Making a Long-Term Impact on Global Communities
Medical Service Trips
This map indicates all of the countries that Make A Change International has reached so far through supporting health care professionals.
See below for details of current, past and upcoming medical service trips involving individuals within our organization and volunteers.
Republic of Congo
India
Philippines
Dominican Republic
Haiti
South Korea
Chicago, IL
USA
Honduras
Rwanda
Upcoming Medical Service trip to the Domincian Republic
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Public Health Infrastructure Trip to the Dominican Republic
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November 12-19, 2017
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Multi-disciplinary group consisting of internal medicine, emergency medicine, general surgery, otolaryngology, and nursing for the first week
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Multi-disciplinary group consisting of health care providers and construction workers for the second week
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Partnered with Community Empowerment (CE), a not-for-profit that works in underserved communities with local leadership to provide essential health care, while creating a self-sustaining system in which they are no longer needed
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CE has been working with the Dominican Republic community since 2002
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We will be working with the local community on several construction projects
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Partnership wih CE allows for continuity of care experience and ensures that the patients we see will be seen again by other medical teams in the near future
Jason Zimmermann, MD
Make A Change International Board of Directors &Treasurer
Rush Medical College
Impfondo, Congo
Aaron Tabor, MD, MPH
Make A Change International Founder and President
Rush Medical College
BIO: Background found here! Aaron found his passion in working with communities around the world as a child when he took part in Operation Christmas Child through the Samaritan's Purse. Through this program, he and his friends packaged shoeboxes of gifts and sent them around the world as Christmas presents to children their own age. Included in each shoebox, Aaron and his friends placed a letter, with a picture and their addresses. One year, a boy named Martin, who lived in Malawi, Africa, responded and thanked them for the gift, and they proceeded to write letters back and forth for many years. Another year, they heard back from a boy who lived in Sierra Leone. One day at church, a missionary Aaron knew mentioned that she was going back to Sierra Leone to the same village as the boy. Aaron asked everyone standing around to throw in a few dollars to send to the boy and his family, and they sent $50 with the missionary friend. Later, Aaron found out that with that small amount of money, they were able to buy food for the boy, his family, and his village for an entire month. In 2006, Aaron had his first chance to be part of a medical mission trip. He traveled with a team to El Carmen, Mexico, where they planned to do cleft lip/palate repairs with an oral/maxillofacial surgeon. Sadly, the surgical bus with the supplies did not show up and they had to send the lines of people and their children waiting back home, without medical care. They then set up a clinic and treated what they could, but this sparked Aaron's interest in doing medical service work around the world. Through his training in public health and medicine, his goal is to unite the disparities in health and medicine around the world, and serve global underserved communities. Through Make A Change International, Aaron hopes to provide opportunities, support, and inspiration in global health for health care professionals in every field.
- Traveled as a 3rd year medical student to Fond-des-Negres, Haiti and worked with the Salvation Army, Bethel Community Hospital December 26-January 4, 2013. Worked in the hospital clinics as well as the emergency room.
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student with Rush University Medical Center staff to the Dominican Republic November 8-16, 2014. Worked with general and orthopedic surgery groups where they performed 92 surgeries in the town of Peralta, in Azua region in the Dominican Republic.
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student with Rush University Medical Center staff to the Dominican Republic December 10-14, 2014. Worked with an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgeon and performed 16 cases, including cleft lip/palate repairs, also in the town of Peralta.
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student with Jason to the Congo in March-April, 2015 to work with the Pioneer Christian Hospital in Impfondo, Republic of Congo.
Travel dates March 23 to April 20, 2015.
- Traveled after graduating medical school during the first week of June, 2015 to Honduras with Global Brigades. Treated 1300 patients in 4 days of clinic.
- Traveled as an ER resident back to Peralta for a week-long surgical trip with a team from Rush. 92 Orthopedic, ENT/plastics, and general surgeries were done during the week of November 8-15, 2015.
- Traveled as an ER resident to Peralta in Azua of the DR for a week trip with Urology, Gynecology, and General surgery; 54 surgical cases done during the week of April 23-May 1, 2016.
BIO: found here!
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student with Aaron to the Congo in March-April, 2015 to work with the Pioneer Christian Hospital in Impfondo, Republic of Congo.
Travel dates March 23 to April 8, 2015.
Jen Szotek
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Fond-des-Negres, Haiti
BIO: Jen is from Tinley Park, IL and graduated in 2014 from Notre Dame where she majored in Biology and Spanish. During undergrad, she spent two summers at Rush doing HIV research in a microbiology lab. She also studied abroad for 5 months in Mexico during her junior year participating in public health and traditional medicine in rural, underdeveloped areas. She has become very interested in traveling, both for cultural and service purposes. She really loved the more service orientated parts of her prior trip and is interested in working in areas such as Haiti with even more dire needs.
