| Course | PU335 Global Health |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 10 |
| Paper type | Global health course reflection |
| Length | About 810 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Science |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PU335 Unit 10
From Charity to Power: A Unit 10 PU335 Course Reflection on What Ten Weeks of Hispaniola Taught Me
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
PU335: Global Health
Unit 10 Course Reflection
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The reflection is written in a student's voice about a composite course experience; the sources cited are real.
My Starting Point
In the first week, I pictured global health as people from rich countries going to poor countries to help. My aunt's trips seemed like the model: a week of clinics, hundreds of patients seen, photographs of grateful children. I assumed Haiti's problems were mostly a shortage of doctors and medicine, and that more trips and more donations would fix them.
What Changed: Causes
Unit 3 was the first shock. When I compared the burden of disease on the two sides of the island, I expected Haiti to be different mostly because of infectious disease. It was, but the gap in life expectancy turned out to be about water, history and income as much as clinics. Writing Unit 4, I read the argument that health differences mostly arise from the conditions of people's daily lives (Marmot, 2005), and I realized that a week of clinics, however kind, cannot reach those conditions.
What Changed: Rights and Responsibility
Unit 2 on the cholera epidemic changed how I think about responsibility. I had never known that investigators traced the outbreak to a United Nations peacekeeping camp. Seeing that an organization meant to help had caused thousands of deaths, and then took years to acknowledge it, made me see that good intentions do not protect anyone from harm, and that people affected have a right to accountability, not only aid.
The most important thing I learned is that the question in global health is rarely whether people want to help, but who decides how.
What Changed: Power
Unit 8 made the shift personal. Analyzing a composite partnership between a United States university and a Haitian hospital, I measured power through funding, data, authorship and leadership, and found it concentrated almost entirely on the university side, even in a relationship both partners praised. Abimbola and Pai (2020) argue that global health must shift where power sits, not only how it behaves. I began to ask the same questions about my aunt's trips: who chooses the communities, who follows up after the team leaves and whether Haitian nurses are leading or assisting.
I talked with my aunt about this. She was defensive at first, then told me her group had started hiring Haitian nurses year-round and letting them plan the clinic schedule. I do not think short trips are worthless, but I now see that their value depends on whether they strengthen local people and systems or replace them.
What Changed: Hard Choices
Unit 7 taught me that global health involves choosing among good causes with money that is never enough. Scoring three proposals for a grant that could fund only one, while weighing value for money, the claims of the poorest and the risk of families being ruined by medical bills, was uncomfortable, because every option saved lives. I learned that a fair process, open about its reasons and including the people affected, matters as much as the answer.
What Changed: Designing for Reality
Unit 9 pushed this further. Designing blood pressure care for a displacement site in Port-au-Prince, I had to plan for days when the road was closed and the clinic could not come. I learned that a good intervention fits the resources that exist, not the ones a visiting team brings for a week.
Where I Am Now
I now see global health as a question of justice: who gets to be healthy, who decides and who pays. Charity still has a place, but it cannot replace national health systems, fair partnerships or action on water, education and political stability. Forman et al. (2025) describe global health "with justice" as the standard to which law and policy should be held, and I think that standard applies to individual volunteers too.
What I Will Do Differently
1. Ask who leads. Before supporting any global health program, I will ask who decides its priorities and whether local professionals hold real authority.
2. Look upstream. In my career in community health, I will look for the conditions behind a health problem before proposing a clinical solution.
3. Measure, then judge. I will judge partnerships and programs by measurable features, funding, data and leadership, rather than by how they describe themselves.
Conclusion
Ten weeks of comparing Haiti and the Dominican Republic moved me from seeing global health as charity to seeing it as a question of justice, rights and power. The change came from specific units: the burden of disease, the determinants, the cholera epidemic, a hard priority-setting decision and a partnership that looked equal until I measured it.
