NYU Abu Dhabi junior Jorge Zárate has quickly found his feet in his semester abroad in the Big Apple as the co-editor in chief of NYU's first student journal for public health. Named The NYU Torch: Journal for Domestic and Global Health, the first edition was released earlier this month and included a diversity of articles from NYU students studying all over the world. Zárate recognizes this potential. "The Torch is a great opportunity for different schools within NYU and across the global network university to collaborate since public health draws from the social and biological sciences, and everything else in between," he said.
The idea for the journal was conceived by Renán Orellana, an NYU New York student and fellow co-editor in chief, who began collaborating with Zárate during the summer. Since then, the project has developed into a fully-fledged publication with 12 different writers contributing to the first few editions. The majority are NYU students; however, there is also some input from a number of experts from the field. Zárate also contributed an article — Can Bacteria Make You Fat? — drawing from his summer research at NYU's Langone School of Medicine.
Ultimately, we hope that The Torch will start conversations and initiate innovative solutions to some of New York's problems, Abu Dhabi's problems, and, if we're feeling ambitious, the problems of the world.
The NYU Torch is managed by undergraduate students and focuses on empowering and informing youth. Zárate explained, "We thought of creating a journal specifically aimed at undergraduates to encourage young people to take ownership of their own health decisions and to foster interest in the field. Most of the health problems we face today are chronic conditions, the risk factors for which are mostly behavioral."
Looking forward, Zárate hopes that The NYU Torch can expand to reach a wider readership and draw from the depth and breadth of expertise in NYU's global network. In the longer term, he hopes that the journal might act as a launching pad for conferences and discussions to speak to the main domestic and global health issues raised in the publication. "Ultimately, we hope that The Torch will start conversations and initiate innovative solutions to some of New York's problems, Abu Dhabi's problems, and, if we're feeling ambitious, the problems of the world!"
The NYU Torch covers a range of interdisciplinary issues on "healthcare policy, medical care, education, bioethics, economics, active citizenship, biomedical research, and social justice," Zárate said.