What is the Global Health Case Competition?
The UVA intramural global health case competition is an event designed to prompt undergraduate and graduate students within our university to recognize their unique individual potentials for contributing to the needs of global health and become empowered to address these needs in their future careers.
General schedule:
- Interdisciplinary teams are assigned a global health case on a Sunday and have through Friday to deliberate, strategize, and innovate on the given issue.
- On the following Saturday, a multidisciplinary panel of judges will award the winning team. The judges may also choose to award a Center for Global Health Equity University Scholar Award so that a team with an exemplarily proposal can implement it with an international partner.
Important Update: The team that wins 1st place will move on to represent UVA at the International Emory Global Health Case Competition.
UVA is one of a small group of institutions that writes new global health cases annually. We want these cases to be pedagogical tools and thus strive to incorporate both primary and secondary research into the case based on feedback from a community partner. We also believe that our honest cases give competition participants the unique opportunity to deliver a high-impact solution for real global health clients within a low-stakes environment.
The topic for the 2023 competition is a secret until we release the case on Sunday, February 5th – but we promise it will be as exciting and rigorous as in previous years.
Our goal is to provide a realistically complex case that challenges student teams to:
- SYNTHESIZE information from diverse sources and perspectives
- WORK WITHIN the human and material strengths and constraints of the situation
- INNOVATE for real issues that affect real people
- COLLABORATE with students from different disciplines
- LEARN from fellow teams, your team mentor, and competition judges
The competition promotes understanding the structural and social determinants of health, incorporates faculty mentorship, and focuses on under-served settings. It provides an avenue for students to design real interventions that they may go on to pursue as full-scale research projects.
Commonly Asked Questions & Answers
What is the time commitment of the case competition?
The case is released on Sunday and your team has until Saturday (day of competition) to propose a presentation. In the past years, teams have usually met up throughout the week leading up to the competition day to work on the project collaboratively and independently. Teams in the past have taken 5-20 hours on the week leading up to the day of the competition preparing and brainstorming. On the day of the competition, it is estimated to be about 6 hours.
What do I wear on the day of the competition?
Although there is no dress code, we recommend professional attire!
What do I do if I do not have a team?
Still sign up! If you do not have a team, we will make you a team based on the people who have signed up independently. In the past, students usually start out by reaching to friends and classmates from different classes, as different disciplines are recommended.
Reach out to us using our contact information form if you have more concerns.
What is the topic of this year’s case competition?
The topic is a SECRET until Sunday, when the case is released to everyone!
Do I need to have background information on the topic to be successful?
Not at all! In fact, our case provides A LOT of background information necessary to devise a proposal. You do not need to have a strong background in the topic/region in order to be successful. Our tip would be to have a well-rounded team in order to develop a multidisciplinary perspective.