Posted Dec. 5 - I was reminded recently that our January Session Medical Practicum is an intergenerational event at Manchester. Led by Jeff Osborne, associate professor of chemistry, a group of students, faculty, alumni and friends of Manchester will spend the better part of three weeks in Alto Wangki-Bocay, Nicaragua, providing health services to more than 1,000 underserved individuals.

While traveling in Texas, Renee and I had dinner with Robert Studebaker ’91 and his family. Next month, Robert, a dentist, and his wife, Mybell, who manages his practice, will participate in their third consecutive practicum. Last year, two of their children, Rico and Annie, and Robert’s physician father, John ’68, made the trip. “They had three generations working together, with Nico and Annie having days working with their grandfather and parents,” says Osborne. Robert told us that his interest in dentistry was sparked in 1985 when, as a high school student, he made the trip with his father.

The trip is generational in another sense: It has been handed down and nurtured by many after Professor Ed Miller took his first group south in 1981. As was true for Robert, the experience has launched many into careers in the health sciences.