elizabeth triche
Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar
Media Profile
"Studying Public Health will help me bridge the gap between my medical knowledge and skills and the people that require those skills. It will provide me with an understanding of why disparities in health occur, where they occur and how best to efficiently use my skills towards an improvement in global health."
Elizabeth Triche, is one of fifteen Americans to be granted a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to Australia in 2007. A University of Florida graduate and current medical student at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Elizabeth will carry out her Fulbright coursework in public health at the University of Sydney.
Elizabeth will undertake a Masters in International Public Health (MIPH) and take French classes at the School of Public Health over a 12 month period. In between two 4-month semesters of International Public Health study, she will work in rural Australia, providing health care to the communities scattered throughout the Outback.
“The project will serve to give me information regarding how to apply my medical knowledge in a cost effective and culturally appropriate manner in the health care environments of both developed and developing countries. This knowledge will prove useful in my future career of providing medical services to underserved communities in developed and developing countries.”
Elizabeth hopes to learn how to deal with overcoming cultural barriers and to further enhance her medical skills and improve her diagnostic skills without the aid of expensive medical technology. “The overall purpose of my project is to give me information and experiences that will be synergistic to my medical school and Peace Corps experiences in order to prepare me for a future career in international medicine.”
“Between gaining Public Health knowledge and working to understand and treat people in new and different cultures, I will work to become tri-lingual. Studying French will enable me to communicate with people outside of North and South America, including those in a number of African countries that currently are in dire need of medical care, thus expanding my options as a health care practitioner. “
When Elizabeth returns to the U.S., she will begin her final year of medical school and will begin to apply for residency programs. In the future she would like to work for an organisation like Doctors without Boarders. “Ultimately, I will provide health care and live in rural or underserved areas in the United Stated and in developing countries.”
Elizabeth was a Peace Corps Health Volunteers in Honduras in 2002-04 and in 2005 spent time in Colombia as an International Summer Fellow.