Global fieldwork is an invaluable educational experience for students who aspire to pursue careers as global public health professionals and cancer experts. Student-led research projects can be mutually beneficial for students and host institutions by providing opportunities for bilateral learning, sharing resources, building databases, and ultimately creating uniquely informed multi-cultural health research relevant to global communities. The USA-host country partnerships can be delicate, requiring tactful approaches to the investment in the careers of students and the field projects. The US and host institutions must therefore be selective in determining which students have the privilege of participating in global field work. This paper examines the importance of grit as a character trait contributing to the success of student-led global health research projects. Grit has been explored at length as a predictor of student success in domestic educational experiences, yet is underrepresented in the context of global education, field training, and evaluation of research and learning outcomes. This manuscript utilizes testimonials of three public health graduate students recently returned from summer cancer epidemiology education training fellowships to explore the role that grit played in completion of their independent research projects. Ultimately, this paper discusses ways to identify grit in student applicants and to foster an improved capacity for grit before, during, and after their field experiences. We share the experiences with an aim of providing participant perspectives that may be used by educators, students, and administrators at US and international partner institutions to inform global research, experiential learning, and educational and training programs.

对于渴望成为全球公共卫生专业人员和癌症专家的学生来说，全球实地考察是一种宝贵的教育经验。学生主导的研究项目可以通过提供双边学习、共享资源、建立数据库的机会，并最终创建与全球社区相关的独特知情的多文化健康研究，从而使学生和主办机构互惠互利。美国与东道国的伙伴关系可能很微妙，需要机智的方法来投资学生的职业和实地项目。因此，美国和主办机构必须有选择性地确定哪些学生有资格参与全球实地工作。本文探讨了坚毅作为一种性格特征对学生主导的全球健康研究项目取得成功的重要性。毅力作为学生在国内教育经历中取得成功的预测指标已被详细探讨，但在全球教育、实地培训以及研究和学习成果评估方面的代表性不足。这份手稿利用最近从夏季癌症流行病学教育培训奖学金返回的三名公共卫生研究生的推荐书，探讨了毅力在完成他们的独立研究项目中所发挥的作用。最后，本文讨论了如何识别学生申请者的毅力，以及在他们的实地经历之前、期间和之后培养提高毅力的能力。