Field Courses
One Health in Action
With global populations increasing rapidly, one of the most important concerns facing human-kind is ensuring health – including access to adequate, sustainable and safe food resources and water, human and animal disease prevention, resilient ecosystems and culturally appropriate health care.
Sri Lanka intensive field course
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2- 22 July 2017
Course Overview – The One Health in Action: An Intensive Field Course in Sri Lanka 2017 is a cross-cultural, immersion-based field course designed for graduate students and early career health professionals who want to engage in global health careers that will demand effective problem solving skills, cross-disciplinary engagements, and solid foundations in field and laboratory activities. The course is based on the principles and practices of One Health. Participants will travel together with faculty from University of California and University of Peradeniya, and will visit Sri Lankan settings that illustrate how the health of people, animals and the environment are inextricably linked. Course activities will challenge participants to consider the many inter-related issues that are typical of complex problems, and to see firsthand, and even develop themselves, One Health strategies as solutions to the challenges. Course participants will improve their understanding and grasp of One Health competencies and ideas: leadership; systems thinking; transdisciplinary problem solving; communications; professional integrity, ethics and diplomacy; vision integration and advocacy for change; and planetary health. Current global health issues will be discussed throughout the course.
Eligibility – This three-week action-oriented field course is designed for a collegial, inquisitive, multi-disciplinary group of graduate students and early career professionals in human health sciences, veterinary medicine, agriculture, nutrition, and social and environmental sciences. Applicants may be enrolled or recently graduated from any accredited university. Students must be committed to learning and working together to apply the One Health approach to important human, animal and environmental health problems. Eligible UC students will include professional degree students in medicine and veterinary medicine as well as graduate students in nursing, agriculture, nutrition, public health, social and environmental sciences. In 2017, a maximum of 16 participants will be enrolled in the Sri Lanka field course.
Background – With global populations increasing rapidly amidst changing environments and limited resources, one of the most important concerns facing human-kind is ensuring health – including access to adequate, sustainable and safe food resources and water, human and animal disease prevention, resilient ecosystems and culturally appropriate health care. The health of our people, our animals, and our planet are highly linked and all are at risk given current trajectories. Building on the previously popular Envirovet Summer Institute and the 2015 Sri Lank One Health in Action field course, faculty and stakeholders are once again coming together to open their doors to course participants in 2017. Below is a participant statement from the 2015 Sri Lanka One Health course:
“To truly understand a global health problem, there is no substitute for immersing in it by living amongst it and working with those who are affected by it. Whether we were dealing with problems of human health, animal health, or environmental health during the One Health field course, I was repeatedly impressed by the warmth and openness during field visits as people talked about local problems and finding innovative solutions. I think for myself and many others, a field course like this is both challenging and invigorating, and I’ve heard many people say it is life-changing.”
Curriculum – The course involves initial sessions at the University of Peradeniya and then launches into field sessions and visits where course participants immerse in global health problems with stakeholders and local partners who can share diverse perspectives. Field visits may include time in the northcentral region of Sri Lanka where an epidemic of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin has affected lifestyles and livelihoods of agricultural families, time focused on animal-oriented issues such as elephant conflict and welfare, time with tea and rice industry workers, and time with coastal communities that are adapting to cultural and economic pressures as well as climate change. Themes woven throughout the course include One Health, planetary health, cross-cultural communication and health, human-wildlife-environment interfaces, zoonotic disease and mitigation strategies, sustainable agriculture strategies, conservation, food safety, and community engagement. Training will involve classroom sessions, small-group discussions, visits with government and stakeholder representatives at their offices, hands-on field exercises, and time traveling through the country to enjoy to rich culture and history. Course participants will get experience leading discussions and making presentations. They will have opportunities for structured group-sharing sessions, as well as unstructured brainstorming for effective problem solving, and will have one-on-one conversations with faculty mentors.
Faculty – The One Health field course is co-led by faculty from University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, and the University of California, Davis in the USA. Both of these universities have a strong reputation for One Health collaborative research and training, and build on university structures that involve Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine as well as Colleges of Agriculture and the Social Sciences. Your accomplished and diverse faculty members will provide leadership, guidance, and mentoring to course participants that highlight the key roles that stakeholders, government, and industry partners play in solving global health problems associated with people, animals, and their shared environments in Sri Lankan systems.
Cost – Course tuition is US $3,500/participant, inclusive of travel, lodging, and food costs in Sri Lanka during the three week course. Important: Enrolled participants will be responsible for their own travel costs to and from Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the beginning and end of the field course. Academic credit is possible.
Application Instructions – We are no longer accepting applications for this program; applications were due on February 12, 2017. We asked for a cover letter, the application form, and at least one (but no more than three) letter of recommendation from an individual who can attest to your commitment, work ethic, and abilities as a team player.
Applicants will be notified by February 28, 2017 as to whether or not they have been accepted into the program. Confirmation of enrollment and tuition payments will be due in March, 2017.
For inquiries, please contact Jennifer Wang, jncwang@ucdavis.edu.
