The short answer, says Melissa Smith, is that we can learn much from resource-poor communities in the global South to promote the health of people living in poor and minority communities here in the United States. Smith, a family medicine physician and a senior lecturer at the School of Social Work, has developed a six-week summer program in Oaxaca, Mexico, where students learn about global health equity, improve their Spanish, and experience clinical interactions and community health initiatives in a different culture.
