Image Credit: Brooke Hyman
For many college students, winter vacation is one of the most highly anticipated times of year. After a semester of quizzes and papers, midterms and finals, they get to take a well-deserved break and return home to their families.
Some students spend their weeks of freedom catching up with high school friends, some try to find a job to keep them busy, and others decide to spend their vacation time abroad.
Last January, junior Nutritional Science/Pre-Medicine major Brook Hyman spent four weeks in Peru, participating in a program run by Child Family Health International (CFHI), a global health nonprofit organization.
While abroad, Hyman lived with a host family and volunteered at a local kindergarten, a maternity hospital, and a clinic serving teen mothers.
“I also took Spanish classes and did some traveling on the weekends,” she said.
Among the different sites she volunteered at, Hyman particularly enjoyed working in the pediatrics unit of the adolescent clinic. Her supervisor, Dra. Carrera, did a lot of work with newborns, and would occasionally let Hyman listen to their heartbeats through a stethoscope.
“There was one baby who had congenital heart failure and when listening, I could actually tell that she has a murmur and that her heart was beating too fast,” she said.
Before she went abroad, Hyman planned on practicing medicine, but wasn’t set on any specific kind of medicine. However, after just one month in South America, she felt so inspired by her experience that she decided to narrow her focus to international medicine.
Now that she’s home, Hyman is busy filling out medical school applications, preparing for the MCAT and working at a hospital. She also hopes to participate in another CFHI program, and highly recommends the program to other students.
“I would recommend this trip to anyone with an open mind and a strong sense of adventure,” she said. “There is a lot to learn by immersing yourself in a new culture, and so many new experiences to take advantage of.”
She warns interested students, though, that they should have an idea of what they’re getting themselves into before they sign up.
“If you are anything but Latino in Ecuador, you are immediately in the minority, which can contribute to the culture shock,” she explained. “I personally found it super scary because I am also female and was the target of a lot of unwanted attention, but I felt like it was also good for me to be exposed to that type of experience.”
To read more about Hyman's experiences abroad, click here to check out her blog!
