01 Why Choose Global Health As My Major?
At the beginning of my freshman year, I took the course Global Health 101 and found this field interesting. Therefore, in the second semester of my freshman year, I took a personal research class and studied the relationship between myopia and obesity under the guidance of Professor Wu Chenkai. Although a lot of things that were done at that time were not particularly mature now, they did stimulate my interest in global health and made me want to do more related research. I chose the branch of public policy, first because Duke’s public policy major is very strong, and second because compared with the biological level, I am more interested in the economic and policy factors affecting global health issues, and I hope to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding.
02 Plans After Graduation?
I plan to study for a master’s degree in Global Health at Harvard University this August. During the postgraduate period, I hope to further explore the research direction that I am interested in. In addition to continuing to deepen my study in the field of chronic diseases, I also pay more attention to nursing and mental health, and hope to have the opportunity to do some related research.
03 Rich Leadership Experience
In my junior year, I served as the deputy social director of the Young Leaders in Global Health Association and initiated a health education project for primary school students. The reason is that I found that local children aged 6-8 in Jiangsu generally lack a correct understanding of health knowledge, especially mental health. Our education system is not mature enough in this area, especially in the primary school stage, young friends may not realize the importance of mental health, We do not know what simple and effective methods are available to help them determine whether their mental state is healthy or not. If they grow older and encounter related problems, I hope that they and their communities can use advanced knowledge to make appropriate judgment and guidance. Holding this initial bag, my team and I worked out a comprehensive health knowledge curriculum. It covers psychological health, health cleaning and protection, disease prevention, emergency treatment, smoking hazards and basic nutritional knowledge. In partnership with DKU Hut (Community English Language Teaching), another student organization at the school, we go to the communities on the Ba side of the city every week to teach children. In order to add interest to the class, we also designed a lot of interesting activities, such as taking the children to draw pictures, guiding them to think like their ideal room. And think about the impact your own hygiene habits can have in real life. The school’s Teaching and Learning Center and Professor Chen Meifang also gave us a lot of guidance to help us improve the course content.
This experience has made me feel more truly how important the efforts of the community are. Especially in the context of China’s national conditions, communities can really have a great impact on people’s health. If we want to effectively implement public health intervention policies, we must design from the perspective of communities. Use the institutions and power of the community to educate and guide people correctly.
04 Significant Scientific Research Experience
In my sophomore year, I participated in a research project directed by Professor Ge Lijing, which mainly analyzed the connection between the economic impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and diabetes management. We found that affected by the epidemic, the work machine will be reduced, and the income and living water level of some groups will also decline, which will also lead to a decrease in the frequency of diabetes patients’ monitoring of their own diseases. This trend has implications for community and clinical care services, such as how to better manage the health of diabetes populations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of academic value, because we have cooperation with Duke and Stanford University, the data level includes China, Vietnam and a number of Asian countries, which is the next broad study in global health. At the end of last year, we also issued two scientific papers in the international journal of SCI, and shared the research results. I am very grateful to Professor Yan Lijing, who is a very careful, patient, and caring tutor, for having the honor to receive guidance when I have no rich research experience. She will not judge or question our ability because we are students in this section and sometimes the results are not very ripe, but always start our ideas step by step and take us to seek optimization plans. Our paper submission did not go well at the beginning, and we were rejected by the first issue we applied for. Prof Yan patiently guide us how to find other journals, how to modify their own articles. With her support, I also slowly understand that being rejected by the journal is not humiliating, nor is it a denial of the results of research, which is actually the normal state of scientific research. We should maintain our enthusiasm for scientific research, be rigorous in our response, and learn how to adapt more flexibly to the needs of different journals.
05 Independently Dominated Signature Work
My Signature Work is also quite interesting. It is a research project led by myself and carefully guided by Professor Wu Chenkai, who is also responsible. The main purpose is to analyze the influence of family intake on the obesity level of elderly women, and whether nutrition intake is yes or no
The extent to which the moderating variables between the two explain the association between the two. I chose this subject because I have accumulated a lot of experience in chronic diseases over the past few years, and I want to do more complete research than when I was a student, so as to check the results of my learning. The focus is on older women because women are more likely to be affected by obesity, and older people are a relatively vulnerable group. My results also show that family income does have a significant impact on People’s Daily diet. Take fiber, an essential nutrient, for example, and people with low incomes consume far less of it than people with high incomes. The difference is significant. The community needs to pay more attention to the lower income group of older women, especially in terms of healthy diet and obesity
06 Impressive Internship Experience?
My first Internship is at a medical technology company, IduTechnology to do Real World medical consulting, the second is in a multinational pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) medical department of the blister vaccine group. When I was an intern in a medical technology company, I happened to study the products of GlaxoSmithKline. By analyzing patient data and competing products, I judged the feasibility of listing this product in China and had a chance to rub shoulders with the project leaders at GlaxoSmithKline.
Later, the school’s student career Development office invited HR from GlaxoSmithKline to share, so I took the opportunity to introduce the research projects that I had done before. Technically, it’s almost impossible for Undergraduate students to get into this campany’s
medical department. But given my understanding of the company’s products and I had a history of handing out tables in my studies, there was no obvious gap compared with graduate students, so I was given the opportunity to learn. Finally, I was lucky enough to get the internship Offer through the interview. GSK’s medical department is primarily responsible for improving the public and experts’ understanding of the company’s product knowledge and should also give some guidance to the Marketing Department to judge whether the marketing strategy and publicity point are reasonable from the medical principles and the perspective of experts. My main job was to read the reports on the efficacy and adverse reactions of the newly released vaccines, synthesize them into a summary, integrate expert opinions at the same time, and do some data analysis.
The working rhythm and inner capacity of the two sections of practice are not exactly the same, and each has its own meaning. The consulting work is strong and full but also greatly improved my insight of analyzing questions and my ability to communicate with clients. Work for a pharmaceutical company is very harmonious, and the old board also gives me a lot of important work, so that I have the opportunity to understand what experts think about vaccines and infectious diseases.
07 Suggestions for students with similar interests?
1) Try more. No matter whether it is scientific research or internship, explore different directions and see what you like to the end.
2) Do your best. Even if a thing is impossible on the surface, we should try our best to do it without leaving a remnant.
3) Be confident. Especially girls, do not doubt the ability to do scientific research and data, and many DKU students are excellent in these aspects. Just be confident and try your best to do it, and nothing will have too bad a result.
Translated and Edited by Zhenyu Tian, Class of 2027
