At the beginning of this semester I joined an organization on campus called Volunteers Around the World at OSU. VAW is a worldwide organization that organizes medical outreach trips to different clinics in six different countries. This May I will be joining about twenty other students from The Ohio State University on a trip to Peru. While in the country, the OSU team will help take patients vitals, fill out intake forms, run the pharmacy, and spend a day in a local school teaching students about hygiene and health. I’ve been attending weekly meetings, in which I’ve learned about common diseases in Peru, how to take vitals, and a little bit of conversational Spanish.
There are many fundraisers to support the trip, in which a group of volunteers is put together to help with different aspect of a bake sale, or clean the Schottenstein Center. I was wary of being put in a group with two or three other people who I’d never met before. I would have to spend at least an hour with those people, and was worried we would not have much to talk about. Two weekends ago, I had to make 300 sugar cookies, and 100 buckeyes with two other women. It is very interesting how much you can find in common with other women who you’ve never met before. Two of us were freshman, and the other woman had been a commuter student for her first two years at the university, so we were able to talk about our similarities in transition difficulties and our similar majors. I’ve been surprised at the large number of other freshmen I’ve met in VAW. Being a member in the STEM Exploration and Engagement Scholars group, I have mainly been meeting other people who live on my floor and are also in the program.
I think that is is very valuable to travel abroad, especially with a group of peers in the same age group. I am very excited to continue meeting other people with a common interest in clinical public health, and travel to Peru and witness the differences in healthcare and culture. I am hoping that going on this trip will help me determine whether or not a career in clinical medicine is something that I want to pursue.