RxOH 2022 Alum: Linda Salekwa

Linda Salekwa, MS, PhD

I've wanted for a while to attend the Rx One Health program, but COVID-19 won't let it until June, 2022. I believed that taking this course would help me advance professionally as a biomedical researcher. When I read the course materials and syllabus on the Rx One Health Institute website, I thought that the course covered most of the things I wanted to learn. Honestly, one of the wonderful news at the start of 2022 was my scholarship and successful selection for this course.

The Rx One Health training gave me the chance to travel to some US locations, including the Marine Wildlife Care and Research Institute, UC Davis, Clover Valley, Hastings, Moss Landing, and to the Pacific Ocean. However, it was wonderful and incredible to make new friends from all around the world and honestly, together, we had a great learning, unwinding, and a lot of fun. It was my first-time tenting, though difficult at the beginning, but it eventually turned out to be the most wonderful experience for me.

I had a fantastic experience at Rx One Health 2022. This training taught me a lot. For me, experiential learning in One Health was really beneficial. I discovered it to be a highly efficient way to learn a lot of stuff quickly. Learning via experience makes brainstorming more engaging and dynamic. I learned important lessons from the organic farm, Clover Valley, and Moss Landing, all of which were part of my experience. As a teacher, I think this approach to teaching is really excellent, and I'll absolutely use it.

Team work during the course was amazing, we enjoyed our time together as we reflected, spoke, thought, and even had fun. We developed really strong bonds as a result of this, some of which may develop into lifelong friendships. Further, we had excellent trainers who were really passionate about what they did which made us internalize the idea of One Health smoothly.

Rx One Health training provided me an opportunity to learn how to catch rats, oiled wildlife rescue and PPE Olympics. These lessons are directly applicable in my work with arboviruses, infectious diseases and definitely will be used in my research and day-to-day tasks in Tanzania.

Furthermore, the trip from Tanzania to the United States is fairly protracted, exhausting, and expensive. Without the scholarship provided to me by the One Health Institute at UC Davis, it would not have been possible for me to participate in this training. I am extremely grateful for the scholarship, which also made my time in the United States more pleasurable and less stressful.

Nevertheless, the weather and the shifting time presented some difficulties for me as well, but eventually I was able to overcome them and keep enjoying the training. It was exciting to collaborate with people from different racial origins, cultural backgrounds, and educational levels. I gained an appreciation for diversity, but more importantly, I learnt to value the opinions and viewpoints of others. Basically, I discovered that respecting diversity makes us better individuals. My sense of teamwork has improved as a result of the experiences and knowledge I gained through the training.  I found that teamwork makes things simpler and results in better results than working alone.

Finally, early July, the course came to an end, but it was not easy for me to say bye to my new Rx One Health family. May I extend my sincere appreciations to Brian Bird, Woutrina Smith, Jennie Lane, Carolyn Forlee, Jaber Belkhiria, Robyn Stoddard, Eunah Preston and all the participants for making this happen.