Intensive course in Brazil immerses students in public health fieldwork

Photo: Zanone Fraissat

Students from Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard College traveled to Brazil in January 2014 for an intensive-three week Winter Session course exploring public health in the world’s fifth-largest country. In addition to classwork, the students visited shantytowns, infectious-disease hospitals, and mental-health clinics, met with Brazilian students and policy makers, and shadowed public health professionals in the field.

“The course relies on field and personal experiences as a learning tool,” HSPH associate professor of demography Marcia Castro, a Rio de Janeiro native who has directed the Brazil course for the last two years, told Harvard Magazine in an April 1, 2014 article. Castro said that the experience is unparalleled in giving students the chance to observe in the real world the theories and concepts learned in class. “It is ultimately informing the students’ careers.”

Read Harvard Magazine article: Public health fieldwork in Brazil

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