Ms. Bridget Leivan (Department of Global Health, University of South Florida) and Leonardo Martinez (Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane University) have been granted the Hispanic Serving Health Professions Schools Scholarship (HSHPS) to carry out the 2012 Internship in Tropical Diseases and Global Health in Ecuador.  Public health students from all across the country participate in HSHPS including John Hopkins, Tulane, University of Puerto Rico and Columbia University.

Bridget is a USF graduate student from Huntington Beach, California, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Health in Global Communicable Disease, along with a Graduate Certificate in Epidemiology. This summer in Ecuador, she will participate in the nine-week traineeship in Tropical Diseases and Global Health. Bridget is eager for the experience as it will allow her to apply the tools and concepts she learned in the classroom within a culturally-diverse setting. Bridget has developed a strong knowledge base in global health through her coursework including Vectors of Human Disease, Exotic and Emerging Infectious Diseases, and Parasitology. Her experience in Ecuador will serve as a practicum in which to apply this knowledge.  She will observe clinical cases of tropical infectious diseases in both rural and urban settings, as well as participate in control programs for diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, Chagas and dengue.