Working at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
My work as a Health Equity Intern at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has been nothing short of awesome. I just realized that I am usually doing a lot of programs at the same time, just like so many students at Tufts. Coming to Tufts, one of the main questions that I asked myself in the first few days was: How would I stay connected to my passion for creating cancer awareness (the bare minimum that I could do)? I couldn’t find any way to keep up with my cause until sophomore year when I was accepted into the Tisch Scholars program. Coincidentally, that same year, DFCI’s Center for Global Health joined in partnership with Tisch College, and after interviewing with them, I was offered the position of Health Equity Intern. I was so happy to achieve this goal of mine. I’m so grateful to Calvin Zhao, who is the Tisch Scholars’ Senior Program Manager, for this wonderful opportunity.
The structure of my internship is that I get to go to the hospital every Wednesday for three hours, and I complete at least six hours of work every week. One of the fun parts of the experience is taking the train to Boston. It is so amazing that Brigham Circle is becoming my favorite T-stop over these past two semesters. There are several projects that I get to work on while in the hospital, and some of the ones that I have completed include a research project on the cancer outlook in 23 Latin American and Caribbean countries. This research, for instance, was with the aim of establishing partnerships with the respective countries. For me, the final report that I presented highlighted the kind of gaps that are present within the cancer sector for the different countries. It is evident that cancer is a global problem, and a more unified world would be able to curb the effects of this dreadful disease in a better manner.
The second project that I worked on was a data input one that involved translating some of the cancer data from Uzbekistan. The CGH team had traveled over to Uzbekistan to establish a partnership with the cancer centers over there. Some of the things that the partnership was to identify were gaps in staffing, capacity building, shortages of treatment equipment for cancer, and whether possibly there could be a way for DFCI to provide some support based on how much they could be able to. As for me, it was nice again to be involved in such a program, and I am looking forward to continuing to learn as much as possible about the actual challenges that the cancer field faces. One thing that I am so appreciative of is being a Tisch Scholar and being in this position that I am able to work with other like-minded people in shaping the healthcare industry. This is my moment to come out and do so strongly in raising my voice in support of cancer patients and helping in the effort to make cancer a thing of the past.