Global one health case competition: Building capacity for addressing infectious threats

Extracurricular inter-professional activities advance pre-service student skills and confidence before joining the workforce. This article describes an extracurricular model, whereby students engaged in experiential learning, and had the opportunity to challenge themselves in interprofessional groups guided by faculty and inspired by professionals in their respective fields. The Global One Health Case Competition involved students from the University of Rwanda in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, and required students in teams to address an Ebola outbreak containment and response scenario. Forty students, seven faculty coaches, and five judges participated in this event. Students gained collaborative teamwork skills as they developed comprehensive strategies for managing a response to a zoonotic disease outbreak, considering political, financial, logistical, and other factors. Faculty strengthened skills in writing complex case studies for a competition model, and in mentoring of multidisciplinary student groups. Case competition is an effective educational mechanism for building the outbreak response capacity of our future workforce before they are in their real-world professional roles responding to actual zoonotic and other infectious disease threats.