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Student Research Projects in Malaysia Improve Global Health Education

The Tufts Global Research Assistant Program exposes students to public health challenges abroad and affirms a passion for global health
News Staff | Wed, Nov 20, 2024

It seemed serendipitous that while taking classes at Queen Mary University of London, Sophi Schneider, A25, became friends with several students from Malaysia, because shortly thereafter, she heard about the Tufts Global Research Assistant Program (GRAP), which offered a placement in Kuala Lumpur. 

Once she learned of it, Schneider jumped at the chance to continue her pursuit of global health studies in a place that she longed to know more about. 

“When I found the GRAP program, it was the perfect combination of an opportunity to study global health while looking at a public health problem in a different community, and a different part of the world,” said Schneider, a double major in community health and child studies and human development.

After applying and interviewing, she was selected as one of three students who joined epidemiologist Shayesteh Jahanfar, professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, in Malaysia over the summer. 

The 2024 cohort, consisting of two undergraduates and one graduate student, supported two research projects at the University of Malaya Medical Center. 

“Through the GRAP program, students learn how to interact with the public and immerse themselves in the culture,” Jahanfar said. “They also get involved with different stages of studies, including data collection and data analysis. Since I also teach biostatistics, I can help students develop their data analysis plan and conduct this with the different software that we train them to work with.” 

Malaysia is just one site for the program, which allows students to work on Tufts’ faculty members’ international research projects for several weeks each summer. Other sites include Kenya, Costa Rica, and the Philippines.

Sponsored by the AS&E Career Center and Summer Scholars Program, the Office of the Provost, and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, GRAP prioritizes undergraduate applicants in any year of study, including their senior year if they plan to pursue additional studies at Tufts after graduation. 

In collaboration with Dr. Li Ping Wong, Dr. Lee Wan Ling and Dr. Aizura Syafinaz Ahmad Adlan from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jahanfar was a co-investigator on two hands-on projects. 

Syenna Zhang, MG25 (MPH), whose graduate studies in public health at Tufts School of Medicine focus on epidemiology and biostatistics, and Schneider were assigned to a study that seeks to prove psychoeducational interventions can improve the quality of life for patients with endometriosis, a painful and sometimes serious condition which causes uterine-lining-like tissue to grow outside the uterus. Ian Condon, A25, who is a double major in international relations and German language and culture, worked on a study investigating factors influencing self-care among patients with atrial fibrillation. This condition causes an irregular, fast heartbeat. 

Condon arrived before the other students and spent eight weeks in Malaysia. He helped Zhang and Schneider acclimate when they arrived for their four-week immersion. 

“We got there, and we immediately just jumped right into everything,” Schneider said. “Syenna and I were in the clinic from Monday to Thursday, working with two medical students. We collaborated with them to talk to the patients, see if the patients would be in our study, and then if they would mind us collecting information about their quality of life, including anxiety, depression, pain scores related to endometriosis, and potential effects of psychoeducational intervention.”

Although the projects had different goals and study populations, the types of data collected and the students’ schedules were similar. They spent the first four days each week collecting data, with Fridays reserved for data analysis. On the weekends, there were additional programming options to help them learn more about health care and the Malaysian cultures. 

“In many ways, Malaysia was a spectacular place to hone one's cultural competencies in that it's a country of many different cultures who found a way to create a really vibrant and dynamic society today,” Condon said. “I think that's something that teaches us a lot about the world more broadly.”

Each of the Tufts students had studied abroad prior to GRAP, but Condon noted that this trip allowed a “new degree of independence and a different learning environment” than other study-abroad programs. 

One difference was that students were given autonomy in the hospital during data collection and analysis. They were also invited to visit departments outside their respective studies, where they sat in on procedures and were introduced to other specialties. 

When Zhang and Schneider were invited to a developmental pediatric assessment, they witnessed a three-way language translation that made the care accessible for both the patients and themselves. The medical team used Mandarin and Malay to communicate with the patient and then translated the conversation to English for Zhang and Schneider to understand.

Zhang, who speaks Chinese and helped translate some conversations while in Malaysia, noted, “It was very important to build this effective and clear communication with the patients. It allows us to build trust, have better data, and lead to better results.”

The studies are ongoing, much like the impact of the students’ summer experiences, which they regularly reflect upon. While in Malaysia and upon returning to campus, Schneider, Zhang, and Condon each documented their experiences in e-portfolios. Entry topics include what they learned in the clinical studies, trips they took to other Malaysian regions to better understand the needs there, and the ways in which they learned about culture through food and friends. 

“When you travel abroad you become so humble, because you learn about all these different cultures and your perspective totally changes after being able to respect other cultures and other views,” Jahanfar said. “That's what grows in you. And I think that's what we at Tufts can help our students gain, as well. Equality cannot be really fulfilled unless we have this respect in place.”