- Traveled as a 1st year medical student with Michelle to Fond-des-Negres, Haiti to work with the Salvation Army Bethel Community Hospital December 26, 2014 to January 2, 2015. Check out her blog!
Michelle March, MPH
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Fond-des-Negres, Haiti
BIO: Michelle is native to Chicago, IL and graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science, a Master of Public Health in General Epidemiology, and a Certificate in Global Health. Following her formal education, she served as an Applied Epidemiology Fellow for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the New York State Department of Health. She gained experience with emergency preparedness, infection control, preventive medicine, and the management of chronic diseases. This will be her first experience with medical service work overseas, which she views as an exceptional opportunity to learn more about global health in an applied setting, give back to a community, and to have a meaningful experience over winter break that would contribute to her ever-evolving view of medicine.
- Traveled as a 1st year medical student with Jen to Fond-des-Negres, Haiti to work with the Salvation Army Bethel Community Hospital December 26, 2014 to January 2, 2015. Check out her blog!
Jen Hoefert, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Anaikitty, Tamil Nadu, India
Christina Creel, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Anaikitty, Tamil Nadu, India
Vanessa Eulo, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Anaikitty, Tamil Nadu, India
BIO: Christina is a former emergency department nurse and Floridian, who moved with her spouse and cat to Chicago to experience living in a different part of the United States and attend medical school. She graduated with an RN-BSN from Florida International University in 2007 and attended Rush Medical College in the MD class of 2015. As an ER nurse she traveled on various occasions to Haiti, on both medical and non medical trips, and during medical school she also went on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Her medical service experiences expand her exposure to the practice of medicine; and with this trip to India, particularly medicine in the eastern hemisphere. Her intention is to continue to pursue her studies in the area of Emergency Medicine and subsequently a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine. From there, she plans to both financially support and participate in international and community service trips, specifically within the areas of triage protocols, ultrasound and intensive care.
Her hobbies include weight lifting, running, hosting/event planning and cooking.
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student with Vanessa and Jen to work with Dr. K Muralidar at the Bethany Medical Centre in India February 14-28, 2015. Located in Anaikatty hills on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the hospital provides care for about 150 villages with a population of nearly two lakhs (unit in the Indian Numbering System equal to one hundred thousand). With specializations in Cardiology, General Surgery, and Maternity departments, they also care for patients from nearby cities such as Coimbatore. Check out her blog!
BIO: Vanessa grew up in rural New Jersey and went to Boston College for undergrad where she majored in nursing. She worked as a nurse at NYU medical center on a general medicine floor for several years and then moved to Chicago to work at Rush. She attended Rush Medical College in the MD class of 2015 and plans to work in Internal Medicine and has interests in Oncology. In 2007, Vanessa worked with the Red Cross at Hospital Antonio Lorena in Cusco, Peru. In 2008-2010, she made several annual trips to Casa para ninos, an orphanage for approximately 500 children, in San Bartolome Milpas Atlas, Guatemala. In 2012, as part of a medical mission trip with a group of classmates from Rush, she provided medical clinics to a Haitian population in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. She has an interest in global health and hopes to continue to take trips in her residency and beyond. "I have an interest in oncology and hope to integrate that interest with my global health interests in terms of screening and early detection."
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student with Christina and Jen to work with Dr. K Muralidar at the Bethany Medical Centre in India February 14-28, 2015. Located in Anaikatty hills on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the hospital provides care for about 150 villages with a population of nearly two lakhs (unit in the Indian Numbering System equal to one hundred thousand). With specializations in Cardiology, General Surgery, and Maternity departments, they also care for patients from nearby cities such as Coimbatore. Check out her blog!
BIO: Jen is originally from the St. Louis area, and previously worked as a deaf educator and second grade teacher before making the decision to go to medical school. In 2006, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Deaf Education from Fontbonne University, in 2010 she completed her Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Certificate, and then attended Rush Medical College in the MD class of 2015. Jen had previously volunteered in 2012 on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic. She views her trip to India in 2015 as "good exposure to global health care and the similarities and differences with American medicine, as well as being a good cultural immersion experience. I plan on incorporating global health experiences throughout my career, so this helped me to gain more experience and make connections with people." In addition to incorporating global health work into her career, both in residency and afterwards, she also hopes to assist and motivate others interested in participating in global health experiences.
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student with Christina and Vanessa to work with Dr. K Muralidar at the Bethany Medical Centre in India February 14-28, 2015. Located in Anaikatty hills on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the hospital provides care for about 150 villages with a population of nearly two lakhs (unit in the Indian Numbering System equal to one hundred thousand). With specializations in Cardiology, General Surgery, and Maternity departments, they also care for patients from nearby cities such as Coimbatore. Check out her blog!
