Q&A With Laura Dammer Hess: Learning Through Experience and Relationships in Quito

Laura Dammer Hess in Quito, Ecuador

Community- and place-based education are important to Laura Dammer Hess. These hands-on methods, she says, have always been the most transformative for her.

“Learning through experiences and relationships has always been a priority for me as a teacher and as a learner,” says Dammer Hess, the director of the Center for Health Interprofessional Programs (CHIP).

That’s part of what inspired her to join the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility’s global health course in Ecuador as a program leader in May. Dammer Hess liked the idea of supporting such an immersive experience for health sciences students.

Dammer Hess received a Global Engagement Grant to fund her involvement in the course. Global Engagement Grants offer funding to UMN faculty, researchers and students that support innovative projects that blend work in research, education and capacity building. 

Ecuador: Social, Environmental and Cultural Determinants of Health takes place over two weeks in Quito and focuses on public health and health care infrastructure in the region, including western and Indigenous health practices. The course is open to UMN graduate and professional students in addition to community learners.

The course is co-developed and managed by Fundación Cimas del Ecuador, a nonprofit organization in Quito that provides academic and research programs for students around the world.

We asked Dammer Hess about her experience as a program leader with the course and what she took away from her time in Ecuador.  

You were the program leader for the Ecuador course this year. What did that role entail? 

Dammer Hess: I think of my role as program leader as both "support and challenge" for the students. I was there for support as needed — with health needs, connections to resources, and navigating a new type of learning.  I was also there to challenge students — through reflective conversation — to identify new areas of learning that were both related to the topics of the course and the experience of visiting Ecuador.

What was your favorite part of the course?  

Dammer Hess: Pambiliño! It is a forest school run by an Ecuadorian family that focuses on reforestation in the cloud forest, cooking as a key to public health and community-based learning.  It was a wonderful opportunity to learn from our hosts, the land that they care for and to see the links between environmental education and health.  We cooked and ate together in the open-air kitchen — it was one of the most delicious meals of my life.

What part of the course do you think was most impactful for students? 

Dammer Hess: One aspect of the course that I think we all were deeply impacted by was the integration of Indigenous ways of knowing and health practices in some areas of the Ecuadorian health care system. For example, when we met with an Indigenous midwife guiding the birthing experiences of the community in a rural hospital, we were inspired by her expertise and commitment to the community, as well as her willingness to partner with the hospital.  The trust between practitioners with different backgrounds and professions was inspiring, as was the commitment to serve the Indigenous community and the entire community in a culturally relevant way.

Why do you think it’s important for students to study health care in a country other than their own? 

Dammer Hess: When done in a well-supported and ethical way, learning as a visitor in another country can help students see new possibilities and inspire new questions about their work at home.  Students can become aware that some of what they accept as truth at home is only one of many options for how to care for patients or meet community needs.

And how does interprofessional education play into the mix? This course had an interdisciplinary group of students. Why do you think that was beneficial?

Dammer Hess: It was so fun to observe how different parts of the course and different site visits sparked enthusiasm for the students, and that was often linked to their professional training/point of view. 

To see the pharmacy student wowed by information on medicinal plants and the student studying to be a midwife joyful when discussing free labor — that was not only a sign that each student was able to connect to the course in a different way, but it also meant that students were able to see the experience, in part, through the lenses of their peers in other professions. 

The student studying agricultural education is going to ask questions that the public health student might not think to ask, and by experiencing these visits and conversations together, they are informing what one another appreciates and remembers from the experience. 

Also, there were 11 students who built relationships with one another across professions — most of these students wouldn't have met otherwise, and now they have shared experiences and connections that will be long-lasting.