Manchester’s medical practicum is an honored tradition. For over 40 years, groups of students, alumni and other providers have traveled to countries across Central America and the Caribbean to provide medical and dental care in areas of desperate need. Since the first trip in 1981, led by Dr. Ed Miller '56, there have been 37 medical practicum trips to countries including Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala. Now led by Professor of Chemistry Jeff Osborne, the 2024 Medical Practicum provided care in Guatemala once again. 

Junior biology-chemistry student Rebekah Milburn said the medical practicum was the best thing she had ever done. “I was able to donate my time to a cause that allowed me to help those who needed it,” Milburn said. “Traveling to Guatemala also allowed me to personally meet everybody I was helping. I learned a lot about healthcare during the three weeks, but I also learned valuable life lessons that I likely would not have had the opportunity to learn if I had not gone on the trip.” 

All are welcome on the medical practicum—from undergraduate students in any field, to graduate students, to experienced providers, to MU staff and faculty. 

Kierstan Hanson, Manchester University Fort Wayne’s inclusion and wellness coordinator and associate professor of pharmacy practice, has joined the practicum twice.  “It was invigorating to see the students light up as they practiced a new skill or made connections between what they have learned about healthcare and what it feels like to provide that care to someone in need,” Hanson said. “Students were able to explore a variety of health care roles. Some students affirmed they were on the right path while others found a passion they never knew they had.” 

Such was the case for Samantha Alspaugh '22, who discovered where her passions lay while on the medical practicum. “Going on the trip helped me to grow both personally and professionally,” Alspaugh said. “My first medical practicum helped me to figure out pharmacy is what I want to do. My second medical practicum gave me the opportunity to apply the knowledge that I gained in pharmacy school.” 

In addition to providing this vital care, participants also have the opportunity to live in a vastly different environment from their own.

“Being immersed in a different culture, surrounded by new people, and not having the pressures and comforts of home, you are given this amazing opportunity to be fully present,” Hanson said. “My worries and anxieties faded, and I absorbed all the sights, sounds, and experiences in a way that I haven’t found possible in my daily life.” 

During a Values, Ideas and the Arts (VIA) presentation by students who traveled to Guatemala in January of 2024, every single panel participant said they would go on a medical practicum trip again. The presentation can be watched here. 

While this experience in global health and community-building is invaluable, the costs of purchasing and transporting medicine and medical and dental supplies have increased, as well as costs for students to participate. During the month of March, Manchester is raising funds to ensure that the medical practicum can continue for generations to come. Gifts can be made here.  

The importance of the care and experience the medical practicum provides for both the students and the patients is obvious. As physician assistant Paul Fry-Miller '75 said, “Having traveled with over a hundred MU students in the past 28 years on medical practicum trips and seeing the impact their personal and professional lives have had on our world gives me great joy, satisfaction and hope for our future.”