Hyphen the World Virtual Internship in India
Discovering a Virtual Study Abroad Experience
This summer, I planned to study abroad to gain a better understanding of women and child health around the world as an aspiring pediatrician or family physician. However, due to COVID-19, I had to take a virtual approach to global education. In gaining such experiences, I hope to gain a heightened global perspective and thinking that is more inclusive of everyone. I hope to apply this philosophy when I practice medicine to provide the best care to my community.
At first, I was not expecting to be able to experience studying abroad during this time, while the world is currently undergoing a pandemic and there being so much uncertainty and change going on – to my life, my schedule, my work spaces, my relationships with my family and friends, and so on. I was pleasantly surprised when I encountered a virtual study abroad experience in the place of my previous study abroad plan through an email from my UWB Global Scholars cohort, and made the selection into the first cohort of Hyphen the World (HTW) virtual study abroad student interns.
HTW placed us in local community organizations in India. The organization my project partner, Phoenix (who attends UW), and I were placed with was “Haiyya”. In Haiyya, we worked with Sreejani, our supervisor to create an Intersectionality module for the organization’s community leaders.
I was excited to begin my journey with HTW, and at the same time, I was worried that our cultural differences would create barriers that would negatively influence if/how we connected and understood each other. The virtual setting intensified this worry because our physical distance might stand in the way of us bonding, which I feared would result in my work for Haiyya being insensitive or irrelevant. As a Global Scholar and Health Studies student, I have learned of the consequences of Western organizations outside a community “assuming and not asking”, and I wanted to be sure I did not repeat history and participate in neocolonialism or reproduce unequal partnerships.
As such, I consulted with my HTW mentor, Astha, and Haiyya supervisor, Sreejani, and gained opportunities to hear from community leaders in India. From my discussions with Astha, I was able to come to terms with the fact that no one can be one hundred percent fluent when navigating intersectionality. There are so many unique and diverse compounding identities in the world, and the best thing I can do is to continue to try and learn more about as many as I can in order to be more inclusive of as many people as I can. I think through sharing my stories with Astha and hearing her stories – not of just our proudest moments, but also ones which we learned and grew from – we were able to relate with one another and form a connection.
The Pilot Group for HTW
As the pilot group for HTW, launching their first virtual study abroad program cohort, I did not know what to expect. I decided to have faith that I would gain something from the experience and could make a positive impact on the community that welcomed me in New Delhi, India.
We met weekly with our cohort who were placed in different community organizations in HTW circles. Furthermore, we met individually with a mentor from HTW to reflect on our journeys and connect with one another. While the experience was different from meeting and being present in the same space, we all connected in our challenges with Zoom, Wi-Fi, and technology, and shared stories about our different perspectives and walks of life, how the current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting us and those around us, and more. I really appreciated having this space to reflect, learn, and connect with other HTW students in our cohort. This experience really helped me digest what I was learning during my 4-week journey with other students and connect with others and hear what is important to them, what they are passionate about, and how they are acting on it because I find it inspiring to learn from others.
As a student intern with Haiyya, I developed creatives to promote and celebrate an event called “Access Day”, which seeks to promote health over stigma and womxn’s reproductive rights through events where medical professionals and doctors talk to womxn one-on-one. Additionally, I was paired with Phoenix, a recent graduate of UW and student in HTW, to work on creating an intersectionality module. I think intersectionality is important to consider in healthcare because people’s different compounding identities can affect their access to care in many ways. From this experience, I learned how communities around the world are affected by their identities, which I can utilize to provide quality care and service as an aspiring healthcare provider. As such, I was excited and grateful for the opportunity to learn more about others’ stories and identities and how this may or may not have affected their health and access to care.
Reflecting On My Experience
A takeaway I have gained from my experience with HTW is that Hyphening the World is like a Mobius strip – to create change in society, we must create change within ourselves, and change also flows from society to self, as a Mobius strip does. I think this experience helped me connect the work we did in our community (Haiyya, HTW, and the HTW cohort) to understand how I can also bring positive change to the community, both abroad and in my local community. I feel like I have grown to become a more knowledgeable and insightful member of the community – this experience will stay with me and apply to whatever I learn in the future. I believe both learning and unlearning are important, and I will continue to always try to become a better version of myself and a better member of the community every day (in learning, listening, and taking action). These are some things one of our HTW mentors, Atul, said which I thought were powerful and stuck with me. For this reason, I think the program empowers youth such
as myself to develop their leadership potential and create change, starting with themselves, flowing into society, and vice versa.
And, as Astha said, “checking in, never checking out” – I am continuing to stay in touch with HTW and am excited to start as a community leader with Haiyya.
Through my work on the Intersectionality module with Phoenix, Sreejani, and the community leaders, I gained a better understanding of the medical needs of differently- abled people and different body types and womxn in India. I learned that often, trans individuals have a harder time navigating the healthcare system than cisgender individuals. Also, I learned that the healthcare system can be improved to be more inclusive of more individuals and provide better care if they consider more of the individual’s compounding identities. In the U.S., for example, taking into consideration that asexual and trans womxn also need to visit the gynecologist, and making them feel welcome and comfortable is important to providing better care for all. For example, to be more inclusive of all genders, having a question asking about “gender” and not just “sex” (male or female) could be a simple addition to the medical forms patients fill out before seeing the doctor. In India, Haiyya and their community leaders are fighting for unmarried womxn reproductive rights to promote health over stigma. There are many ways the system can be improved to be more inclusive so that more people have access to the healthcare system. Furthermore, taking these identities into consideration and how they can affect people – their access to care and health – could prove beneficial for healthcare providers and doctors.
Additionally, I was able to develop my understanding of global health and become more adaptable to working in a multicultural setting. I have developed a more cross-cultural understanding of healthcare and learned to consider how different countries approach healthcare differently to best fit their cultural needs – this consideration is important to avoiding American imperialism in healthcare. For example, Haiyya has invited medical professionals to speak to unmarried women to talk about their reproductive health in a safe space. To help promote this event called “Access Day”, I made some creatives Haiyya shared on their social media.
From this experience, I have learned that intersectionality is everywhere and in everyone, including myself, allowing me to contribute and share my stories of intersectionality and how they affect my access to care. I think by sharing stories with many individuals, hearing and amplifying their voices, and acting to promote diversity can help create a healthier society and healthcare system around the world. I believe this new knowledge I have gained, and these skills would make me more equipped in pursuing a career as a pediatrician or family physician, especially if I hope to join Doctors Without Borders during my career.
