Name: Aminat Adewumi
Type of Project: Education Abroad
For my STEP Signature Project, I studied abroad in Japan with the Public Health Perpectives: Japan program. I was able to attend lectures at Japanese universities, take field visits to various local and international health organizations and cultural sites.
My understanding of environmental health issues and the importance of the environment has been bettered by my study abroad trip. Access to clean air, water, and proper sewage are issues that I’ve known are important, but often were not my focus, even as a Public Health major. Just as social issues and access to health resources are factors, the built environment of a community effects health substantially.
One of the most impactful events of the trip was visiting Minamata. In the early 1900’s, a Japanese chemical company continuously released waste containing mercury into local rivers. This mercury pollution has caused decades of suffering to the people affected. Children were born with neurological disabilities, crops died, and the community’s fish trade deteriorated. During the program, we were able to visit the Minamata disease museum and listen to a storyteller speak about her own family’s emotional struggle with Minamata disease.
Along with Minimata and a couple other Japanese cities, I was able to visit Hiroshima, the first city in the world to hit with a nuclear weapon. Over 100,000 people were killed due to the direct bombing and eventual radiation and pollution. Prior to this trip, what I knew about Hiroshima was from history classes, primarily taught from an American perspective of WW2. I never heard about the real people killed, families dismantled, and the cities ultimate journey to rebuild the city.
Along with this, hearing lectures taught by local instructors in my field and gaining knowledge from a Japanese education-style has broadened my perspective of public health training and provide me with a more worldly view that is simply not accessible through books at home in Columbus. I felt especially impacted by the lecture on the elderly in Japan. The elderly who lived in areas where they felt a sense of community and had access to programs were proven to have better health statuses. Specialized care for elderly is of utmost importance and is applicable to my current job as a Nurse’s Aide in a nursing home. Though continuing working as a Nurse’s Aide is definitely no my intended career path, the lecture on the elderly has improved my understanding of maintaining the health of the elderly. Often, in American nursing homes, understaffing causes insufficient care. Socialization and other extracurricular activities are often not as accessible due to this understaffing. Learning from the lecture can help me advocate for these types of programs.
Though Ohio State is a relatively diverse campus, I am aware that I am still sheltered from many identities, cultures, and perspectives. Having the opportunity to interact with local students at the University of Tokyo and Azuba University and immerse myself in its community has helped me gain insight into different cultures that I may interact with as I pursue medical school education. Of course, I cannot say I am an expert on Japanese culture, but I was privileged to learn more about the customs including privacy, respect of elderly—and not being obnoxiously loud on subways. In addition, increasing my own levels of cultural competency will allow me to better serve communities professionally as I pursue my career as a physician.
