SIT Study Abroad Student Wins Fulbright Research Grant
December 9th, 2019 | SIT Study Abroad
Paula Escott, who recently graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, will travel to Buenos Aires in February 2020 to study telehealth systems for nine months on a Fulbright grant. She received the grant after spending a semester in Argentina studying with SIT Study Abroad's "Public Health in Urban Environments" program. In her words, she shares her experiences and insights from her SIT internship at Hospital Juan P. Garrahan.
When I studied abroad in Argentina, as part of my program I had the opportunity to do an internship with the incredible team at Hospital Juan P. Garrahan. It was so interesting for me to learn about the public healthcare experience for children in Argentina and learn from the experts about how they grew their telemedicine system from the ground up.
They started with a pilot program in the city of Jujuy, and through the formation of personal and institutional relationships, created a system of reference and counter reference that connects children with complex healthcare cases living in remote areas of the country to specialist healthcare.
As a result of my internship, facilitated by my SIT program, I made friendships with a team who encouraged my curiosity and helped me create the foundation for my proposal for a Fulbright grant. I can’t wait to return to Argentina and learn about how the original program -- which started with the hospitals and clinics in Jujuy -- has changed through each expansion, and how Hospital Juan P. Garrahan is getting specialist healthcare to all the children who need it.
