UW-Eau Claire Study Abroad Experiences for Health Career Interested Students
Khon Kaen, Thailand
Summer only - Community Health Internship or Clinical Placement
Start off your experience by taking two courses: Introduction to Thai Language and Healthcare in Thailand in the first two weeks alongside other students in the internship program, allowing you to get settled into the country while making new friends.
Starting on week three, students will have very specialized schedules that will depend on the internship or assistantship specifics. During the experience, you will live with other students, allowing opportunities to socialize and meet with friends. In addition, each student will have a Thai student partner that is studying healthcare at KKU.
There are many different internship and assistantship placements available. All internships are 7-8 credits. Each internship/assistantship type has different eligibility requirements, including some necessary pre-requisites. Consult with the study abroad office on which program might work best for you.
Community Health Internship:
- This option is best for exploratory pre-health students, public health majors, or students without advanced clinical coursework. Past student activities have included shadowing community health and primary care teams, observing school health screenings or child development programs, and conducting health surveys, among many others.
- Specific information and eligibility requirements:
- Must be of sophomore standing or higher at time of application (e.g., apply during the fall of your sophomore year at UWEC)
- Successful completion of university-level biology course with lab is required
- Introductory course in public health or other health science field is highly desirable
- Self-study of Thai before arrival is strongly encouraged.
Clinical-based Internship:
- This option is best for juniors or seniors, pre-med, nursing, allied health, and students with clinical or advanced science coursework.
- Past student activities have included: joining ward rounds and clinical discussions, participating in pediatric development and early childcare activities, and supporting health education during community or hospital outreach trips, among many others.
- Specific information and eligibility requirements:
- Must be of junior standing or higher at time of application (e.g., apply during the fall of your junior year at UWEC)
- Relevant science/health coursework is required
- Prior clinical exposure is preferred
Research-based Internship/Research Assistantship
- This option is best for juniors or seniors in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, public health, biomedical engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, or related majors. Past student activities have included: wet lab techniques (extraction, colorimetry, spectrophotometry, chromatography), biological assays of plant extracts, assisting with cell culture, learning instrumentation (HPLC, rotary evaporator), among others.
- Specific information and eligibility requirements:
- Must be of junior standing or higher at time of application (e.g., apply during the fall of your junior year at UWEC)
- Completion of at least three upper-division science courses
- Prior laboratory experience required
- Statistics course strongly recommended
More questions? with the study abroad office.
Heredia, Costa Rica
Internships (semester students) -Shadowing internships are available in the Fall and Spring semesters to those who have completed SPAN 202 before the program start.
Courses that may be of interest to health related students ()
- Span 420 Spanish for Health Professions
- Kins 312 Psychology/Sociology of Sport
- Chem 352 Fundamentals of Biochemistry
- Biol 214 Human Anatomy and Physiology
- Psyc Elec Psychology of Happiness
- Kins 450 Sports Nutrition, Exercise, and Performance
- Kins 308 Exercise Physiology
More questions? with the study abroad office.
Puebla, Mexico
Summer only - Health Professions Track- Internship and Coursework
Summer students choose a program track in either Spanish Language & Culture or Spanish for the Professions
- All tracks are 6 credits
- The professions tracks consist of: Business, Education, or Healthcare. They are for intermediate to advanced Spanish speakers and include ~90 hours of observation, internship, or volunteering in a relevant organization.
- Credits Earned- Span 420 and Span 930U (prerequisites for both courses is Span 301)
More questions? with the study abroad office.
NOTE:
There are other programs that may work for pre health students, consult with the study abroad office and your ARCC and HCC advisors.
