When this Boy Meets World: Reflecting on #GlobalOneHealth

When this Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Wandering down this road, that we call life
Is what we’re doin’
It’s good to know I have friends that will always
Stand by me
When this Boy Meets World.

My first night in Ethiopia I tried to settle in with a good friend called Netflix.  Unable to stream – and still deciding if I’m proud or ashamed to admit – I pulled up a great alternative:  Season 7 of ‘Boy Meets World’ on YouTube.

So I unpacked for my journey with help from Cory, Topanga and Mr. Feeny.  (Random tidbit:  Did you know that Mr. Feeny was the voice of KITT in Knight Rider?  Well, William Daniels, to be precise.)  Unsure exactly what our experiences would be in Ethiopia, I was excited for the journey ahead.

When this Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World

I’m not a person who goes abroad for 11 days and says that it changed me.  I returned to Columbus with the same values, but do have a broadened perspective of what we can accomplish as educators.  In a recent blog post, I spoke about the role Ohio State can play in effective cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural partnerships.  I took copious notes, and my mind was going a mile-a-minute while we interacted with our Ethiopian collaborators.

It was amazing to see their ambition, expertise and pride first-hand.  This is something we could not capture through emails or Skype conference calls.  Thank you to Dr. Wondwossen Gebreyes, ODEE and the Center for African Studies for creating this opportunity for our team.  This trip will aid our collaboration greatly!

Wandering down this road, that we call life
Is what we’re doin’

Our trip to Ethiopia kept us on the run.  Days of training workshops, traveling and partnership meetings, we were running on fumes and caffeine.  Lucky for us, the local coffee was pretty fantastic.  During the first half of our journey, I tried to soak it all in.  Figure out our place in this giant puzzle, and prioritize where we can best help in the Global One Health initiatives.

As I’m sure Cory (Tressler, not Matthews) and Nicole would agree, just being around Wondwossen for a few days helped put the puzzle pieces together.  He sees the 30,000-foot view of our project, and where each partner can contribute to the digital learning, rabies education and collaborative teaching goals on this work.  It also didn’t take me long to realize that Wondwossen is sort of a “rock star” – having strong relationships with both government officials and educators.  He’s the right person, and right personality, to make our Global One Health dreams a reality.

It’s good to know I have friends that will always
Stand by me
When this Boy Meets World.

A great by-product of my trip were the friendships gained.  I cannot say enough about the hospitality of our Ethiopian partners.  Several took hours out of their days to provide us with campus tours and join for dinners.  They embodied a passion that was both fulfilling and motivating for me to see.

I enjoyed the time spent with Wondwossen, Cory & NicoleThree amazing yet humble people in their fields, these educators represent everything that is great about being a Buckeye.  The Ohio State community is fortunate to have them out in the world doing what Buckeyes do.

Ending a blog post – especially one that puts a lid on my trip – is always a daunting task.  Do I end with a profound statement?  Or a thought-provoking question?  But then I realized, I had a human fortune cookie at my disposal.

I had a memorable time, and am fortunate for the entire experience.  If you have the opportunity to involve yourself with the Global One Health initiative, I highly suggest that you consider it.  Class dismissed.

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Discovering Discovery Themes 7,500 Miles Away

I have a confession to make:  prior to last night I had never read Ohio State’s Discovery Themes.  You might be in the same boat, I won’t tell.  Here’s your chance to brush up.  Don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz.

Cory Tressler demonstrates a video lecture

Thursday’s visit to the Addis Ababa campus provided me with the opportunity to reflect on Ohio State and its role in global health and education.  Our team’s major goal for the day was to conduct our second iPad rollout:  distribute seven iPad minis to our partners and conduct a training session on relevant features/applications.   Although we were here to teach, we were by no means the experts in the room.

Joining us were authorities on tuberculosis and human papillomavirus (HPV) research, as well as officials from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute.  Experts renowned in their respective fields, these colleagues gave us their full attention for more than two hours to learn how a device only 9×6 inches in size could revolutionize their work.  Yes, there is a need here, but more importantly there is the passion to learn and grow.

Kevin Kula addresses a group question

We took time to review the five, iTunes U courses that will be developed for Phase 1 of this grant work.  Spanning across four Colleges at Ohio State, these five courses supplement one another and share the interwoven, OSU Discovery Themes of Food Production and Security and Health and Wellness.  Since I was ingrained in the course development process these past three months, the interconnections and partnerships gradually became clearer to me.  I began to see how our Digital First Impact Grant initiative is truly about Global One Health.

Our iPad training session was followed by a campus tour.  It didn’t take me long to take note of my surroundings:  students walking to class with their eyes focused on a smartphone.  A walk through a large, social science classroom reminded me of the view from Independence Hall.  And while the Addis Ababa campus did not have a Mirror Lake, per se, they did have their “kissing pond.”  But we’re Ohio State.  Aren’t we supposed to be different?  If not, why did we travel 7,500 miles to be here this past week?

Classroom seating in Addis Ababa lecture hall
Classroom seating in Addis Ababa lecture hall
Look familiar?  A snapshot of Independence Hall.
Look familiar? OSU’s Independence Hall

I began this blog by reflecting on Ohio State and its role in global health and education.  A few paragraphs later, I’ve been led back to a mere thirteen letters in our Discovery Themes:

Collaboration (taken from OSU Discovery Theme Guiding Principles)

  1. The Discovery Themes Initiative must be a model of interdisciplinarity and transinstitutionality that promotes and enhances broad university collaboration.
  2. The Discovery Themes Initiative will build on existing strengths and/or develop new programmatic excellence that will achieve a substantial comparative and competitive advantage.
  3. The Discovery Themes Initiative will support existing faculty excellence, building current faculty work into a collaborative experience.

Sitting around the table this week with colleagues from our Ethiopian partner universities, I realize that Ohio State is not intrinsically different.  We have the same questions and concerns.  We have the same experts asking questions of how to better health and education for humanity.  So how can we best exemplify this as Buckeyes?  We can step up on our cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional, and cross-cultural collaboration.  Dr. Gebreyes likes the word synergy.  After this trip, I do, too.

Synergy [sin-er-jee] noun – the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements

Session pic 1