If you look closely this spring, you may see the smiling faces of Min Chen and Wanying Pei among the crowd of happy graduates from UNMC. Min and Wanying are students from Capital Medical University (CMU) in Beijing, and they are the first students to complete an inaugural Certificate in Public Health program between UNMC and CMU.
CMU is one of the top academic medical institutions in China. UNMC formalized relations with CMU during a visit there by Chancellor Gold in February of 2016. A delegation from CMU visited UNMC in December 2016 and signed an appendix to that agreement that strengthened these ties, especially in regards to student exchange and public health.
This certificate program has the dual goals of deepening collaborations between CMU and UNMC and offering more international opportunities to their students. In this program, UNMC will to host two public health students from CMU each year. In addition to a Certificate in Public Health from UNMC, these students will receive academic credit towards their degree at CMU, making it a win-win study abroad situation.
Of course, studying at UNMC offers more than just a certificate and some credits. Min said that she decided to join the program because "the U.S. is a place filled with people from all over who have equal opportunities for success. So, I was curious and interested in learning things from people from different backgrounds."
Completing the certificate program at UNMC has not been easy for Min and Wanying. Because of requirements at CMU, they had to take more courses than their UNMC classmates. Wanying said, "I struggled with this last semester and worried about my assignments and grades almost every day."
Additionally, all the courses they took at UNMC were at the graduate level, which meant an increased workload. In particular, they had to keep up with the written work that is integral to many U.S. graduate programs. It took some time to adapt to this, but Wanying said it was "the most valuable thing I have learned this year. I learned how to conduct a literature review, and then develop papers or assignments based on what I have found. At CMU I never had the chance to do similar work before."
Cultural differences also played a role, especially in the format and expectations for classes. In China, classes are mostly lectures. Min said, "at UNMC, students learn by themselves before class, and use class time to discuss the materials and ask questions. This is quite different from the way we study at CMU."
Min and Wanying saw these differences as opportunities to learn and grow.
At CMU, many of the public health classes have experiments and labs, Wanying said, but "students in China do not have much experience in talking with the community or the public. Here at UNMC, I have lots of classmates who already worked as a public health practitioners for many years. And they would share their experiences and interesting stories in class, which undoubtedly gave me the opportunity to learn much more about public health. Additionally, in China, people tend to focus more on theories, while here at UNMC it’s more valuable to conduct it in practice and cooperate with different organizations."
Min said that her time here gave her "a deeper belief in pursuing better health for everyone and an enriched perspective about public health." She said, "I became more aware of what we as public health practitioners can do and how we can achieve it through all the lectures and classes. Our time at UNMC was a great chance to think outside of the box and gain a wider perspective on the field of public health."
Min and Wanying have persevered and even excelled this year, setting a high standard for their successors.
Jessica Tschirren, MPA, director of student affairs at the College of Public Health, said "It has been a true joy to work with Min and Wanying this year! They have demonstrated exceptional focus and tenacity in their studies and have been quite active in our College community. We are excited to see them complete their program so successfully, but I am a little sad to see them go so soon."
Jane Meza, Ph.D., interim vice chancellor for global and student support and senior associate dean of the College of Public Health, said "I am so proud of Min and Wanying. They are the pioneers of this new collaboration with Capital Medical University. It was a joy to get to know them and have them in class. They worked hard, developed new skills, made lots of friends and will be great public health advocates."
When they return to China, Min and Wanying will finish their degrees at CMU. Wanying wants to pursue a master’s degree from the U.S. after she graduates from CMU (We have wonderful programs at UNMC!) Min looks forward to an internship with the Chinese CDC in Beijing where she can pursue her research interests and put her experiences at UNMC into practice.
The next two certificate students from CMU will arrive in August.