I feel like a universal experience for all undergraduate students is the vast abundance of opportunities to grow both academically, extracurricularly, socially, and personally throughout your college years. But if for some twisted reason, what college has to offer does not feel sufficient, your attention can with success be redirected to any of the graduate programs at the University. Let me walk you through it!
The aforementioned saturation with what college has to offer is certainly not my case, and I wish for 4 additional undergraduate years to experience all the limitless possibilities around. I don’t think there has been a day in college during which I didn’t find a new thing that would be of genuine interest to me. Perhaps this never-ending curiosity is what allowed me to find GHP297, searching for undergraduate engagement with Harvard's David Rockefeller’s Center for Latin American Studies. And though listed as a graduate only course, every detail I read about the program seemed too fascinating to not shoot my shot. My interest in family medicine and health policy reforms began through another, quite accidental, collaboration with the University of Heidelberg and health policy in Lesotho, so I somehow managed to convince the head professor to add me to the graduate rooster. All this to say, no matter the situation even if you think you stand no chance, try it, it may take you as far as the other side of the world, to the stunning country of Chile.
The 3-week research program was just beyond fascinating. In my first 24 hours I was already on a bus to visit the National Congress in Valparaiso, directly debating with three out of five health-related senators, closely observing the stances they can take and how they gracefully make their way out of difficult questions. It was meetings with the liberals and conservatives, politicians and policymakers, with public and private health sector stakeholders, doctors, nurses, the superintendent of health, the ministry. Each of them holding a slightly different opinion, tangled in the intricacies of how much they could share publicly. Each focused on health reforms, each aiming to improve the Chilean health system, yet each with a different, often conflicting idea, perspective.
The end of the program brought a final dinner gathering, each of the Harvard Chan students now taking the role of answering questions from our partners. “What surprised you the most during your stay in Chile?” Many responses of course were rather light-hearted, highlighting the hospitality, care and welcoming of everyone definitely was the most memorable for many. But above all, as one of my classmates put in words something that we all very strongly resonated with: most if not all people that we have interacted with during those three weeks in Chile truly cared about, for a lack of a better description, “making the world a better place”. Their attention, dedication, ability to compromise to work together towards a common goal, and constantly thinking of new initiatives of how to build the health system stronger on a local or national level was indescribable. Coming from an extremely polarized country, and currently living in perhaps an even more polarized one, it was heartwarming to witness that, and an inspiration for the future. And perhaps hope that it is possible, if all try to transcend the initial prejudices in the spirit of achieving a common goal. As my classmate put it, coming from a university environment that oftentimes places the largest emphasis on some type race to the top - whether it’s prestige, money, power - and ends up forgetting the broader picture, and perhaps why they entered Harvard in the first place, it was beyond powerful to spend my winter break in a community oriented towards common wellbeing.
