In January 2024, 17 students traveled to São Paulo, Brazil, through the inaugural ten-day run of UMD-Winter: Brazil: Racism as a Public Health Crisis in the U.S. and Brazil. Together, they investigated essential questions about the role of systemic and interpersonal racism as a public health crisis—exploring each country’s historical and contemporary manifestations of racism, what common themes present themselves interpersonally, in policy, practice, and systems that inhibit the well-being of people of color.
“This [racism] is a persistent, consistent issue throughout the history of the United States. And we found indeed, also in our experiences in learning from Brazilians as well—the killing of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement had an impact on those diasporic folks,” said program lead and Public Health Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education Dr. Nicole Marie Cousin-Gossett.
Notably, most of the Incentive Awards Program (IAP) students who participated in the course were not Public Health majors, bringing forward the key goal of interdisciplinary learning at Maryland. The IAP exists as a unique entity on campus, serving as a pipeline for exceptional students with financial need in Baltimore City, Prince George’s, Montgomery and Charles counties to attend UMD as part of a cohort of resilient, engaged and dedicated scholars—with a four year scholarship. Piloted by former UMD President C.D. Mote in 2000, the IAP program has since graduated over 200 Terps.
“One of the perks for students in our program is that we cover their study abroad tuition, along with room and board fees for one study abroad experience,” said Melissa Del Rios, Associate Director of IAP and co-lead of the UMD-Winter: Brazil program.
While abroad, the students explored São Paulo, meeting with activists and community organizers involved in racial justice and health equity movements who promote their work using the arts and other approaches. Upon their return home, many students reflected on the necessity of community building in dismantling racism, and hope to replicate the strong sense of community they observed in Brazil back on campus. Participant Carmela Sambells ‘24, IAP and pre-med student, encourages other students of color to take up study abroad opportunities to explore their identities in different contexts and engage in introspection.
“As a woman of color in the U.S., entering this new space has done strong work on reclaiming the ability to define myself outside of how any particular society sees me…this can be incredibly valuable for any student, but in this way, especially beneficial to students of color who may gain something from seeing how the narratives of their identity belong to no particular society or power, and only themselves,” said Sambells.
The ten-day program proved itself to be both concise and impactful for the students who attended, once again demonstrating that jumping into unfamiliar situations accelerates one’s personal growth. For Sambells, this trip has informed her goals for her future career in the medical field.
“As an aspiring physician, this global perspective of various healthcare systems and patient experiences has inspired me to dedicate more time into the discipline of public health in order to be a better equipped advocate for the disadvantaged communities I hope to serve,” said Sambells.
The program’s impact was only enhanced by the IAP and SPH partnership.
“If we hadn’t partnered with Public Health, if we had just wound up doing something with CET [third party study abroad organization] and not involved public health at all, it wouldn’t have been as strong an experience for our students,” said Del Rios.
Del Rios and Dr. Cousin-Gossett aspire to run the program again in Winter 2026 and expand the IAP and SPH partnership to include other destinations, such as Kenya.
“We [SPH] want to expand who traditionally engages with public health, with Education Abroad, and that it’s not just an opportunity for those that tend to have financial privilege,” said Dr. Cousin-Gossett, and continued, “Fortunate is what we [SPH] feel quite honestly, as a school at the beginning of what we hope is a long-term relationship to support their [IAP] students who are our students…we’re thrilled that we’ve begun that connection, and we’re planning for the future.”