Scholarships

UNMC offers scholarships to support global health study abroad experiences.

Global Health Security Internship

The internship is a 12-week assignment working with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

Financial support is provided by the World Health Organization Student Fund through the University of Nebraska Foundation to cover internship travel, room, board and other job-related in-country expenses. Smith was the founding medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and served through the 2014 Ebola crisis, when when three Ebola patients were treated in the unit.

Duties of the internship include, but are not limited to, support of response activities to public health emergencies and activities related to the five GOARN areas of work:

• Alert and risk assessment: Improved coordination of alert, risk assessment, and response activities among GOARN partners.
• Public health rapid response capacity: Coordination, planning, and deployment of rapid response capacity, including rapid deployment of mobile laboratory support.
• Operational research and tools development: Integrating research into response.
• Governance: Creating an enabling environment for the involvement of all partners in the development and operations of the network.
• Training: Development of a GOARN outbreak response training program, including a three-tiered strategy and global faculty.

Please email Dr. Sharon Medcalf to learn how to apply.

Suzanne and Ward Chambers Global Health Fellowship

The UNMC College of Public Health Suzanne and Ward Chambers Summer Global Health Fellowship Award was established in 2014 by the generous support of the Chambers and Gail Yanney, MD.

Ward Chambers, MD, was a long-serving UNMC director for global health. This funded fellowship is dedicated to continuing his passion to introduce students to global health experiences, with opportunities to support advances and innovations in global public health.

Every year, the UNMC College of Public Health awards the four fellowships to public health students who want to conduct health engagement projects or population health research overseas in qualified countries. The fellowship includes four to six weeks of global site work, with an additional four to six weeks dedicated to preparation for the research project, post-data collection analysis, and manuscript preparation. This experience provides an opportunity to co-create research capacity internationally with diverse population health-partners in-country and across the University system.

A maximum of $4,000 is given to awardees to cover all fellowship related expenses including personal travel, room, board, insurance, and for various project-related expenses. An additional $500 is given to the awardee after presenting the work. Another $500 is awarded after publishing the fellowship project manuscript (preferably in a peer-reviewed journal).

The fellowship is one of the largest awards in the College of Public Health with total annual grants of about $25,000. The core concepts of the Suzanne and Ward Chambers Fellowship award are to expose COPH students to new cultures and international public health systems, build transnational understanding, and strengthen the relationships and collaborations between students and professionals in the US and other countries. Fifteen students were awarded the fellowship over the past five years with projects conducted in nine countries Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Oman, Syria, Tanzania, Taiwan, and Ethiopia.

Please email Wael ElRayes, MD, PhD, to learn more about how to apply.