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6/11/2009

BTB summer interns are back online
Students blogging experiences in developing world

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News staff
BTB undergrads chronicle experiences in AfricaRice seniors refine 'hot cots' for infants
In what's rapidly becoming a summer tradition, undergraduates from Rice's Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB) program are back online, blogging their summer internship experiences from far-flung parts of the globe.

With 21 BTB interns traveling the globe this summer, there's plenty to read, including this humorous anecdote from Baker College junior Elizabeth Nesbit, who is testing BTB's Lab-in-a-Backpack in Swaziland and Malawi.

March 27, 2009
Swaziland, Africa

Customs seemed to have a problem with our Lab-in-a-Backpack. My conversation with the woman at the check-in counter in Johannesburg went as follows:

	COURTESY PHOTO

South African Airways: “What is in the giant black box?”

Me: “Supplies for a medical mission trip.”

SA Airways: “What kind of supplies?”

Me: “Medical supplies.”

SA Airways: “What kind of medical supplies?”

Me: “Donations for the Baylor clinic in Swaziland.”

SA Airways: “What kind of donations?”

Me: “Free ones?”

SA Airways: “Ma'am. What is in the box?”

* At this point, I had used all of my “avoid actually telling her what is in the box” tricks and decided to use my last resort -- stringing together a bunch of long, confusing words in a sentence that makes sense only to a select few who know the projects well.

Me (all in one breath): “Oh, what’s in the box? Um … It’s an inexpensive, efficient design of ultraviolet bilirubin phototherapy lights for the treatment of neonatal jaundice in developing countries and a medical diagnostic Lab-in-a-Backpack that includes an oil-emersion microscope, a hemotrcrit Zipocrit centrifuge, a pulse oximeter, and a sphygmomanometer --basically, diagnostic and treatment tools designed in a global health technology-focused bioengineering class.”

SA Airways: *blank stare, and squinting eyes* “Oh … OK … You will be boarding at gate A38.”


Rice's BTB, the undergraduate education initiative of Rice 360°, is sending 20 interns to seven countries this summer in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Student teams are testing medical and educational prototypes that were created or refined by students in global health courses at Rice during the past academic year.

"We're again expanding the breadth and reach of opportunities for our interns," said BTB founder Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Rice's Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering. "We're working with new partners in some countries, and we're also continuing to build our relationships with partners like the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, St. Barthelemy School in Haiti, Faith in Practice in Guatemala and Masianokeng High School in Lesotho."

Made possible by a grant to Rice University from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through the Undergraduate Science Education Program, BTB is designed to help students reach beyond traditional geographic and disciplinary boundaries to solve health care problems in the developing world. BTB is helping Rice achieve its Vision for the Second Century goal of providing a holistic undergraduate experience that equips students to make a distinctive impact on the world.