NOTE: SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, like COVID-19, SIT may have to modify programs.
Examine community-based health in South Africa, exploring the roles of the state, the media, and nongovernmental organizations in mobilizing community assets.
WHY STUDY HEALTH IN SOUTH AFRICA?
The legacy of apartheid has left the majority of South Africans struggling with systemic poverty, which has inevitable impacts on health and wellness. Learn new ways of seeing and being as you engage with communities through localized and global perspectives, thanks to community partnerships that have been nurtured over decades. You will learn and practice the isiZulu language and travel from city to village to appreciate the importance of context. As part of a lecture series, you’ll hear from academics, healthcare workers, and researchers. Stay with diverse homestay families and witness how different communities confront obstacles to healthcare access. During the program, enjoy the Durban beachfront; see wildlife in Kruger Park; visit Boulders Beach penguin colony, and journey to Cape Point, Africa’s most southwesterly tip.
KEY TOPICS OF STUDY
- Healthcare access, promotion, and prevention in rural South Africa
- Use of media campaigns to influence health outcomes
- Civil society, laws and social policies ensuring the right to health
- Mixed methodologies: narrative making epidemiology accessible
- The inclusion of traditional healing in the health system
- Ethics of Independent Study Project or internship in South Africa
Please visit the
SIT Study Abroad website for details on the program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.
MONEY MATTERS
SIT is an all-inclusively priced study abroad program – including academics costs, excursions, accommodations and meals, airport transfers, and health insurance. Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor and read the website for more specific information.
SCHOLARSHIPS
CONTACT SIT STUDY ABROAD
Major Topics of Study
- Healthcare delivery in rural South Africa, including the practice of prevention and promotion of healthcare
- The role of the media in promoting, communicating, or influencing health issues in South Africa
- The ways in which specific health issues in South Africa are being targeted or addressed
- Rural health and social justice
- The pharmaceutical industry
- Traditional healing
Please visit the SIT Study Abroad website for details on the program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.
There is no "typical day"on an SIT program. Activities may take place on any day of the week and at any time of day to be in accordance with according to local norms and to take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunities. Thus, the schedule and structure of the program are likely very different from what students are used to on their home campuses. The semester progresses in phases:
- The program begins with a thorough orientation.
- During the first two and a half months of the program, students are engaged in foundational coursework, including:
- thematic seminars, including education excursions,
- language instruction focused on improving practical communication skills, and
- a field research methods and ethics course that prepares students to conduct independent research.
- For the last month of the program, students conduct an Independent Study Project (ISP) on an approved topic of their choosing.
- Finally, students present their project, participate in program evaluations, and prepare to return home.
- SIT Study Abroad offers a field-based, experiential approach to learning.
- Each program has a small group of students (typically 10–35).
- On an SIT program, students gain high levels of access to many different stakeholders and experts relevant to the issues the program is examining.
- While some learning will be conducted at the SIT program center, extensive learning is done outside the classroom — in host communities, field stations, NGO headquarters, ecological sites, health clinics, and art studios.
- Many students go on to use their Independent Study Projects as a basis for senior theses on their home campuses. Others use their undergraduate research and overall study abroad experience to successfully apply for fellowships such as Fulbrights and Watsons.
Money Matters
Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor.
SIT tuition and room and board fees include the following:
- All educational costs, including educational excursions
- All accommodations and meals for the full program duration
- Transportation to and from the airport, and on all educational excursions
- Health and accident insurance
Scholarships:
- SIT awards nearly $1.3 million in scholarships and grants annually.
- All scholarships and grants are need-based.
- Awards generally range from $500 to $5,000.
- The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program.
- Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.
Contact SIT Study Abroad
