Prisha's Experience as a Team Leader for UCSD’s VAW Medical Outreach Team

Prisha Desai is a a third-year Neurobiology major with minors in Global Health and Spanish Literature in the Seventh College. She enjoys learning about different cultures and working towards health equity, which is what draws me to global health. The stories and perspectives that global health allows students to learn are what entice and excites her the most, and something she hopes to carry forward as an aspiring physician. On the side, she also enjoys dancing, hiking, and traveling!

VAW Global Health Alliances partners with local professionals and community leaders to develop sustainable and equitable access to medical care. Through shadowing local physicians, interns will also learn about disease diagnosis, treatment courses, clinic operations, and basic pharmacology. At UCSD’s chapter, they focus on working with like-minded peers to develop cultural competency, train on vitals skills, and become more familiar with key global health concepts.

As Team Leader for UCSD’s VAW Medical Outreach Team, she created clinic rotations, helped organize trip logistics, managed clinic flow for a team of 24 interns for a two week trip to Guatemala. The trip consisted of six clinic days and a few cultural exchange days where they got to explore the country. For each of the clinic days, they would leave San Pedro, La Laguna with packed lunches from our host families at 7pm for approximately a 1-1.5 hour ride to our clinic site. Each day was a different clinic site as they were researching areas where AMI San Lucas, a community health organization, recognized a need for a mobile clinic. They would arrive at the clinic site and determine where each station would go and then set up the mobile clinic, which consisted of four stations including intake, vitals, shadowing, and pharmacy. Through this experience, she was able to get trained on medical Spanish terminology, taking vitals, practicing cultural competency and navigating travel abroad.

"Some challenges I faced during my Field Experience were last-minute changes to plans and learning how to navigate uncertainty. As Team Leader, I often had to adapt quickly to changes in travel logistics, schedules, or team needs and ensure that everyone was informed and supported. This required strong communication and flexibility to maintain team morale and organization. Another challenge was processing what I was learning in the field—realizing that many interventions address symptoms rather than root causes. It was difficult to accept that as an individual, I could not create large-scale change alone. However, this experience taught me the importance of collaboration and systemic thinking in achieving sustainable impact."

Her field experience taught me what it means to be an effective leader, broadened her perspective on the social determinants of health in Latin America, and helped her form meaningful friendships. By leading a team of 23 students, she developed strong communication and organizational skills while managing logistics and clinic flow. Although the planning process was a challenge, it gave her confidence in my ability to coordinate complex initiatives. Additionally, she gained a deeper understanding of the disparities in healthcare accessibility and the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to care. This experience not only strengthened her leadership and problem-solving skills but also reinforced her passion for global health and collaboration.

Her team was able to participate in a lot of local activities in our free time! Some of the most memorable activities include salsa classes at a local Spanish immersion school, cliff jumping at a natural reserve in San Marcos, completing a 7 hr hike on a volcano, and ziplining. They also had the unique opportunity to see local parades and learn more about the political atmosphere in Guatemala since they happened to be there on Guatemalan Independence Day.

She is currently part of the HFiT program at UCSD, where she attend biweekly free clinics in Tijuana. The cultural competency and clinic flow skills she gained during her Guatemala field experience have greatly shaped how she approaches patient care and teamwork. This experience also allows her to compare and understand the different approaches to healthcare delivery across communities and patient populations in global health.