A recent Stanford Report story highlights Stanford's Center for African Studies and its rapidly-growing research programs and courses in Africa, which have exploded in popularity among students lately. In the story, biology major Laura Hunter shares her experience of working in a medical clinic in Ghana:
Laura Hunter was 35,000 feet above Africa, watching the sunrise over the place she would call home for the next several weeks. The Stanford junior was about to touch down in Ghana to start a fellowship at a medical clinic treating some of the country's poorest people.
Raised in Seattle and planning to pursue a medical career, the biology major was traveling alone outside the United States for the first time.
Within a few days, Hunter was filling prescriptions, taking measurements of blood pressure, dressing and cleaning sores. Then she started working on a case that has had the biggest impact on her so far – the rehabilitation of a woman who fell from a tree and needs physical therapy to, hopefully, walk again.
"At first, connecting with Assibi was tough … but over time we have been able to make a connection," Hunter, an African Service Fellow, said in an email from Tamale, Ghana. "Forming that one-on-one bond with a patient and watching her improve has been very rewarding."
Previously: Stanford residents share stories from volunteering abroad
Photo by Laura Hunter
