Global Health in Rwanda: Study Abroad and Internships

Study abroad or intern in Rwanda with GEI's full-time in-country team. Four programs in one track, from a three-week field course to a full semester, plus a career-aligned internship, with U.S. academic credit through Hamline University, GEI's school of record.

Track: Global Health
Destination: Rwanda
Programs: Short-Term, Summer, Semester, Internship
Dates: January, Spring, Summer, Fall
Credit: 4 to 16 U.S. credit hours through Hamline University, GEI's school of record
Eligibility: Any field and level of study

The Global Health track explores how health systems, communities, and institutions respond to complex health challenges. In Rwanda, students examine health systems, disease burden, prevention, and equitable access to care while learning alongside local professionals and community partners. The track combines interdisciplinary coursework with experiential, community-engaged learning, and it is open to students at any level of study.

The programs emphasize applied, field-based learning rather than classroom instruction. Students learn through site visits, community-based activities, collaborative projects, and guided reflection. Field engagement provides insight into how health systems operate at community, institutional, and policy levels.

Spend your days inside Rwanda's health system, in hospitals and local clinics, with health innovators and NGOs, alongside the people who run them
Work alongside a Rwandan health organization on a challenge it is tackling right now, from maternal and child health to mental health
Join one of GEI's international development initiatives in Rwanda and, with Rwandan students on your team, see your cohort's project through to completion
Study one of the developing world's health success stories: how Rwanda rebuilt its health system after the 1994 genocide, and why others now look to it
Rwanda beyond the field: Kigali's markets and music with your cohort, a safari in Akagera National Park or a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial where your program includes them, and free weekends to explore on your own

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Short-term program

3 or 4 weeks, January or Summer, 4 credits

Summer Program

8 weeks, June and July, 8 credits

SEMESTER Program

15 weeks, Fall or Spring, 16 credits

INTERNSHIP Program

4, 6, or 8 weeks, January or Summer, 4+ credits

A structured field course, taught in the field: six themed modules (burden of disease, health systems, infectious and chronic disease, mental health, maternal and child health, migration), a community-engaged learning project with a module host organization, and assignments that build the competencies of global change leaders.

A cohort working inside a GEI flagship initiative, not a placement. Your cohort joins one of GEI's international development initiatives in Rwanda, works in one interdisciplinary team with Rwandan student peers, and sees its project through to completion. The initiative continues after you leave. Current initiatives in Rwanda: School Water Systems, Mentally Fit Schools

Kinyarwanda, three to four classes a week with a local language school, plus field activities from market visits to a cooking lesson with a host family. Runs alongside the Independent Study Project.

Four kickstart days on methods and ethics, then your own project on a question that matters to a local organization, supervised by a local faculty member. A weekly Capstone Seminar with your cohort, a research paper, and a final presentation of your project and your Capstone portfolio. In the Global Health track, projects work at the system, service, or community level.

Your Capstone runs through the whole program. You collect the work that shows your development across your courses, from field assignments to project findings, into a digital portfolio and present it at the end of the program. The portfolio is a requirement for the certificate.

A supervised internship with a host organization in one of the Global Health fields, from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health to public health. You are matched to a host by your level of study, skills, and preferred field, with a placement description agreed before you arrive. The course opens with four orientation days and adds three professional development site visits across Rwanda's health system, three cultural activities, a weekly meeting with your supervisor, a reflective journal, and a placement report. Clinical placements are standalone and do not carry academic credit.

There are no prerequisites for the study abroad programs. Students can be enrolled in any major or minor and at any level of university study. GEI tries to place students in cohorts with similar levels of study, which is not always possible. The Internship Program is generally open to sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students who have a theoretical foundation in their field, or by consent of the faculty sponsor. Clinical placements are for students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health; interns observe and assist within the host's rules and their own scope of practice.

GEI programs follow U.S. academic culture and standards. The pace is accelerated, the workload demanding, and the U.S. grading scale of A to F applies. What you hand in depends on your courses.

Global Field Engagement: 6 module assignments in small groups, active participation in the community-engaged learning project, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a project report.
Global Practicum: Active participation in the initiative, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a project report.
Summer Program: In addition, a Capstone portfolio presented at the end of the program.
Semester Program: In addition, the Language Intensive Course assessments, and in the Independent Study Project a research paper and a final presentation of your project and your Capstone portfolio.
Internship Program: A minimum of 40 hours a week at your host organization, a weekly meeting with your supervisor, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a placement report with two or three work products. Students in standalone clinical placements complete the journal and report, and receive feedback but no grade.

Each study abroad course carries 180 contact hours and 4 U.S. credit hours (about 8 ECTS): 4 credits for the Short-Term Program, 8 for the Summer Program, and 16 for the Semester Program. The Internship Program carries 4 or more U.S. credit hours depending on its length; clinical placements are standalone and carry no credit. Credit is awarded through Hamline University, GEI's school of record, which issues the transcript, unless you receive credit via your home institution. The Summer Program leads to the Certificate in Global Health and the Semester Program to the Certificate in Global Engagement with a concentration in Global Health. Check with your academic advisor how many credits your degree program accepts.

All courses are taught in English. In the Semester Program you also study Kinyarwanda in the Language Intensive Course.

The Land of a Thousand Hills is one of the great development success stories of our time. Three decades after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has rebuilt itself into one of Africa's safest and best-organized countries, with more women in parliament than anywhere else in the world and a health system that other countries now come to study. Community health workers in every village, health insurance that reaches nearly everyone, drones that deliver blood to rural hospitals: this is where global health is being reinvented, and where you will learn it.

Fieldwork in Rwanda's health system
Students engage directly with Rwandan health care: hospitals, local clinics, health innovators, and NGOs working in maternal and child health, nutrition, infectious disease, and mental health, seeing how policy becomes practice.

A practicum inside a real development initiative
In the Global Practicum, your cohort joins one of GEI's international development initiatives in Rwanda, works in one team with Rwandan students, and sees its project through to completion. The initiative continues after you leave.

Mentored reflection and peer learning
Weekly colloquia led by GEI faculty and local facilitators guide students through reflection on ethics, cross-cultural engagement, and systems thinking.

Cultural immersion and weekend exploration
Daily life is part of the learning: local food and markets, Rwandan music and dance, and Kinyarwanda practice. Depending on the program, organized excursions include the Kigali Genocide Memorial or a safari in Akagera National Park, and free weekends are yours to explore the country.

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Housing is included in the program fee for the full length of your program. GEI Rwanda offers different options, subject to availability:

Guesthouses: Shared double rooms, shared bathroom, no kitchen; breakfast is usually provided
Homestays: Typically single rooms, shared bathroom, access to a kitchen and living room; host families usually provide breakfast and dinner
Serviced apartments: Single or shared double rooms, shared bathroom, kitchen and living room
University residence halls at GEI's partner universities: Shared double rooms, shared bathroom, no kitchen

Students in guesthouses, apartments, and residence halls cover their own meals outside course meals. More in the blog post: Accommodation – What to expect.

Included in your program fees

Tuition
Housing for the full length of your program
Pre-departure advising and orientation
Airport meet and greet on arrival
GEI's full-time in-country team and 24/7 emergency support throughout
Course-related activities, site visits, and excursions, including transportation, guiding, and selected meals
Cultural activities and optional events
Health insurance for the program dates

Not included in your program fees

International airfare and travel to and from Kigali airport
Visas and immunizations
Meals other than those included in course activities
Personal expenses and items of a personal nature
Medical costs beyond what the health insurance covers
Weekend travel and other discretionary spending

RWANDA

STAFF

GEI's full-time team in Kigali hosts and supervises every cohort.

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