The UW’s upcoming events in China are more than just a way to share the Puget Sound’s unique spirit of innovation, they’re also an opportunity for the student-athletes on the UW men’s basketball team to enhance their educations with a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The Huskies are learning about Chinese culture, history and business in preparation for November’s trip. (Ashley Walker/UW Athletics)
The Pac-12 China Game in Shanghai will be the first regular season game an American sports league has played in China. And for all but one of the Huskies who will take on the University of Texas Longhorns, this will be their first trip to the world’s most populous nation.
To prepare, the team is taking a course from Professor Shawn Wong and teaching assistant Jane Yang, a UW sophomore from Shanghai. In addition to classroom work, which spawned friendly debates over whose pronunciation of various Mandarin phrases was the closest to hitting the mark, the members of the team will be making presentations during the course of the trip. These presentations on historic sites, cultural heritage, and prominent figures, such as Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and sponsor of the game, will enable the Huskies to share what they’ve learned with their teammates.
The University of Washington connects Washington to the world and brings the world to Washington, creating opportunities for our students, our region and our state. In the Pacific Northwest, we innovate through collaboration. This unique spirit of innovation is apparent in the UW’s strategy for global engagement.
Vice Provost Jeff Riedinger
Rather than establishing UW outposts overseas, we forge lasting partnerships with universities, business firms, foundations, non-profits and government agencies overseas. We work across boundaries of discipline and distance. We link partners in Spokane and Shanghai, in Seattle and São Paulo. We create cross-continent collaborations that help us better understand and address the world’s most challenging problems, for a world of good.
The UW’s long-standing and growing connections with Chinese institutions give our students the global experiences they need to succeed in our modern economy, build relationships with partners and leaders in East Asia, and attract entrepreneurs and investment to Washington state. The Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) – our pathbreaking partnership with Tsinghua University, supported by Microsoft – is one great example of how lasting partnerships with Chinese institutions benefit UW students and our region.
The University of Washington’s visit to China this November is a celebration of our unique spirit of innovation and deepening trans-Pacific ties. Please follow along to learn more about UW partnerships in China and groundbreaking research, meet international alumni and friends, and cheer for the Husky men’s basketball team!
Every year, more than 30 UW Medicine residents journey 9,000 miles to Nairobi, Kenya. Working alongside Kenyan practitioners and students in conditions very different from those found in Seattle clinics and hospitals, they gain crucial skills and expand their clinical knowledge. They are part of CEPI, the Clinical Education Partnership initiative, an innovative global program improving healthcare in Kenya and the U.S.
A resident providing healthcare
A 25-year partnership between the University of Washington and University of Nairobi sparked this innovative initiative. CEPI connects medical residents across disciplines to create a teaching hospital. The UW is one of the first U.S. universities to maintain such a long-term relationship in Kenya, establishing capacity building and training for Kenyan and UW practitioners. “The problem with so much development work is that you just drop in, and that was great for a month or two months,” says Dr. Carey Farquhar, CEPI Director.
The Global Innovation Fund is helping to expand CEPI with a new partnership between the UW’s Schools of Nursing and Public Health, the University of Nairobi, and Naivasha District Hospital. The new initiative is led by Dr. Pamela Kohler, an assistant professor in nursing and public health. Her initiative is expanding CEPI to include nursing students and practitioners.
The team aims to partner UW nurses with graduate nursing students from a Kenyan university. UW students get multidisciplinary training, working with physicians and residents, and learn much from the Kenyan nurses. “In resource-limited settings [like Naivasha District Hospital], nurses are about 80 to 90 percent of the healthcare workforce,” says Kohler. “A nurse in a rural setting is going to do more than a nurse in a hospital where there are more physicians available. They see a lot and manage a lot.”
