Global Perspectives

Reflection

Working with people from other cultures in a lab setting was sometimes difficult and confusing, but also rewarding. I have had to deal with minor language difficulties, both me understanding others and others understanding me. Sometimes these problems were caused by accents, and other times they were caused by the way things were emphasized. As an example of the second, Dr. Lu often doesn't mention the time frame that she wants me to run experiments in, and I initially interpreted this as meaning that she needed everything to happen immediately. However, I eventually realized the miscommunication and it taught me to question some of my cultural assumptions. The Ancient Medicine course has also been interesting because of the number of things that were correct as well as the number of things that were wrong. Ancient Roman culture cared about different things than today, which has sometimes led to jarring readings ranging from fairly innocuous (pants are effeminate) to unusually frank descriptions of death, dissections and illness (including a discussion of where to find a human body to practice surgery on). I am glad I had this chance to learn more about their culture.

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GCSP Connection

This experience was not one of the pre-approved options, but it satisfies the requirement as it allowed me to interact with people from several different countries and cultures. It connected well to Engineering Better Medicines, since I worked towards understanding how genes are regulated within the Bulyk lab, which could lead to new therapies for a variety of diseases. The Ancient Medicines course also taught me about the history of medicine, so that I can better understand the triumphs and weaknesses of the current medical system as I continue my career. This experience was not really connected to Personalized Learning.

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My proposed global experience contributed to perspectivism and teamwork by showing me how interacting with those with very different backgrounds can contribute to identifying problems early and making a team more effective. I demonstrated integrity while performing research and in the class. The ancient medicine course contributed to realistic vision by showing me alternate ways of structuring medicine, and the research experience gave me a chance to put my vision into practice. Finally, I used persistence and flexibility in responding to language barriers and other challenges during my research.

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Learning Objectives

• Working with Diverse Teams. I demonstrated this through my successful work in an international team within the Bulyk lab.

• Global Citizenship. I demonstrate this through my choice to study microbiology in graduate school, in response to increasing antibiotic resistance worldwide. I am also aware of, though not able to propose solutions to, additional global problems such as global climate change, lingering poverty due to Western colonialism, and increased terrorism and cyberterrorism threats.

• Cultural Awareness. Working in the Bulyk lab let me learn more about different cultures from Europe, southeast Asia and Oceania, which I can incorporate into future work.

• Openness to Difference. I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the cultural differences between my coworkers and me.

• Demonstrate knowledge of the history, government, and economic systems of several target countries. Through the Ancient Medicine course, I am learning more about the history of medicine in Greece and Rome, as well as its social and legal context.

• Interpersonal Communication: Communicate effectively with different stakeholders and promote productive intercultural dialogue. My experiences communicating about science within a multinational team will help me promote productive intercultural dialogue. Although not directly related to this experience, expressing the research I did in the Bulyk lab has helped me learn to discuss complex issues clearly, which would also be important for this.