Yaoli: Reflections from DukeEngage Academy

Although personally not required to attend DukeEngage Academy, I nevertheless decided it might be useful and stayed around campus a bit longer. Two days filled with workshops and panelist discussions from 9-9 was exhausting, at times overwhelming, yet also enlightening. Navigating around campus with a standard-issue name tag bouncing from my neck and being surrounded by bright-eyed, eager college students felt a little campy at times, but it was encouraging to be in the presence of people that cared about the world and wanted to participate in civic engagement.

The experience made me realize how naive and young most of us are. Many have not traveled outside of Europe or interacted with people of different cultures. Our values and beliefs we derive from our parents and teachers, and this inherited culture influences how we perceive the world. It shapes our decisions, guides our emotions, becomes a pair of glasses we are blind without. As Americans, we have always embraced diversity, been cognizant of different ethnicities and supported human freedoms. But in spite of all these differences, there is a foundation of "American-ness" that is instilled in each of us - traits that we share and principles we have about the world we live in.

An example illustrating this occured during our ethics workshop, when we were asked to decide whether to take send a very sick Kenyan girl (likely from end-stage AIDS-induced pneumonia) to the clinic for treatment at the risk of showing favoritism, bringing stigma upon the girl for exposing her positive HIV serostatus and disobeying the wishes of the community. Many of the participants were confident in the clarity of the solution: the girl should be sent to the clinic immediately. Popular arguments include the sanctity of life, that nobody should allow this girl to die when means are available to save her. Others pointed to the fact that a DukeEngage participant in the story was bitten by a scorpion and airlifted away. Shouldn't all life be considered equal?

Like them, I agree that I would save the girl should she requested help. Much of the rationale stems from the fact that I simply could not face watching someone I cared about die. However, that life is the most important thing and should be preserved at all cost is a very Western presumption. Many cultures consider life transient and a very small role relative to all eternity. They might have different views on how time on earth should be spent, what kind of goals are the most important, and (for us global health students) what is the value in being healthy. The workshop leader raised a final point that left me in astounded - it is not right to base this decision, which can forever change the life of another human being, on our feelings. We should not do it because we dread the emotional consequences of our actions. This is not about fearing that we would never be able to live with ourselves should we "let her die". This is about evaluating the potential outcomes, looking at all the possible solutions, reaching out to the community and making it about them.

42 days until departure

You can find the case study from the workshop here.