- Australia, Southern Cross University (BIOL and KINS, in particular)
- Australia, Perth (has offered CHEM 452/453 in the past, but doesn't currently)
- Scotland, Aberdeen (has offered CHEM 326 and 352 in the past, but don't currently)
- Scotland, Stirling (BIOL and KINS, in particular)
- Ireland, Limerick (has offered CHEM 325, 326, and 352 in the past, along with many other pre-health courses)
- Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici (has offered CHEM 325 and 326 in the past)
Important Notes on Grades and Transcripts and Study Abroad:
If you are planning to study abroad at one of the following times:
- During the last term of your undergraduate career AND
- The semester before you are applying to professional school
- The term directly before starting professional school
Then make sure to speak to your study abroad manager about when you can expect to receive transcripts from your time abroad based on your selected program, and then to the HCC about if or how this might impact your application and/or professional school plans.
Additionally, if you have determined what professional schools you are planning on applying to before studying abroad, make sure that they will accept prerequisite courses taken on a study abroad program towards their admission requirements. While many schools do accept this, some may only accept credit earned at an accredited U.S. institution.
UW-Eau Claire Domestic and International Immersion Experiences
See link for updates and deadlines.
Program Locations: Veracruz, Mexico
Program Dates: TBD
Target Student Population: Program will accept 12 students. Students studying Nursing, Spanish for Health Professions, and Latin American & Latinx Studies will be given priority
Faculty / Staff Leader(s): Dr. Elena Casey and Dr. Lisa Schiller
Corresponding Courses: No winterim course is associated with this program. However, all students must have completed one of the following courses prior to the program:
- NRSG 428.311 (Practicum: Nursing Leadership – Rural Immersion Clinical)
- SPAN 420 (Spanish for Health
Professions) - LAS 324 (Latinx Health & Migration to the US)
Additional Attributes: R2, 30 hours of service-learning
More questions? Contact Jeff R. DeGrave, Ph.D. degravjr@uwec.edu or visit the Intercultural Immersion Website
National Student Exchange Program
There are nearly 180 schools currently in the NSE consortium, including schools in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. Our students can study at one of these schools for a semester or an academic year, pay UW-Eau Claire tuition, and earn resident credits which count toward their graduation requirement.
Attend information sessions in the Fall Semester for application information.
Additional information: NSE - UWEC Campus Site |
NATIONAL STUDENT EXCHANGE – 3 Schofield Hall 715-836-4411 nse@uwec.edu
Global Health Clinical and Volunteer Experiences
Learning about healthcare from other global perspectives is a very important part of your pre-health education, but before seeking clinical experiences abroad or engaging in global health volunteer opportunities, you should seriously consider some very important things. There are numerous situations where students on international trips are asked and expected to practice medicine (including veterinary medicine) or dentistry without proper education, training and supervision. You need to be aware of the real risk of some well-intentioned programs doing more harm than good. It is strongly advised that you explore your personal motivations for participating in a global health experience and research the organization that is offering the experience.
Work with the Health Careers Center and your ARCC Advisor early to create a plan that works for you and your health career goals. Consider locations with course work and experiences that might enhance your application to professional school.
Useful resources:
- Read the guidelines provided by the (American Association of Medical Colleges) and ADEA (American Dental Education Association) for providing patient care outside the US.
- Read (University of Kansas, Center for Service Learning)
- Read the information provided at (GAPS) and take the free online GAPS workshop (University of Minnesota, Pre-Health Student Resource Center).
- Research the organizations that offer international health experiences and carefully consider any “red flags” like those listed below. (From )
- Organizations that see high numbers of patients in a very short time.
- Organizations that allow unlicensed or non-professional students to do professional activities such as triaging patients, taking histories and physicals, doing physical exams and dispensing medications (particularly when there is no redundancy with a licensed/trained health professional repeating all patient care activities done by the students).
- Opportunities that over-promise big impacts in a short time.
- Organizations that reduce the challenges of health disparities to simple causes and/or simple fixes.
- Organizations that are not transparent about the use of fees and/or are trying to profit off of volunteering goodwill.
- Organizations that focus narrowly on the benefit for volunteers (such as the benefits to an application or resume), rather than the benefit to the community served by the volunteers.
- Organizations that do not measure their impacts on communities or evaluate their work.
