ETSU Quillen College of Medicine students have a chance to participate in sponsored short term overseas service or research trips during their medical school career. These experience provide students with a brief but in-depth exposure to health and health care during the trips. Many students have described their experience on the trips as life changing. Explore what the Global Health oriented experiences have to offer below.
Global Health Experiences: Medical Students
- Belize Service Trips
- Global Health Electives: 3rd and 4th Year
- Education Abroad
- Financial Aid and Scholarships
- Summer Research Program in Global Health
- Certificate in Spanish for Health Professionals
- Global Health courses and a Global Health Certificate offered by the ETSU College of Public Health
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Explore More Global Health Initiatives
Belize Service Trip
The College of Medicine sponsors two trips to Belize each Winter (first week in February) and Summer (first week of June). Our in-country partners, the Belize Ministry of Health and Wellness and Body and Soul Ministries, provide health services for community members in primarily rural settings.
Students participating on these brigades will atend 5-6 predeparture meetings to prepare them for the clinical experience, organize some fundraising aspects of the trip and help prepare the medications.

Global Health Electives: 3rd and 4th Year

Medical students can elect for a two week 3rd year elective or a four week 4th year
elective in our sites in Kenya, Zambia, Belize and Ecuador. These electives will provide
the student to have an in-depth clinical experience in a low resource setting, working
with health professional from these countries:
- Africa
- Central and South America
The elective can be organized, depending upon our host capabilities, in any of the primary specialty areas: Family Medicine, Pediatrics, OBGYN, Surgery, or Internal Medicine. These electives helps students develop cultural competence, cultural humility, wrestle with ethical challenges and enhance patient communication and diagnostic skills.
The student will be prepared through comprehensive pre-departure training, focused on the culture, language, ethics and the clinical conditions they will experience during the elective. If you know where you want to go and who you want to work with for the Global Health Elective, please email Valerie Suiter at suiterv@etsu.edu
Want to learn more? Email wooddl@etsu.edu.
Additional Information
All 4th year Global Health electives will need to be submitted to and approved by Kortni Dollinger, email lindsayk@etsu.edu.