COVID-19 Project: American-Iraqi Public Health Teams
Duration:
July 6th – Aug 31st, 2020
Orientation – Week of July 6th (1-2 hours/week)
Summer Program (7 weeks): Week of July 20th – Aug 31st (3-5 hours/week)
Iraq
United States
Program Overview
United Planet brought together American-Iraqi Public Health Teams (12 teams of 10 consisting of eight high school students, four from the US and four from Iraq) and two team captains (one public health student from Boston University and one social work students from Salahaddin University, one of the largest and oldest public universities in Iraq) to work together to develop meaningful projects in partnership to address public health issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
United Planet’s American-Iraqi Public Health Teams Addressing COVID-19 Project was supported by the Stevens Initiative, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government, and is administered by the Aspen Institute. The Stevens Initiative is also supported by the Bezos Family Foundation and the governments of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
Benefits & Learning Outcomes
- Improved skills and competencies, such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, cross-cultural communication and more, for academic and career success.
- Supported communities affected most by COVID-19 and other public health challenges through developing meaningful projects.
- Worked across diverse cultures to bring about positive change and build collaboration.
- Became a prestigious part of the United Planet and United States Department of State Alumni
Team Captains:
- Deepened their career and academic knowledge around public health through cross-cultural context.
- Developed skills in communications, collaboration, and mentoring by supporting diverse students interested in the global understanding of public health.
- Built skills by leading projects that build off their own work coursework.
- Increased leadership and teaching skills through working under the supervision of Lead Faculty from both Boston University and Salahaddin University.
High School students and youth:
- Students learned real-world problems solving using project-based learning to implement public health/COVID-19 activities to benefit their communities.
- Learned to collaborate globally with on-line learning tools, Moodle, and Zoom.
- Understood Global Public Health through an intercultural lens.
- Reflected and shared the impact of COVID-19 on themselves, their community, and country with others in their program.
We applaud the outstanding work of American-Iraqi teams to address the pandemic through meaningful public health projects.
