Rachel Abramson
About
Rachel Abramson is a recipient of the Academic Year 2014-2015 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship. The award provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students with financial support to develop fluency in less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) and expertise in the regions in which these languages are spoken. Every year the Center for Global Studies awards between 12-15 fellowships to UW students. Click here to learn more.
I am majoring in Medical Anthropology & Global Health, and my interest in Chinese culture and disease prevention in China has made learning Mandarin an essential part of my education. Receiving a Summer FLAS award from the East Asia Center and an Academic Year award from the Center for Global Studies has enabled me to actually go to China during the summer as well as continue studying up to fourth-year Chinese this year. I am currently embarking on my own research project, studying the nutritional transition in China and early prevention of obesity, and my knowledge of Chinese has been vital to my research into the literature, as much of it is only available in the original Chinese. My hope is that this research will be the beginning to my future work in global health in China.