Help Nate get to his Volunteer Medical Internship!

Hello! I'm Nate! I'm a high school sophomore currently and over this past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to travel and volunteer abroad in and around Cusco, Peru with Global Leadership Adventures. While visiting famous landmarks such as Machu Picchu and the Rainbow Mountain was amazing, I’d argue that the tourism aspect of the trip was actually not my favorite part of the program. With the loving generous outpouring of contributions by our friends, family, and acquaintances, I was able to have an experience that transcends the run-of-the mill excursion that most tourists have while traveling in Peru; an experience which made way for countless lasting memories, and a paradigm shift in the way I view the world as a whole. 

For the majority of the 3 weeks I spent in South America, I had the amazing opportunity to work with a non-profit medical organization known as MedLife. With MedLife, I and 21 other students worked on the ground in a traveling clinic alongside local doctors of various specializations, providing free medical aid and checkups to Peruvians in remote mountain towns which often lack access to such care. We rotated through stations ranging from taking height, weight, and blood pressure, fulfilling and writing prescriptions, and teaching local children how to properly wash their hands and brush their teeth. Through volunteering with MedLife, not only did I receive valuable practical experience in various medical fields, but it also helped me to discover an affinity for medicine as a whole. I made life-lasting connections, pushed myself to levels beyond what I thought I was not capable of, and returned to the States with a renewed sense of purpose, and a more nuanced world view.

Almost immediately after returning to the US, I had set my sights on raising enough money to fund a second GLA trip for this summer. Upon choosing my program, I set out to try to personally earn as much as I can towards the trip cost and not burden my mom who already does so much supporting me and my two younger brothers.  So I took on a part-time job at my town’s local STEM center, began to tutor my younger brothers, took on various odd-jobs such as pet sitting, saved gift money, and set aside more than half of my total income into a high-yield savings account to accumulate monthly interest. While I have made a bit of progress in my goal, there is only so much work I can do as a current sophomore in high school juggling both Honors and AP courses. It is for this reason that I am once again asking for your generous contribution!

In the program that I’ve chosen for this summer, I will shadow and work alongside medical professionals for three weeks in a hospital located in the bustling city of Bangkok, Thailand by another one of GLA’s associate NGOs, and offers a total of 60 internship hours. 

I chose this program in particular out of a personal desire to further discover the inner workings of the medicine industry, as well as an ever-persistent compulsion to learn as much as I can about the world, and the peoples which give it meaning.

Any and all donations are greatly appreciated, and no amount is too small either! Once again, I’d like to thank all those who donated in last year’s Gofundme, as your financial support enabled me to have an amazing experience which will stick with me for the rest of my life!

Thank you so much for  taking the time to read my story and generously giving!