win the million dollar Gates Award for Global Health, and meet the new President/CEO of GHC, Jeff Sturchio. In addition, I got to watch wonderful films, witness excellent workshops, and have breakfast with a legend, Bill Foege, who is a Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, saved millions of lives by controlling smallpox in Africa and is one of the best speakers I've ever heard! The opportunity The Dartmouth Institute gave me to work at The Global Health Council lead me to more opportunities as the conference that I will never forget.

After departing DC, I flew to Chicago to attend Digestive Disease Week, one of the biggest medical conferences in the U.S. at McCormick Place. Two fellow TDI-ers and myself presented a poster on access to care for Crohn's Disease patients in the DHMC hospital referral region and it was great to see the interest in our poster due to the increased interest in quality and the maps we made using GIS.

Since returning from the conferences, I've graduated along with my classmates and heard the wonderful things many of them will be doing from working at consulting companies, the CDC, and hospitals to going to medical school in Boston, Washington, North Dakota and Arizona, just to name a few. This place really is amazing and so much can come from it, if you want it to.