Camille Sacristan ’17, Wilson Chen ’16 and Ruben Ulloa ’16

Summer 2014

Navigating Public Health and Global Volunteerism in Tacloban City, Philippines

Camille Sacristan ’17, Wilson Chen ’16 and Ruben Ulloa ’16 traveled to Tacloban City — one of the areas in the country that was hardest-hit by the typhoon — where they worked withVolunteer for the Visayans. Camille, Wilson and Ruben each focused their energies on different aspects of the organization while there in order to have a broader and more in-depth understanding of the multiple functions of public and global health. They worked in three fields: Nutrition Public Health Project, Rural Health Clinic Project and Media Internship. During their time in Tacloban City, they periodically touched base with each other to share their unique experiences, solve problems as a team, and build a peer support network that is similar to the structure Ulloa learned as a member of the Posse Foundation. Their project comes at an appropriate time as in spring of 2014, Oberlin’s only global health organization, the Oberlin Chapter of GlobeMed, split from the national organization. Camille, Wilson and Ruben hoped to utilize the skills they’ve learned from VFV in the Philippines, and implement them into the activities of a new public health organization on Oberlin’s campus.