Joe Lee, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Gyeongju, South Korea
BIO: Joe is of Korean decent and was born and raised in Chicago, IL. He received his BS from Northwestern University in 2009 and his MAT from Dominican University in 2011. He attended Rush Medical College in the MD class of 2015. Joe has been involved in global health since high school where he visited Panama for a week on a medical missions trip. In July of 2011 he interned as part of a Health Development Initiative in Kigali, Rwanda where he studied best practices for working with local community leaders to teach the importance of using mosquito nets and assisted in writing grants for community health projects. In December of 2011 he volunteered with the Good Shepherds’ Orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and distributed care packages to orphans affected by 2010 earthquake. In January of 2015 he volunteered at the Hanbit Children’s Hospital in Gyeongju, South Korea during his M4 year of medical school at Rush. Joe also has plans in the near future for medical service trips to Argentina and the Dominican Republic. As a former teacher, competitive basketball player and golfer, and drummer, Joe has a great balance of skills that have given him opportunities to connect with patients all over the world.
= Traveled as a 4th year medical student to the Hanbit Children’s Hospital in Gyeongju, South Korea in January, 2015, which gave him the opportunity to enhance his medical language skills in Korean to help him better serve Korean patients in the future. It also gave him the opportunity to experience another medical system (universal health care) which will enhance the policy work he is very interested in pursuing as a career. Check out his blog!
Kyla Lara, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Manila, Philippines
BIO: Kyla was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and is the daughter of first-generation immigrants from the Philippines. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 and then earned her masters in Human Nutrition at Columbia University in NYC in 2010. She moved back home and worked in an ER before starting at Rush Medical College in the class of 2015. Her experience in Chicago and medical school has been fulfilling and challenging. Since beginning medical school and having volunteer experiences with the community here, she has had a deep yearning for experiencing healthcare in the Philippines as an adult. Manila continues to be a developing country plagued with poverty and she hopes to contribute to the healthcare and also advocate for the community members while in the Philippines. "The privilege of immersing myself in a developing country's healthcare like Manila will bring unique experiences and lessons that I will use for future practice. Extremely limited resources in a poverty stricken area will give me the adeptness to adjust and become resourceful as a physician. I hope that I will become more empathetic, efficient and more passionate about global health and providing quality care for those who otherwise are not afforded the opportunity to receive basic healthcare." She hopes to continue to return to Manila and contribute in advocating and possibly establishing a sustainable free clinic for the poor, and she hopes to even find ways to do this during her residency training.
- Traveling as a 4th year medical student to Manila, Philippines, April 1-30, 2015. She will be volunteering at the Philippines General Hospital and working under Dr. Antonio Dans (Dept of Internal Medicine director) and the University of the Philippines residents. In addition will be doing public health advocacy and possibly some research. Check out her blog!
Niti Patel, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Gujarat, India
BIO: Niti was born in India and moved to Chicago at the age of 8. She completed her undergraduate/graduate education at St. Louis College of Pharmacy and received her Pharm.D and attended Rush Medical College in the MD class of 2015. She has never worked in a health care system in a different country though did volunter with Habitat for Humanity in Ghana. She is returning to India for the first time in 10 years and looks forward to experiencing the culture again and learning more about their healthcare system, in addition to gaining experience with a different patient population and pathology, becoming exposed to diagnosis and treatment with limited resources, and providing as much care as possible. She would like to volunteer as a physician in the future on a regular basis and hopes to get more ideas from this trip. "This trip will definitely add to my training as I will be working in the general medicine floor. I would like to become better versed in medicine when limited sources are available. I think being an efficient doctor is important. I would also like to better my physical exam skills. I hope to participate in more trips as a physician on a regular basis. I would also like to aid in building clinics/hospitals in areas of need in the future."
- Traveling as a 4th year medical student to Gujarat, India, April 2015 and working at the Bajrangdas Bapa Arogyadham hospital, a charity hospital located in the city of Bhavnagar, India. She will be working with her mentor Dr. Darshan Shukla who is trained in critical care. She is excited to work with him as she will get to see more sick patients. Check out her blog!
Marc Dadios, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Manila, Philippines
BIO: Marc is originally from Northern California and received his B.S. in Biochemical Sciences from UC Davis in 2006. He then went on to receive his M.A. in Medical Sciences from Loyola University Chicago in 2010 before attending Rush Medical College in the MD class of 2015. Marc has been volunteered with several medical mission teams in the past: In 2009, at the Bayanihan Clinic in the Philippines; in 2012, in the Dominican Republic, and in 2014 he spent time in the Philiippines with both Philos Health on the Island of Bohol and at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. "From my past experiences with global health, I know that I will gain valuable perspective on the state of healthcare in a third world country. As a senior medical student, I am excited for the opportunity to compare and contrast different healthcare systems around the world. I also would love to develop connections at these sites to cultivate positive relationships and to go to those sites in the future." In addition to his service work overseas, he has raised money for Team World Vision during the 2012 Chicago Half Marathon, for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy during the Chicago marathon in 2014, and has organized 7 annual community health fairs in Chicago, IL. Marc is an avid marathon runner and plans to have a career in Pediatrics.
