Fellow Bio:
I grew up in Milwaukee, WI. I finished my undergraduate degree at UW-Madison. During my undergrad years, I developed an interest in international travel. I did an internship in the Philippines before my junior year, and attended a three week study abroad trip on health and nutrition in Uganda during my senior year. I also learned more about issues of impoverished communities in the US. These some of the reasons that I decided to join LOCUS.

Inputs (information, resources, ideas, stakeholders):

To help execute this project, we have had help and continue to seek help from a variety of sources. We have been in contact with Kathy Huebert, who schedules medical school groups to work at the SLHP, and Sue, who coordinates village visits and who provided us with a list of medications to bring to the SLHP. In addition two UW physicians, Dr. Potter and Dr. Omohundro, have each sacrificed a week of their time to accompany us in providing health care in San Lucas. Finally, the LOCUS members who went to Guatemala in 2003 have told us about their experiences and have given us advice.

We hope to obtain medications and school supplies to donate to SLHP and to local San Lucas schools.

Activities (essence of program, components, linkages, partners, team members)

I will attend Spanish language school for 4 weeks in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. This includes one-on-one Spanish instruction, participation in a medical clinic, and a stay with a local family.

During the next two weeks, I will join LOCUS members Jackie Redmer, Charmain Dresel-Valasquez, Joseph Eichenseher, and Diane Witek, as well as Dr. Omohundro and Dr. Potter at the SLHP. Partnering with the local health care workers and SLHP personnel, we will provide basic health care in rural communities surrounding San Lucas Toliman. In addition, we hope to use this time to improve our relationship with SLHP. We will do this by asking key personnel at SLHP how we can better serve them and documenting their input so that future LOCUS and other UW groups can better prepare for visiting the San Lucas Mission. For example, we will inquire about what quantities of medications and school supplies are appropriate, what optimal group sizes are, and what supplies are more useful.

The essence of our program is to maintain and further the partnership between LOCUS and the SLHP. We feel that LOCUS members will gain an invaluable experience that will expose them not only to the field of international medicine, but will also help them develop the skills important in dealing with Hispanic communities and underserved areas.

Short Term Outcomes (communications, evaluation plans, program design)

Through attending both Spanish school and the SLHP, the short term outcomes we hope to achieve include the development of clinical skills, increased cultural awareness, further understanding of the barriers and issues involved in health care delivery to rural and impoverished areas, and increased proficiency of the Spanish language. At the mission, we will work with doctors and other health care professionals in the mobile clinic, traveling from village to village, and dispensing medical and dental care.

Medium Term Outcomes

The medium term outcomes we hope to accomplish are to improve documentation of the project so that other students as well as SLHP student groups can learn from our trip. We will document contact persons, input from SLHP personnel, and our daily activities during our time at SLHP.

Final Outcomes (final program, evaluation measures, how will it be sustained?)

One long term goal is to establish a continued partnership between LOCUS and the SLHP. We hope that our experience this summer will allow future members to easily participate in this program. Ideas for sustaining this project include the construction of a web-page link off the UW School of Medicine and Public Health homepage to provide future members and volunteer physicians with the contact information to arrange their own trip, as well as factual information about the SLHP.

Another long term goal is to better serve Latino patients using our improved Spanish language skills. In addition, we hope to educate our peers about barriers to health care in impoverished areas and apply our knowledge and experience to underserved communities both abroad and in the United States.

• Improve my Spanish-speaking abilities.
• Learn about Guatemalan culture and history.
• Determine if the SLHP would like to have a long-term relationship with UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and if so, what we can do to make this relationship happen.
• Use our experiences to design a "logistics guide" to make it easier for future groups to plan a volunteer trip with the SLHP.
• Help the SLHP in its goal to provide health care to the people of rural Guatemala.
Challenges and Solutions:


I will have to overcome several challenges in order to achieve the above goals. First, I will need to be able to learn enough Spanish during my first month in Guatemala to be able to use it during clinic. Secondly, I want to be able to keep up my Spanish speaking skills when I return home. I will address this goal by finding a volunteer position in which I will be in a Spanish-speaking environment. Another challenge that I anticipate is that we may not be able to communicate to future groups what is required to have a beneficial relationship with the SLHP. I will address this goal by putting what we learn in writing. We can put this information in the "logistics guide."

Next Steps:

Locus Project Objectives and Key Tasks	Target Date for Completion
Improve my Spanish-speaking abilities through intensive language school in Guatemala.	June 2004
Volunteer with the SLHP, providing the people of rural Guatemala with access to medications and physicians.	June 2004
Communicate with the coordinators of the SLHP in order to determine what we need to do to form a mutually beneficial relationship.	June 2004
Communicate what we learn with a group of students who want to volunteer with the SLHP next year through a logistics guide.	December 2004

Resource Needs:

To achieve these objectives, I will need to find funding in order to travel to Guatemala, go to language school, and volunteer with the SLHP. Also, I will need to dedicate time to documenting our experiences and communicating them to future groups who want to volunteer with the SLHP.

Comments:

 

Last update:

February 17, 2005

Graduation Requirements Progress Chart
If you complete the requirements outlined below, you will graduate as a LOCUS fellow.

A indicates the item has been completed.

Completed	When	What	On-line
	Year 1: Beginning of Semester 2	New Project Report	Submit Report
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 1	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 2	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 3: Beginning of third year	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 4: August of fourth year	2-3 page final summary of project that includes a reflective evaluation of the project process	N/A
	Ongoing	Participate in program evaluation (written and/or focus group)	View Options
	By the end of fourth year	Select poster, presentation, paper, creative option or your own idea	View Options

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