In addition to providing primary medical care to the residents of rural Honduran villages, a second objective for H3 is to give young adults an opportunity to learn through service to others. When the Fredonia study abroad program was doing brigades, the student journals and reflective papers would be full of emotional descriptions of personal impact of their experiences from the brigades. We asked students from those programs to reflect on the impact aand a few of the responses are below. The information was provided by individuals who participated in the medical brigades from 2020-2023.
From a student in PA school who participated as an undergraduate student:
Looking back, my experience in Honduras was truly one of the most meaningful and memorable experiences of my undergraduate education. Now that I’m in PA school and completing my clinical rotations, I find myself reflecting on that trip and how much it shaped my perspective on medicine. That experience taught me so much about the importance of cultural competence, adaptability, and meeting patients where they are. It also gave me a much deeper appreciation for the resources and access to healthcare that we have here in the United States, many of which we can easily take for granted. As I continue my training, I feel that the lessons I learned in Honduras have helped me become a more thoughtful, compassionate, and culturally aware future.
From a Physician Assistant who also went as an undergraduate student:
The trip to Honduras for me was transformative in both my professional and personal life. I think about it quite often all these years later. My time spent there helped push me further towards a career as a provider. It played a very important role in getting me to the position I am now. I wrote about it in my personal statement for my PA school applications and spoke about it in my interview. I talked about it often throughout my program in both our didactic phase and my humanities course. I use it as a source of motivation during my career now. When I am having a day where my patients are not particularly pleased or grateful with the healthcare system, I reflect back to the citizens of those mountain towns who don’t have one at all. Despite that, their gratitude was abundant. There are days where that is what keeps me going.
As far as my personal life goes, my time in Honduras has kept me grateful and grounded in the life I have here in the United States. The people I met were always kind and caring and smiling. Their lives seemed to be full of love despite lacking the material items every one claims to need to be happy. I try to employ their abilities in my own day to day.
From a 4th year medical school student (who went before starting medical school)
Looking back I think that the trip was a very impactful experience for me. In July of this year I went to Kenya on a 3 week global health trip with my school (global trip #4 for me including Honduras, Dominican Republic, Panama), and I think that the wonderful experience we had in Honduras set me up to want to continue doing these trips. What I especially appreciate about the H3 trips is the sustainability… it’s not just one time trips to communities with a group of volunteers, but rather in partnership with the local healthcare system and the same few villages every time. The water filtration project (if still ongoing) is another wonderful addition to the mission of the trips. There is a lot of talk in the global health community these days about the impracticality of these one time “medical volun-tourism” trips, and I think that from the beginning H3 has been far from that. I would recommend to anyone planning on going into medical school to do this trip, like I did. It helps give perspective to doctors-in-training.
