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GWU-USP Program 2007GWU-USP Dialogue Series 2007: Global Health–HIV/AIDS |
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June 21 GWU-USP Dialogue (Washington leg)16 February 2007
The Singapore contingent was welcomed at Dulles Airport by Professor Paul Poppen from George Washington University. Thereafter we proceeded over to Hotel Lombardy, a heritage hotel just a block away from GWU, to freshen up in preparation for our welcome dinner in Washington DC.
Dinner was at Aroma Restaurant, a famous Indian restaurant located in the vicinity.We had a wonderful evening interacting with Professor Poppen as well as Professor Maria Zea over the scrumptious dinner.
17 February 2007
Our day started with a short orientation lecture by a GWU professor from the History department. The session was found to be really useful in helping us orientate in DC. The history behind the establishment of the US's capital also kept us captivated.
The lecture was followed by a visit to the Kennedy Center of the Arts, DC's equivalent of the Esplanade.The group then moved on to visit the various war memorials and monuments.
18 February 2007
This was the most enriching Chinese New Year in our lives ever as we kept ourselves busy at the Smithsonian Museums.It was also an exciting day because it started snowing today!!
19 February 2007
19th February is President's Day in the US.John, our counterpart from GWU, joined us in our tour together with Professor Poppen. We soon found out that the itinerary for today was in line with the occasion.
Old Town Alexandria was the first stop. It was a scenic residential area with many of its buildings dating back to the 1800s.The roads in the area were made of cobblestones, bestowing the area with a really old town feel.
We then proceeded to a former torpedo factory which was used in the World War 2. It has since been converted into a shopping arcade. We also visited The Gadsby's Tavern, an inn which George Washington used to frequent. The inn was very well-preserved and we were given a glimpse into the life of Americans during the early years of US's independence during the tour of the inn. Last stop of the day was Mount Vernon where George Washington used to reside. In the evening, we interacted with the GWU students over pizza dinner on campus and had a great time sharing with them our travel experience in DC thus far.
20 february 2007
The day began with a GWU campus tour led by a guide from the GWU Visitor's Center. After the tour, we all agreed that GWU has a beautiful compound for a college with a city campus.
We then paid a visit to RAND corporation, a famous research institute based in the US. Several of their researchers took time off to share with us their experience of doing cutting edge research on HIV issues at different parts of the world. We were pleasantly surprised during the sharing session to find out that RAND incidentally has a Singaporean researcher under its stable working on HIV research. Dr Lee would later visit USP in April top share his research experience with the others back home. The session was really informative and beneficial one for us. Other than getting to know the interesting results from the HIV research conducted, we also got to hear about the difficulties of conducting such research from the researchers themselves.
21 February 2007
The psychology department of GWU came out in full swing today to present the findings from their research on HIV issues. Their innovative researched sparked vibrant discussion between the presenters and the audience. Dinner was another novel experience for many of us as we had Ethopian dinner at U Street with the GWU students.
22 February 2007
The group spent the morning in Georgetown eating at some of the famous food joints and doing some souvenir shopping. Afternoon was spent at the Washington National Cathedral where we marvelled at the majestic yet extricate design of the church.
Student activists involved in AIDS awareness advocacy in GWU shared their experience with us over dinner in the evening.
Other than promoting safe sex in GWU through posters,exhibitions etc, they also try and get their message across using unorthodox methods such as protesting outside the White House and other government buildings. Their passion and enthusiasm in rallying others behind their cause was infectious and really rubbed off us. This led us to seek to do more for the AIDS patients in Singapore and culminated in the establishment of F.A.C.E., a student group that aims to decrease stigmatization and to raise funds for HIV patients.
23 February 2007
We toured the Capitol this morning with Nathalie and Vinicio from GWU. We then visited the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the afternoon.NIH is a research-oriented health organization.The hospitals under NIH give free treatment to patients whom NIH has an interest in researching. We were shown around the massive compound of NIH and were greatly impressed by its state-of-the-art infrastructure and research facilities. To top it off, NIH is staffed by research experts from all over the world.Singapore has a lot to learn from NIH in our bid to establish ourselves as a biomedical hub.
The group also caught Shakespeare's Dog, a play put up by GWU students in Marvin Center, on our last day in DC.
24 February
We bade farewell to our hosts and boarded our flight back to Singapore. |
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