Please scroll down to see all recipients.
Kela Bergren, MD – 2022 Travel Scholarship Recipient
During college and throughout residency, I have been fortunate to be able to travel to several culturally unique places. Perhaps one of the most meaningful and enlightening experiences was my time in Morocco. Here I stayed with a Sheikh and his family in a remote region while working alongside a nonprofit organization. Together we performed interviews with women from the local villages to gain insight into their cultural beliefs around health/healing, birthing practices, and general sanitation. We worked alongside local educators to host basic sanitation education days. The non-profit also worked with the local government on policies, incorporated architecture, education, and general public health into its scope. This experience has proven invaluable in showing me what an all-encompassing organization can do for the health of its people it serves in a sustainable manner.
Additional experiences have included a study abroad trip to Costa Rica, also living with a host family and getting the full Latin American culture experience. During this trip, I was also able to tour both private and public hospitals and learn about different healthcare systems and issues they face. My studies here also included medical Spanish and tropical diseases. Other travel, while not medically focused, to Indonesia and Thailand have exposed me to several different cultures, religions, and further glimpses into varying socio-economic statuses.
While in residency, I have been able further deepen my knowledge and understanding of global health by participating in the UA Global Health: Clinical and Community course alongside fellow residents and medical students. We also have the privilege of taking care a very wide range of low income/underserved and refugee population within our family medicine clinic. This unique medical setting brings concepts and ideas of global health to an everyday setting. My hope is to continue to build my tool set as a provider and continue to serve culturally diverse populations both home and abroad, in a sustainable manner that was demonstrated to me while in Morocco.
From 3/16/22 – 4/9/22, I traveled to Cacha Medical Spanish Institute in Ecuador to provide healthcare in rural clinics, inpatient hospital work in Riobamba, and took a Spanish language course for 4 weeks.
Rachel Bruckman, MD – 2022 Travel Scholarship Recipient
Information coming soon.
Clare Donahue, DO – 2022 Travel Scholarship Recipient
My commitment to global health began in college. While studying abroad in Nepal during my junior year, I became familiar with Pitzer College’s Hospitality program, a mostly Nepali coordinated organization helping underserved villagers from remote locations access and navigate Kathmandu’s complex medical system. I was intrigued, and after graduation returned to Nepal as a Hospitality intern, where I spent a year advocating for villagers in need. My time in Nepal was challenging, but the relationships I built with villagers inspired me to pursue a career in medicine, and cemented my desire to continue serving and learning from global communities.
Although I was unable to pursue global health in medical school, I actively sought out residency programs with robust and sustainable global health programs. I was delighted to match at the University of Arizona (U of A) Family Medicine South Campus Track and be chosen for the global health track.
Under the mentorship of Drs. Aldulaimi and Koleski, I have broadened my understanding of global health, from the complex colonialists’ beginnings, to recent efforts to standardize and optimize short term engagements, and renewed my passion for the field. I have also had the opportunity to learn from renowned experts through various journal clubs, the 2020 U of A Global Health and Community Care Course, and the 2021 AAFP Global Health Summit.
I had the privilege of rotating in India where I did community work in the far western Himalaya (2/1 – 2/28) and in Ecuador where I did community and hospital work in Riobamba (3/16-4/8).