Lizetta Alexander
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Major: Biology and Society
Fun Fact: Plays the drums
Graduation Year: 2018
Academic Interests: Public Health, Medicine, Public policy
Greatest Strengths: Hard working, flexible, communication skills, team player
Greatest Weaknesses: overly self critical, sometimes indecisive
Paul Russell
Hometown: Allen, TX
Major: ILR
Fun fact: I once serenaded the ILR Dean
Graduation Year: 2019
Academic Interests: Law, public policy, economics
Strengths: Dedicated, hard-working, public speaking
Things to work on: I sometimes don’t ask for help when I need it
James Hickling
Hometown: Concord, MA
Major: Biology & Society major
Fun Fact: I have a scuba diving certification
Grad year: 2019
Academic interests: Biology, public health, Biotechnology
Strengths: Friendly, outgoing
Weaknesses: Do not know that much about public/global health
Tiffany Ross
Hometown: Hagerstown, Maryland
Major: Industrial and Labor Relations
Graduation Year: Class of 2019
Fun Fact: Fluent in German
Academic interests: International and Comparative Labor, Global Health, Anthropology
Strengths: passionate, determined, hardworking, empathetic, positive, open- minded
Weaknesses: Time management, overly critical of myself at times, sometimes too reserved
Erica Tennant
Hometown: Kenosha, Wisconsin
Major: Human Biology, Health, and Society
Graduation Year: 2018
Academic Interest: Medical Entomology, Global Health, Nutrition, Medicine
Greatest Strength: Empathetic, driven
Greatest Weakness: Indecisive at times
Fun Fact: I enjoy swing dancing and contra dancing
Libby Cha
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Major: Global and Public Health Sciences
Graduation Year: 2019
Academic interests: health policy, sociology, global health
Strengths: hard-working, compassionate, determined, optimistic
Weaknesses: I spend more time thinking than acting
Fun Fact: I am double jointed in both elbows.
Mira Ramesh
Hometown: Rochester, NY
Major: Human Biology, Health, and Society
Graduation Year: 2019
Fun fact: I’m a dance teacher
Academic Interests: Maternal and child health, anthropology, history, global health
Career aspirations: Physician/ Global health researcher and activist
Strengths: Hard-working, attentive, passionate, dedicated, open-minded
Weaknesses: I tend to be fairly quiet and reserved and sometimes don’t contribute discussions as much as I should. I am also pretty indecisive.
Linda Asare
Hometown: Bronx, NY
Major: Human Bio Health and Society
Graduation year: Class of 2018
Academic interest: Public/Global Health, Neonatal medicine
Fun fact: I like horseback riding
Career Goals: Pediatrician
Strengths: Passionate, motivated, friendly, and I like making others laugh
Weaknesses: Sometimes I get too emotional when I see certain situations and I don’t know how to push my emotions aside
Nathan Ihemeremadu
Hometown: Richardson, TX
Major: Biology and Society
Graduation year: Class of 2018
Fun fact: learned how to tie my shoes from watching spongebob
Career goals: Medicine, public health, global health, health policy
Strengths: hard working, caring, passionate, dedicated, trustworthy
Weaknesses: perfectionist. Obsess over small details
Karl Reis
Hometown: Kailua, Hawaii
Major: Biology and Society
Year: Class of 2018
Fun Fact: Founded an App during my freshman year
Career goals: Medicine, with a global health concentration
Strengths: Enthusiastic, energetic and positive.
Weaknesses: Oftentimes too much of a multi-tasker, it can be difficult for me to focus on one task at a time.
Through examining our overlapping personal strengths and observing our general group dynamics we discovered that we share many common qualities. Among these traits, many of us thought of ourselves as driven, motivated, hardworking, and open to new experiences. Additionally, our diverse academic interests and backgrounds offer numerous perspectives that add to our combined strengths. Due to our involvement in diverse campus organizations, we all possess unique attributes that will not only allow us to complement each other’s strengths when in country, but also help each other improve on our weaknesses.
As a group, we found that much of our weaknesses were due to our lack of experience. For example, many of us expressed that this experience would be our first time traveling to a foreign country independently, as well as conducting field research. Many of us have never been exposed to public health on this type of scale. The health disparities faced by people living in Zambia are fundamentally different from those faced by those living in the United States. In order to truly be able to understand these differences, we will have to spend a substantial amount of time diving into Zambia’s culture and studying current events in Zambia. Another obstacle we face is the lack of familiarity we have with our fellow group members. We realized that we have not been able to get to know each other yet and aren’t fully accustomed to this kind of group work. However, by spending time together over the course of the semester and the summer, we will improve our communication skills and strengthen our bond as a team. Additionally, we found that many of us struggle with time management and overly criticizing ourselves. As a group, we agreed that we all consider ourselves to be perfectionists. We also expressed that we can all be indecisive at times. By working together as a group, we hope to overcome these weaknesses as we become more comfortable with each other and with the type of work we will be doing in Zambia.