View and download the Sri Lanka One Health in Action 2017 flyer
Rx One Health Tanzania and Rwanda
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4 June – 30 June 2017
View and download the Rx One Health 2017 flyer
Course Overview – The goal of Rx One Health 2017 is to provide a “prescription” or Rx for early career health professionals to prepare them for immediate engagement in global health careers that will demand effective problem solving skills, cross-disciplinary engagements, and solid foundations in field and laboratory activities. The intensive course is aimed at a level appropriate for recent graduates or students in medical and veterinary schools around the world, as well as other early career health, agriculture, and conservation professionals. The course is based on the principles and practices of One Health. Participants will be immersed in settings that will illustrate that the health of people, animals and the environment are inextricably linked. Rx One Health 2017 will provide participants with direct access to mentors, tools, and knowledge to allow them to apply a One Health approach to their lives’ work. Course activities will all center on exposing participants to real-world One Health situations, challenging them to consider the many inter-related issues that are typical of complex problems, and to see firsthand, and even develop themselves, One Health strategies for overcoming these challenges. All Rx One Health participants will greatly improve their understanding and grasp of One Health competencies: cross-disciplinarity; communications; professional integrity, ethics and diplomacy; vision integration and advocacy for change; teamwork; and systems thinking. In addition, exposure to concepts and skills necessary for designing and participating in emerging infectious disease and toxin control programs will be provided.
Eligibility – Enrollment will be open to early career health, agriculture, and conservation professionals, with enrollment priority given to veterinary and medical students from the University of California and University of Rwanda. In 2017, a maximum of 22 students will be accepted for the June program.
Background – Led by the UC Davis One Health Institute, University of Rwanda, and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Rx One Health is being taught for the first time in June 2017. It’s curriculum has been built on the tremendous legacy of a course called Envirovet Summer Institute that was co-led by UC Davis and offered multiple times throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and which trained more than 400 veterinarians and veterinary students from around the world in ecosystem health (a precursor to One Health). Like Envirovet, Rx One Health will be an immersion-style, hands-on, intensive training course delivered over a 4-week period, with all coursework occurring in Tanzania and Rwanda in 2017.
Curriculum – Recurrent themes throughout Rx One Health will be One Health, planetary health, human-wildlife-environment interfaces, zoonotic disease and mitigation strategies, animal agriculture strategies, wildlife conservation, food safety and sustainability, and community engagement. Training will be in the forms of seminars in classrooms, small-group discussions in laboratories with scientists and around campfires with pastoralists and village members, and hands-on field exercises at farms, in parks, and on lakes and rivers. Students will spend time in laboratories observing experiments and studies, and will make presentations to stakeholders. Most importantly, the opportunities for structured group-sharing sessions, as well as unstructured brainstorming for effective problem solving, will be just as enriching, as will one-on-one conversations with faculty mentors.
In Tanzania, students will gain first-hand knowledge and experience with a variety of One Health challenges and solutions, including topics such as: animal-based food systems and zoonotic disease challenges (e.g. bovine tuberculosis); emerging infectious disease identification and control; wildlife capture; biosafety and security; cultural and ecological tourism; wildlife conservation and park management; water quality and delivery systems; health and food challenges facing underserved communities; and environmental contaminants. After two weeks in Tanzania gaining foundational material in One Health, Rx One Health students will then travel to Rwanda, where they will first gain insight into various One Health-oriented programs and projects implemented by the government and by international organizations. They will then more deeply engage in an immersive exercise to envision a One Health Cooperative for a community outside Volcanoes National Park that would address, balance, and solve very real challenges facing the community with regard to safe and efficient livestock production and welfare (dairy cows); nutrition (milk quality, production, and delivery), community health (maternal/child health care interventions) and wildlife conservation (mitigating wildlife-human contact outside the park) amidst changing climate and socioeconomic environments. Together with mentors and stakeholders, the students will lay the groundwork for a One Health Cooperative called Kinigi Farms, and will create a plan and materials that can be used by partners in Rwanda to garner support for this and similar initiatives that strive to balance conservation, health, and livelihoods.
Faculty – Rx One Health will be led by several senior faculty of the One Health Institute at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (UCD SVM), including: Jonna Mazet, DVM, PhD (Executive Director, OHI), Kirsten Gilardi, DVM, DACZM (Co-Director, Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, OHI), Woutrina Smith, DVM, PhD (Co-Director, UC Center of Expertise in Planetary Health), Patricia Conrad, DVM, PhD (Associate Dean for Global Programs, UCD SVM), Paulina Zielinska, DVM, MPH, MPVM (Director, Office of Global Programs, UCD SVM), James Cullor, DVM, PhD (Professor Emeritus, Dairy Herd Health, UCD SVM) and Michael Wilkes, MD, MPH (Professor of Internal Medicine, UCD School of Medicine). These UCD-based faculty will be joined by principal instructors in Africa, including Professor Rudovick Kazwala (Professor, Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, Sokoine University, Tanzania) and Dr. Philip Cotton, Vice Chancellor, University of Rwanda). Other key partners will include staff of Ruaha and Volcanoes National Parks, as well as several non-governmental health and agriculture organizations and small-business enterprises working in communities surrounding protected areas, who will open doors to their programs and projects for Rx One Health students.
Cost – Course tuition is US $4,500/participant, inclusive of all travel within and between Tanzania and Rwanda. Important: Enrolled participants will be responsible for their own travel costs to Tanzania at the start of the course, and from Rwanda at the end of the course.
Application Instructions – We are no longer accepting applications for this program; applications were due on February 12, 2017. We asked for a cover letter, the application form, and three letters of recommendation from individuals who can attest to your commitment, work ethic, and abilities as a team player.
Applicants will be notified shortly after the application deadline as to whether or not they have been accepted into the program. Confirmation of enrollment and tuition payments will be due March 15, 2017.
For inquiries, please contact Paulina Zielinska, pmzielinska@ucdavis.edu.