Recently had a revelation about my career. As I prepare for the LSAT, I am realizing that I need to reasses and reoranize my goals. My goal is to be a global health and international law expert, so that I can help adjudicate and define international law in the growing field of global health.
I also want to have a degree in Public Health to bolster my real (as opposed to theoretical) knowledge of global health.
In concert, I want to do field work and study health interventions and legal systems "on the ground".

Today marks the start of my business as a global health law consultant.

How NOT to look for a summer internship

"Frustration" is an inappropriate word to describe the hubris I now see in my January, internship-seeking self.

You see, I wanted to land the crown jewel of internships, unprecedented for an undergraduate: at the World Health Organization.

I thought I'd at least have a shot. Alas, I knew they might not contact me, so over the course of the next 6 months (even today) I have been sending resume after resume, cover letter after cover letter, hoping in vain to be acknowledged by someone, anyone, anywhere.

I stopped my spreadsheet organization process after my first 40 applications. By my estimates, I have now applied to over 60 positions :(

I can now see where I went wrong:

1. I didn't use my school to my advantage. After years of pooh-poohing anything to do with my school, which I believed to be a detriment to me, I am regretful. I should have used every opportunity (career counselors et al.) to my advantage.
2. I expected lightning to strike the same place twice. After a completely slamming internship at a place where I'd been volunteering for 6 months, I expected to be able to continue building on that name alone. I was sorely mistaken.
3. I wasted valuable time which I could have used to do other things. Instead of focusing on taking an LSAT class so I could take the test in June and get it out of the way, I was too late to enroll in a class and thus take the LSAT with complete preparation.

Maybe it's because of the economic climate. Maybe more people than I thought want to be in global health. Maybe I chose the wrong major.

Anyway, this post is starting to make me feel awful. Hopefully, I'll get an internship or opportunity which will be as fulfilling as I could have hoped.

For now, I have been volunteering at my old internship office, and public health departments around my area. And, of course, updating this blog.

The End of the Free Market?

Ian Bremmer has a point in his new book, The End of the Free Market: State capitalism is succeeding for Chinese and Russians and hurting our free market.

With Chinese entrepreneurship resembling 1950s USA and GDP percentages in double digits, their cheapie economy is seeing huge successes.

Bremmer notes the only way to stay competative with state capitalism systems is for the US economy to be perceived as indispensable. Having spent our "spare tire" on the bailouts and Western Europe's spent on Greece's economic crisis, we are in dire economic times.

The US needs to focus on addressing this recurring issue before any others, there must be an effort on the part of every American to conserve and be smarter about economics and ore aware of our place in the world economy. We could start by mandating an economics course in every high school curriculum.

Substandard Medicines

I am currently Guest Blogging on The Lancet Student's website about Jean-Michel Caudron's 2008 article on substandard medicines in the developing world. I will be sure to update you and post it here when I've finished.