Naivasha District Hospital
To maintain continuity in the CEPI partnership at Naivasha District Hospital, CEPI and UW Medicine have taken the unusual step of posting a full-time chief resident at the hospital. The chief supervises medical residents who come for four weeks to teach and live in Kenya. With someone on-site year-round to strategically plan and evaluate, uninterrupted by constant shifts in personnel, the program makes a lasting impact, says Farquhar. The addition of nursing students – with the help of the Global Innovation Fund – will amplify the UW’s impact.
Dr. Kristen Hosey, a clinical assistant professor in psychosocial community health, led the first group of nursing students to Kenya in summer 2015 as part of a faculty-led Exploration Seminar. Six graduate-level registered nurses from UW Seattle and Tacoma gained first-hand experience in Kenya, working alongside nurses, midwives, physicians, clinical officers and community health workers from Naivasha. They also engaged in quality improvement projects, program evaluations and health education campaigns with their local partners to address health and capacity needs in Naivasha.
“What we’re trying to do, and where nursing fits in, is give our [residents and students] the opportunity to see a wide range of clinical activities, but also be sure they are doing something useful,” says Farquhar. “I always said I’d never create a program that’ s just a medical tourism program. [CEPI] residents are able to give a lot back.”
UW and Kenyan partners
The Global Innovation Fund supported a meeting between UW and Kenyan collaborators to work through complicated benefits and challenges related to this new, multidisciplinary global partnership. “It gives us the opportunity to bring everyone together in one room and think through issues with scope of practice and licensing, and what the role of the nurse looks like with a graduate student there,” says Kohler. The meeting builds on Farquhar and Hosey’s efforts, and aims to expand opportunities to University of Nairobi and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology nursing students and practitioners to participate in future CEPI partnerships.
CEPI residents also make a financial investment in the program, which is financed through grants and departments, and by the residents themselves. The program provides secure housing, transportation and cell phones to participants, but flights and daily expenses are out of pocket costs. “I would love to have a grant from a donor so that we could fund this without having to transfer the costs,” says Farquhar.
Kohler, Farquhar and Hosey say their close and lasting relationships with Kenyan partners are central to the program’s success. “For me it’s the people,” says Farquhar. “[They] are really motivated. They are well trained, educated, intelligent, have good ideas and can work with you on these problems. You can see the fruits of your labor.” Together, the UW and Kenyan partners are driven to improve health outcomes and improve clinical education – in Kenya and the U.S.
Learn more about the Global Innovation Fund and other global opportunities.
— Indra Ekmanis and Sara Stubbs, Office of Global Affairs
Chinese President Xi Jinping presented the gift of a dawn redwood tree to the Global Innovation Exchange (GIX), a new partnership between the University of Washington and Tsinghua University, during a ceremony at Microsoft headquarters Wednesday.
Xi presented UW Interim President Ana Mari Cauce, Tsinghua President Qiu Yong and Microsoft President Brad Smith with the tree, which is native to China and will be planted at the new GIX facility upon its completion.
The state of Washington and the Chinese province of Sichuan, with the help of leading research universities, have pledged to prioritize clean energy and plans and designs that will encourage the development of climate-smart, low-carbon cities.
A memorandum of understanding, called the “2+2 MOU,” was signed Tuesday between the state and province as well as the University of Washington and Tsinghua University to catalyze the science, technology and investment needed to grow innovations that will underpin adaptable and resilient urbanization.
Leaders from across Washington, including UW Interim President Ana Mari Cauce, have met with President Xi during his visit to Seattle this week. Learn more about President Xi’s visit to Seattle, including analysis by UW faculty:
Leaders from the University of Washington and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of China’s most prestigious public research universities, signed an agreement Wednesday to work together on “smart cities” research, teaching and collaborations.
UW Assistant Vice Provost for Global Affairs Gayle Christensen and a team of researchers recently highlighted findings from their latest research on MOOCs – massive open online courses. It turns out that some online courses can be very useful in helping students get better jobs or start businesses.
The Millennium Development Goals focus on improving lives around the world by tackling issues like disease and poverty. In a recent blog post by Bill Gates, Chris Murray of the UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation outlines three areas of success 15 years after the goals were established.
