UCLA's newest travel study program gave Bruin participants an immersive global health learning experience in Australia. The first iteration of the four-week program, which ran from July to August, included social science majors and pre-med students majoring in the life and physical sciences.

The initiative was spearheaded by lifelong friends and colleagues Dr. Marco Giovannini of UCLA and Dr. Dick Quan of Holdsworth House Medical Practice in Sydney, who first met during their medical studies when each attended an international training in the other's home country (Italy and Australia, respectively).

"We created this inaugural UCLA Global Health Travel Study Program in Australia to help students experience health systems not just as observers, but as participants," said Giovannini, professor in residence in the department of head and neck surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and former director of UCLA Health's Neural Tumor Research Laboratory.

The summer program explores the social determinants of health, with a particular focus on providing care to underserved and Indigenous populations in such areas as sexual health, mental health, HIV and addiction. Students complete two courses and earn eight UCLA credits; their studies culminate in a group poster project based on their own research.

Read more about students' first-hand experience with a health care system outside of the U.S., and how it offers ideas for medicine and public health careers.