Femke
Dear SHARE member,
My name is Femke Stoffels, 21 years old and currently in my third year of the bachelor Health Policy and Management at ESHPM. Before I even started my first year at Erasmus University I had already heard about the possibilities to go abroad in the third year. I knew right away that I wanted to take this chance to experience another healthcare system in addition to the Dutch one.
Within the third year of the new bachelor program, you get to choose your own curriculum. This period consists of sixteen weeks and will start in September. You can choose to do a regular minor (ten weeks) followed up by two elective courses (six weeks). Or you can choose to go abroad like I did. There are several options to go abroad:
First of all the minor Global Health (ten weeks abroad), unfortunately this option was too expensive for me and was based consisted on a selection procedure. The second option was the exchange program (sixteen weeks), but this required a selection based on grades and since mine weren’t that high, this didn’t seem like an option either. So I chose to do the internship abroad.
The difference between this option and the other options, the minor Global Health and the exchange program, is the freedom of choice. You get to choose your own location and research subject. When you decide to do the internship abroad you can choose to start with a regular minor (10 weeks) and go abroad for six weeks afterwards or to start with going abroad for ten weeks and do two elective courses (six weeks) afterwards.
I decided to do the minor: ‘Quality of life and Happiness Economics’ at Erasmus and an internship in South-Africa for six weeks afterwards. ESHPM recommends several organizations to help you to arrange your internship, for example ‘Het Andere Reizen’ who arranged my trip. This organization offers several internship locations around the world and will help you with everything there is to know. Such as lodging, flights and safety.
I went to Port Elizabeth, South Africa with three other friends. We did a research about the strategic plan of Missionvale care centre. This care centre provides help (food, clothes and healthcare) to the people who are living in the Missionvale township. It was an intense, but most of all unforgettable experience. Are you interested in an internship abroad? Or do you have any questions? Feel free to contact me or read my blog on:
https://www.polarsteps.com/FemkeStoffels/2727068-south-africa?s=197A6D48-9589-485F-BE8D-D2F6C4BA4A78