References
Abimbola, S., & Pai, M. (2020). Will global health survive its decolonisation? The Lancet, 396(10263), 1627-1628. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32417-X
Forman, L., Abdool Karim, S., & Kolawole, O. (2025). Global health "with justice": The challenges and opportunities for human rights in global health law. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 53(S1), 18-22. https://doi.org/10.1017/jme.2025.1
Marmot, M. (2005). Social determinants of health inequalities. The Lancet, 365(9464), 1099-1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)71146-6
What the PU335 Unit 10 assignment asks for
In Unit 10 students reflect on what they learned in the course and how their thinking changed. The reflection should describe where the student started, with an honest account of early assumptions, and trace specific changes to specific units or readings. Instructors look for examples from the student's own assignments rather than general statements about the course. At least one or two sources should be cited to show learning grounded in the literature. Reflections are stronger when they describe applying new ideas outside the course, such as a conversation or work situation. The reflection should end with concrete commitments for future practice. First-person writing is expected, and the tone can be personal while remaining professional and organized.
Inside the PU335 Unit 10 example
The sample opens with the aunt's medical trips and the student's starting belief that global health meant volunteers helping. Changes are traced through causes, with Marmot, rights and responsibility, from the cholera unit, and power, from the partnership analysis with Abimbola and Pai. The highlighted line states the biggest lesson, that the question is rarely whether people want to help but who decides how. A conversation with the aunt shows the idea applied, and her group's shift to hiring Haitian nurses gives it an outcome. Sections on hard choices and designing for reality draw on Units 7 and 9. Forman and colleagues' justice standard frames where the student ends up, followed by three numbered commitments.
Where the points sit in the PU335 Unit 10 rubric
Course reflections are usually graded on depth of reflection, use of course examples, connection to sources and application to future practice. Graders reward honest descriptions of early assumptions and clear accounts of what changed them. Every shift described needs an anchor in a named unit, reading or task. Applying ideas outside the course shows real learning. Commitments should be specific and linked to what was learned. A small number of sources cited in APA 7 grounds the reflection. Organization by theme or turning point makes the change easy to follow. Reflections lose marks when they summarize the syllabus instead of the student's own growth, or when the promises at the end owe nothing to the units completed.
PU335 Unit 10 help from the desk
Final reflections often list topics covered without saying how any of them changed the student's thinking. Another frequent weakness is claiming a transformation without describing the starting point. Some students avoid mentioning assumptions they revised, though those make the strongest reflections. Commitments are sometimes too vague to act on. Sources are often missing entirely. Before drafting, reread your first discussion post and your strongest paper from the course, and note one belief you held at the start that you no longer hold. Build the reflection around that change. Supply those two pieces of your own work with the prompt, and the reflection can trace your actual path.
Get a PU335 Unit 10 example written to your instructions
Send your experiences and the reflection prompt with its rubric. A custom reflection traces how your thinking changed across the course. The first one is free and comes back within 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More PU335 papers and BS in Health Science samples
- PU335 Unit 1: Leave No One Behind Discussion Post
- PU335 Unit 2: Haiti Cholera Human Rights Analysis
- PU335 Unit 3: Burden of Disease Comparison Worksheet
- PU335 Unit 4: Determinants of Health Paper
- PU335 Unit 5: Cholera Governance Analysis
- PU335 Unit 6: Health Systems Comparison Paper
- PU335 Unit 7: Ethics of Priority Setting Paper
- PU335 Unit 8: Partnership Equity Analysis
- PU335 Unit 9: Hypertension Intervention Proposal
- EF205 Unit 10: Fitness Reassessment and Revised Plan
- HS499 Unit 10: Capstone Presentation
- EF310 Unit 10: Comprehensive Program Portfolio
- HS460 Unit 10: Project Closeout Report
PU335 Unit 10 questions, answered
What should the final reflection cover?
How your understanding changed, examples from the course and what you will do with it.
Should it mention mistakes?
Yes. Assumptions you revised often make the strongest reflection.
How long is it?
Often two to three pages.
Where can I find a free PU335 Unit 10 sample paper?
The complete PU335 Unit 10 course reflection is on this page, tracing a shift from charity to justice in global health.
What commitments end the PU335 Unit 10 sample?
Asking who leads any program before supporting it, looking upstream for causes and judging partnerships by measurable features.