Name: Gwyneth Frederick
Type of Project: Study Abroad – Copenhagen, Denmark
My STEP Summer 2016 transformational experience took place at the Danish Institute of Study (DIS), which is an English-speaking study abroad school located in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. During my six weeks living and learning in this major European capitol, I was able to earn six Ohio State University credits through two separate DIS courses. The first course taken was a social studies class that focused on health delivery and medical prioritization throughout Northern Europe, while the second course was an in-depth analysis of the cultural significance of food to humanity throughout history and in a modern social setting.
Entering the Danish Institute of Study classroom for my first course with basic background knowledge on International Health care systems and Public Health dynamics, I held the Scandinavian socialized form of health delivery at a high standard. And after three weeks of breaking down and analyzing its nuances, discussing policy and society in relation to the healthcare system, and communicating directly with professionals in the field, it is still easy to understand Denmark’s pride in its universal form of healthcare. However, the policies and products of this system are not what struck me as innovative or what challenged my assumptions or views of the world. Universal healthcare is quickly becoming a common form of access to everyday medical services throughout Europe as well as many parts of the western world. And it works, especially in the small country of Denmark.
While I left the course with a furthered comprehension of the Danish system, it was the attitudes of Danes (especially the younger generations of students and professionals, and their utter denial of the idea that anyone should be treated less than another) that truly affected my previous world-view. Throughout the course we reached out and visited professionals in hospitals, at general practitioner’s offices, recovery and therapy clinics, and disease prevention think tanks. No matter where we went, patients or potential patients were all seen as both individuals with specific problems and treatments, yet all equal in their varied importance. Treatments rose and fell depending on the patient’s circumstances, and caretakers and professionals alike saw to ensure the upmost comfort to all in need.
Regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, or treatment needed, if you reach out to a medical professional with a need, your need is met. And it is met without the need of co-pays or privately purchased insurance. All Danes pay incredibly inflated taxes, rates at which people from the United States would gasp. But they do so knowing that the risk is worth the equitable reward: a healthy, happy country that values the life-quality of citizens and visitors alike. While Denmark is a small country that can apply such political and economic practices easily, I believe we can all learn from the Danish cultural value of health and human equity, and apply it when we choose to utilize empathy over neglect or ignorance in our future endeavors. Both as individuals, and as a country.
Taking with me this newfound appreciation for Danish values, I entered my second course, Food & Identity, with high expectations. While I am a public health student with a keen interest in public policy and health delivery, I minor in nutrition and work seasonally on a farm. Food systems and the culture of food are a passion, one that I could speak endlessly about if given the opportunity. And thankful, this course finally provided me with that outlet. It made me realize not only how important food and the cultures surrounding it are to every individual, but also the importance it plays in my present and future goals. We were tasked with recording a few encounters with Danish food culture along the way:
http://maybesomemoxie.weebly.com/food
In this course, we broke down the vitality of pork to the Danish agricultural market and how to be Danish is to eat pork; tracked the growth of social media food crazes and their roots in traditional worldly cuisines; held debates that challenged the differences of global diets and geography’s role in the creation of culturally vital foods; talked food sourcing and the paradox of how organic food production seems to never match organic food consumption because a globalized world shifts demand and production from country to country but never remains within physical or economic borders; and, how we both form and perpetuate an identity based on the food we choose to eat. Scoff at this last notion? What did you have for breakfast this morning? Was it healthy? Do you consider yourself a healthy person who values their body? Do you view food as a fuel or simply pleasure? Do you seek indulgence in daily life or find a sense of superiority and therefore comfort in your self-control? Does this reflect on how you approach tasks in life? On how you present yourself to society? Did what you eat reflect your culture or what you learned growing up in your childhood home? Did you even have enough motivation to wake early and prepare a meal for yourself this morning? Taking theses notions, among many others, and applying them to the study of nutrition and cultural food attitudes worldwide can help to bring about a greater appreciate for the fuel that sustains human life. Without this course, I would have never been able to learn how to analyze dynamics of culturally Danish food functions and generalize the research methods to global situations.
With my education and experience in the coming years I intend on pursuing a career in health and nutrition, both domestically and abroad. I hope to take from my experiences at the Danish Institute of Study and form living for a time in the Danish culture and apply them to my future goals to study and research nutrition and hunger in the United States and throughout the world with a public health lens. The combination may seem clear, but I know few who have chosen Public Health and Nutrition as a dual education course. They supplement each other, one providing science and the sustainment of a healthy life and the other breaking down social, economic, and political dynamics around humans and their choices and behaviors throughout health history. And I have been made more certain in my desire to continue perusing knowledge in both fields from my time in Denmark.
