ELIZABETH TRICHE

Elizabeth Triche

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar (2007-2008)

Scholar story

My Fulbright experience has given me a number of tools that have enriched my life personally as well as professionally. Having the opportunity to live on the other side of the world and to assimilate into a culture so close to but unlike my own has been fantastic! Australia is different, but things work well here--often even better than they do at home. This was at first a bit uncomfortable because of the dangerous tendency to assume that what is familiar is what is best. After experiencing how another country can successfully and pleasantly put life together based on assumptions and even “rights” that are slightly different from those at home, I’ve become more flexible and more open to accepting that different can be an incredible opportunity for improvement. I will take away from Australia a tremendous appreciation for water; a respect for green energy; a greater sense that it isn’t about what you can get away with or what you have a right to, but about balancing the needs of many; and of course that amazingly Australian sense that we’re all in this together so why not live life with “no worries?”

Another unexpected pearl I’ve found in my Australia experience is the opportunity to see my own culture, government and way of life at home openly held under a microscope. Never had I thought that the world was so aware of what we were doing or not doing, waiting expectantly and judging our every move thousands of miles away. More importantly, I’ve begun to understand that the reason for this is that what we do at home has huge international consequences. It came up constantly throughout my International Public Health course--the academic studies that we do, the values that guide the types of aid that we give to developing countries, even the movies and music that we produce have huge global effects.

I am 29 years old and I have never voted.

To have spent a U.S. election year in Australia has had a profound effect on me. I’ve seen newspaper headlines and news broadcasts following our lengthy election process state by state, vote by vote from halfway around the world. I’ve heard university students discuss candidates in almost as much detail as people do at home, wishing that they could have the opportunity to somehow affect who leads a country that has such huge effects globally. I will vote this year because I have learned that it is part of my being a responsible international (not just American) citizen.

Professionally, my Fulbright experience has given me a new context in which to see the practice of medicine. Earning a Master of International Public Health at Sydney has balanced my view of my responsibility as a health professional, extending it from a single patient to the population of the country as a whole. In addition, I’ve gained tools that will allow me to critically appraise current medical practices and to ensure that my own are based on science and not simply tradition.

The month that I spent as a medical student at Lismore Base Hospital and in surrounding rural clinics allowed me to experience medicine totally unlike that which I had seen as a medical student in Manhattan at home. I identified diseases there (often amongst Aboriginal children) thought to be extremely rare in the developing world, enlightening me both socially and academically. In addition, my taking a French language course for the first time in my life has started me on my way to becoming trilingual, as I am currently making arrangements to spend three months studying intensive French in France next year. This will be invaluable to my career as an international physician, as it will allow me to communicate with patients in West Africa and other French-speaking areas around the world.

My Fulbright Award has involved my earning a Master of International Public Health degree at the University of Sydney. Also, it has started me on the course of becoming trilingual through beginning to study French, which will make me more versatile as a physician working internationally to improve global health. Additionally, it gave me the opportunity to experience a rural health care system outside of my own country, and with that came a deeper understanding of cultural and socioeconomic disparities within the country of Australia.