Linda Camaj Deda is part of the University of Michigan Graduate Student Cohort of the Summer 2021 U-M/UPR Curriculum Design Program. Learn more about Camaj Deda and why she chose to apply to this year’s program below!
Linda Camaj Deda
Linda Camaj Deda is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School. She majored in Biomolecular Science and Spanish at the University of Michigan. Her interests include diversity and health equity, immunocompromised populations, and asylum medicine. She plans to apply for residency in Dermatology and make asylum medicine part of her future career. Outside of medical school, Linda enjoys dancing Albanian valle with her family, watching legal dramas, and eating dessert.
I am very passionate about educating and mentoring students. Prior to medical school, I taught Spanish language to third, fourth, and fifth graders at Pittsfield Elementary and Martin Luther King Elementary through the Ann Arbor Languages Partnership (A2LP) and I taught various subjects through the Student Connection to K-12 students. During medical school, I have enjoyed mentoring and coaching three pre-medical students.
– Linda Camaj Deda on her decision to apply to the 2021 Summer Program
I was very excited when I came across the opportunity to collaborate with Puerto Rican teachers on developing a global health curriculum. I applied to the UM/UPR Curriculum program because I thought this was a fantastic opportunity to exchange knowledge and present my research with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) as a topic for teaching.
My work focuses on the psychological effects of migration and forced family separations on Central American asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The aim of my pedagogical talk is to inspire educators and to engage students with qualitative methods as a tool for learning, research, and advocacy.