Author: Ethan Bott

I have learned a number of things throughout my time in the Global Fellows Program, all of which have certainly helped me to further develop my intercultural competency. Namely, the program has allowed me to become a more effective leader in multicultural spaces, acknowledge cultural differences more constructively, and simply become a more culturally aware and receptive individual. I have explored the different types of leadership approaches and what renders each of them successful given contextual and scope-of-oversight differences. Through the program, my communication and teamwork abilities have been enhanced, as well. The experiences that have most significantly contributed to this are organizing events in the Leadership Track, my time with my language partners, and speaking with Rita Masese about topics related to global health and healthcare, more generally.

As someone who hopes to pursue a career within healthcare, intercultural competency is something that is absolutely integral to serving as an effective healthcare worker but is often overlooked in education and the workplace. In moving forward both professionally and personally, I hope to apply many of the things I’ve garnered throughout the Global Fellows Program and continue to work to develop my intercultural skills, communication, and leadership, and I would ultimately like to develop some sort of educational intervention to be used for pre-medical or medical students so as to enhance intercultural competency. I’m not entirely sure what that educational intervention would look like as of now, but it is something that I would like to work on throughout the next year. I think it would also be great to be able to work with future cohorts of Global Fellows and speak about my experiences with intercultural competency in the healthcare setting, in particular. This program has been amazing, and I would like to thank everyone involved for making it so fantastic!

Though I was not able to attend the meeting with the international students and scholars, I later reached out to Rita Masese, an Associate in Research at the Duke School of Nursing, to discuss her international and professional experiences. Rita is a Kenyan native with a background in medicine from the University of Nairobi and a Masters in Global Health from Duke University, and she is primarily interested in developing and enhancing interventions focused primarily on mitigating disparities within healthcare. Being as I hope to eventually attend medical school and some of my extracurricular involvements have focused specifically on the topic of disparities within the American healthcare system, I was incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to speak with Rita about her experiences.

One of the things that stood out to me was a comment that Rita made on the limited impact that physicians have, which is something that I’ve considered quite extensively. She mentioned that serving as a doctor really only lets one impact the patient in front of them, but she aspired to have a much broader impact within medicine and healthcare, more generally; this is the reason for which she eventually decided upon pursuing a career in global health. Something else that we discussed was how the United States is considered to be the “land of plenty”, but it is not equitable in many ways, especially when it comes to healthcare. Fundamentally, people aren’t familiar with many facets of the healthcare system, and there are also more basic issues such as a lack of transportation to and from clinics or hospitals, which many individuals don’t even consider when thinking about the structural flaws of our system. Rita noted that she believed that one of the biggest issues pervading our healthcare system is that of insurance, and it is particularly salient because many people within the nation are living paycheck-to-paycheck. One can get anything that they want as long as they are able to afford it, but even if an individual is able to access various things, they must be able to continue to access them. The most basic things, such as insulin, are incredibly expensive without insurance, and continued access to such resources is crucial for the wellbeing of many individuals, but this is often overlooked and marginalized.

When speaking about how intercultural competence ties into healthcare and serving as an effective healthcare provider, Rita commented on something that is incredibly important to keep in mind. She mentioned that, although one may be well-meaning in the things that they do and genuinely attempting to help those in other communities, it is of paramount importance to make an effort to see the world through others’ eyes as opposed to how we see it from our own perspective. There are many instances in which groups of people may not actually want the help that you are attempting to offer, and healthcare providers should take the time to interact with and understand the people that they are serving. Rita told me that, “to be more culturally competent is to be more immersed in the culture, to further one’s capacity to be open-minded”, and I certainly agree with this. To put it succinctly, Rita stated that “the point is not to bring fish but to teach people how to fish.”

It’s been fantastic to meet each of my language partners, though things have been somewhat difficult with COVID. As I had mentioned in my previous reflection, I have a Mandarin, Thai, and Portuguese partner! Since two of my language partners are actually enrolled in graduate / post-graduate programs, there exist some more obvious differences simply due to the age gap between us. A great thing about being partnered with individuals older than myself, though, is that they have been able to afford unique insight and perspectives regarding various topics, and most of our conversations have not necessarily focused explicitly upon each of our cultures. In my opinion, one of the best parts about the language partner component of the Global Fellows Program is simply being able to connect with someone with these idiosyncratic perspectives and develop new friendships.

In terms of more cultural similarities and differences, one focus of some of my conversations has been the notion of learning a second language from a young age. In much of the world, English has come to be a hegemonic and necessary language, but this results in a sort of linguistic complacency among many American citizens; few people are motivated to actually learn another language and attempt to become fluent, and this greatly constrains the possibilities for cultural enrichment and more intimate cross-cultural interactions. In many other countries, though, individuals are taught their native language as well as English from a very early age, and this proficiency in multiple languages opens numerous doors. These conversations have led me to consider how people from other countries are required to assimilate into American culture in numerous ways much more so than I have before, particularly in the context of language. It is unbelievable to me that many American citizens view speaking a non-English language within the United States as somehow disrespectful and ridiculous, but I think that our educational system partially contributes to these disparities; by not requiring any level of proficiency in another language, the English hegemony is only perpetuated and exacerbated within this country, even though being able to speak another language is an amazingly invaluable skill.

Since I hope to pursue a career as a physician, the topic of medicine and the perceptions of doctors arose with two of my language partners. Within the United States, doctors are respected and occupy a position of considerable social status, but this is not the case within some other countries. In some cases, doctors are actually looked down upon and arguably not respected at all. As of recently, this has been incontrovertibly linked to the contention surrounding COVID-19 and the vaccine, but I hadn’t considered that doctor’s may be viewed poorly in other places in the world given how they are typically seen in America. I’m thankful to be a part of this program because the conversations that I have had through the language partner component have been immensely insightful and thought-provoking.