A team of six University of Pittsburgh juniors placed second in Emory University’s 2024 Emory Morningside Case Competition held March 21-23. The team was sponsored by the Global Studies Center and the School of Public Health’s Center for Global Health, headed by Behavioral and Community Health Sciences Assistant Professor Cynthia L Salter, PhD.
The competition brings together students studying in diverse fields to address a real-world challenge in global health. Teams were tasked with developing a proposal to create a consortium that would accelerate integrated care for diabetes mellitus and tuberculosis in India, with the goal of irradicating tuberculosis in the country.
“We are thrilled to see our Pitt team excel at the international competition level at Emory,” said Salter. “We started our Pitt Global Health Case Competition four years ago with the goal of giving students a hands-on learning experience working in multidisciplinary teams to tackle real-world global health problems. And each year’s winning teams demonstrate that they can apply the problem-solving skills and teamwork strategies to new health challenges at even bigger competitions.”
The University of Pittsburgh team, which includes biological sciences majors Cindy Le and Dylan Kurian, nutrition science major Christina Yi, chemistry major Lauren Angus, engineering major Harper Segal and biological sciences and business major Namita Mahajan, was one of 31 teams from universities around the world to present their proposals to a panel of judges. As a top-five finalist, they were then asked to revise their plan in response to a new prompt. They presented their new plan to the judging panel and the non-finalist teams.
“The opportunity to participate in the Emory Morningside Global Health Case Competition was genuinely life changing,” said Le. “We’ve gained invaluable experience working across disciplines to tackle a real-life global health challenge and in the process, we’ve learned so much about the value of diverse perspectives and cross-collaboration. We’re so grateful to have met so many inspirational public health professionals and to represent the Global Studies Center at Pitt.”
The Pitt team placed second behind the team from Yale. Last fall, the Pitt team placed first in a similar case competition held on the Pittsburgh campus.
In addition to providing the teams with an engaging intellectual challenge, the competition gives them the chance to connect with peers from around the world and to network with advisors from diverse professional fields.