- Traveled as a 4th year medical student to the Philippines and spent 1 week on the Island of Bohol with Philos Health and 2 weeks on a pediatric rotation at Philippine General Hospital in Manila. Check out his blog!
Mohit Gupta, MD
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Peralta, Azua, Dominican Republic
BIO: Mohit was born in Bombay, India and has lived in the Chicago suburbs since he was 4 years old. He received his Bachelor's of Arts from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI in 2011 and graduated from Rush Medical College with his medical degree in 2015. He then began his Internal Medicine residency at Rush and Cook County Hospital. Mohit believes that global health experiences will provide him with the opportunity to apply his interests in public health, medical anthropology, infectious disease, pathology, and epidemiology. He hopes to gain critical thinking skills required to apply academic knowledge towards the betterment of health care in international communities. Beginning in college and continuing into medical school he has had an interest in global health and infectious disease. Mohit has participated in two research projects: the first in diabetic cardiomyopathy at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan during the summer of 2009 and the other in post-traumatic osteoarthritis at Rush University in Chicago, IL between 2011 and 2013. Mohit says that experiences like building houses in El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity, volunteering at a Gang Camp in Randleman, North Carolina, and coordinating the Indian American Medical Association health clinic while in medical school, have granted him exposure to local communities, helped him build empathy, developed his problem-solving skills, allowed him to work with individuals who were unlike himself, taught him how to collaborate with others, and helped him play an important role in local communities. "I want to help reduce global health inequities and contribute to the development of sustainable and salutogenic healthcare systems throughout the world."
- Traveled at the beginning of his first year of residency with Rush University Medical Center staff to the Dominican Republic in June of 2015. Worked with an internal medicine team to provide primary care to the local people in the town of Peralta. Check out his blog!
Kristen Pallok, Christine Scullywest, Derick Tsaoi, Keiko Fukuda, Nora Kim, Jen Szotek, Gina Soto
Volunteers
Rush Medical College M1s
Bethany Medical Centre, India
BIO: Group of first year medical students from Rush Medical College who traveled to the Bethany Medical Centre in India the May-June, 2015. Located in Anaikatty hills on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the hospital provides care for about 150 villages with a population of nearly two lakhs (unit in the Indian Numbering System equal to one hundred thousand). With specializations in Cardiology, General Surgery, and Maternity departments, they also care for patients from nearby cities such as Coimbatore. Check out their blog!
Alex Sun, Annalisa Morgan, Samir Mishra, Emily Kelly, Victoria Vuong, Therese Dunne, Claudia Marfoh, Simisola Alalade
Volunteers
Rush Medical College M1s
Bethany Medical Centre, India
BIO: Group of first year medical students from Rush Medical College who traveled to the Bethany Medical Centre in India the May-June, 2016. Located in Anaikatty hills on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the hospital provides care for about 150 villages with a population of nearly two lakhs (unit in the Indian Numbering System equal to one hundred thousand). With specializations in Cardiology, General Surgery, and Maternity departments, they also care for patients from nearby cities such as Coimbatore. Check out their blog!
Stephanie Ross
Volunteer
Rush Medical College
Kigali, Rwanda
BIO: Stephanie Ross hails from the Chicago suburbs where she grew up trail running and dreaming of taller mountains. After finishing her undergraduate degree from Illinois Wesleyan, she joined the US Peace Corps and lived in rural Tanzania for two and a half years teaching secondary school biology and helping to establish her school's first library. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she coordinated a youth development club, taught groups of secondary school students about HIV/AIDS knowledge and prevention, co-facilitated a Young Women's Health Conference, and supervised peer education. As a first year medical student at Rush Medical College, she was the president of students for a National Health Program, co-chair for the American Medical Student Assocation's Race, Ethnicity and Cutlure in Healthcare committee, and helped run the Francisican Homeless Shelter clinic on the West side of Chicago.
"I want to become more aware of the health challenges that local communities face within developing countries, specific ways in which the community has adapted to their own needs and best practices for how foreign resources and management can facilitate the self-empowerment of locals abroad to better meet their healthcare needs. Learning about community healthcare for two months this upcoming summer at WE-ACTx in Kigali will give me insight into this knowledge and experience in the sustainability of global health projects."
- Traveled as a first year medical student the summer of 2016 to Rwanda, where she spent 2 months working with WE-ACTxto analyze the multi-factorial challenges that families with HIV face in Kigali and help develop a multi-tiered response in collaboration with Rwandan staff. Check out her blog!