February 14, 2021
Biology major Eliana DaCunha ’22 crafts distinct individualized global health major
By Charlotte Smith ’20 & ’21G
Combining her passion, determination, and creative vision, Eliana DaCunha ’22 (Fairhaven, Mass.), a biology major and member of the Liberal Arts Honors Program, has developed a second, distinct individualized major in global health at Providence College.
DaCunha, who aspires to be a physician, merged her interests in medicine and world issues into a major designed to guide her career aspirations of addressing global health issues. She understands this will require an interdisciplinary approach that takes into account, among other things, politics, international law, and medical ethics.
“At the beginning of my undergraduate career, I felt like I didn’t know enough about the healthcare system I want to one day work in or the socioeconomic factors that affect patients’ health. So, I started looking into courses at PC that could better prepare me for a future career as a physician,” said DaCunha.
There were two courses that sparked DaCunha’s interest in designing a second major: Health Policy and Management 101 and Global Studies 101. They helped her learn more about healthcare systems outside of the United States and health challenges countries face around the globe.
“In my HPM 101 course, we studied healthcare systems in the U.S., the UK, Canada, and Germany, trying to understand what elements of each system we could use to improve our own,” she said. “In GST 101, we discussed global health and human rights issues like unsafe working conditions, environmental pollution, barriers to healthcare access, and more. It was through these classes that I began to find myself interested in global health. Soon after, my new major was born.”
The individualized major application involves extensive research and consultation with multiple faculty and administrators in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies and elsewhere. Obtaining approval can take anywhere from one to three semesters — a process she had to keep up with as she balanced extracurriculars and maintaining a 3.9 GPA. DaCunha’s application efforts were complicated by the dramatic changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Tuba Agartan, professor of health policy and management, whose course on the American Health System strongly influenced DaCunha, was a key adviser to DaCunha in creating her individualized major.
“Many students who want to go down a medical track choose to take on a biology/HPM double major. However, Eliana told me she would like to do something different,” said Agartan. “While she is taking a risk by creating a unique track for herself, I realized early on that PC would be able to support her choice, despite our lack of global health courses. Eliana is a very determined student who wants to shape her education at PC in a way that suits her and is in line with her interests.”
In developing the individualized major, DaCunha created a list of core courses with the assistance of her professors. She devised a set of required courses, along with critical electives, that would provide her with a solid foundation to explore this emerging field. The required courses included HPM 101, Epidemiology, and GST 101, Issues in Global Health, and Personalized Health. Agartan suggested DaCunha choose a concentration within the broad field of global health and learn more about it through her four electives.
“I chose to concentrate my electives on policy, which is a really important factor in improving global health on a larger scale,” said DaCunha. “In the future, I want to work with the U.S. Congress or the United Nations on healthcare policies. Although I love helping my local community through volunteering at Clinica Esperanza, a free clinic for the uninsured in Providence, there is only so much we can do for these patients. Socioeconomic factors like food and house insecurity impact the health of people at our clinic, across the country, and across the world. I hope to one day create and implement policies that help eliminate these problems for people and increase their access to affordable, quality healthcare.”
Dr. Deborah Levine, associate professor of health policy and management and department chair, was another faculty member whom DaCunha sought out for support in developing her proposal for an individualized major.
“I was a bit skeptical at first, as we currently do not offer many global health courses at the College. However, Eliana had a clear sense of her goals, with the needs of the community in mind. I felt that we had an obligation to help her achieve what she wanted with this major,” said Levine.
After a year of hard work, DaCunha’s proposal was ready. When it got into the hands of Rev. Mark D. Nowel, O.P., assistant to the provost and associate professor of biology, it was approved almost immediately.
“Because Eliana and her advisers were careful to follow the guidelines the academic dean’s office provided, the Committee on Studies, which reviewed the proposal, had no corrections or suggestions,” said Father Nowel.
Peter Palumbo, director of academic advising, who assisted DaCunha with the application process for the major, spoke of its significance.
“Eliana’s proposal was different because she created a major that was drastically different from others that have been previously submitted,” he said. “She was unable to rely on previous individual major examples due to the unique nature of her new program. It was remarkable to watch Eliana as she consulted with faculty and crafted a major that aligns with her specific academic interests and professional goals.”
With a deep passion for public health, DaCunha is already involved in the global health field outside of the major she has created. She is a student representative on the Virus Control Subgroup of the College’s Continuity Task Force, a 150-member campuswide committee dedicated to planning and developing recommendations during the 2020-21 academic year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since last May, she has been working alongside faculty and staff members on developing plans for the school’s reopening for the fall and spring semesters, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and State of Rhode Island guidelines. Through this task force, methods and standards have been established for contact tracing, symptom screening, quarantining, handling of positive cases, and social distancing on campus.
DaCunha credited her global health major curriculum with providing her practical knowledge that could already be put into action as a member of the Virus Control Subgroup.
“In my global health classes, I’ve learned a lot about how governments and organizations implement COVID-related public health measures on local, national, and global scales. This knowledge has been extremely helpful to me as a member of virus control and has allowed me to better understand how we can implement similar public health measures on our own campus to keep our students, faculty, staff, and local Providence communities safe,” DaCunha said.
Eliana’s proposal was different because she created a major that was drastically different from others that have been previously submitted.
Peter Palumbo, director of academic advising
As far as her plans for life after PC, she hopes to obtain her master’s degree in global health and eventually attend medical school.
“Once I’ve established myself as a physician, I would love to get more experience in the global health field by working with Doctors Without Borders and other humanitarian organizations. Improving health outcomes for people globally remains the ultimate goal for me and creating this major is definitely helping me take the first steps towards accomplishing that,” she said.
