During the summer of 2023, I had the great opportunity of being a part of Global Health Initiative-Peru. As someone aspiring to study Spanish and Psychology and shows great interest in going to medical school, this internship was a worthwhile internship. This gave me an insight
of the importance of studying psychology as it demonstrated the lack of doctors/ physicians. Another thing that caught my attention was the lack of resources for these individuals. This internship is an immersion trip, as part of an exchange and experience in the community of health programs in Peru. We were able to learn about the culture of Peru by the GHI team but also learned about the three programs that GHI-Peru has. These three very distinct programs being Vida Sana, Creciendo Juntos, and Corazones Excepcionales (COEX). These programs helped mothers, kids and kids with down syndrome in the community. Not only did these programs teach these individuals about different topics that they were unfamiliar about, but they were also able to further learn knowledge as a student. Not only were these individuals of the
programs able to learn from us but we were able to learn from them. There were two moments that stuck to me the most. One event included a 7-year-old that expressed how he was able to gain confidence through expanding his knowledge to be able to engage more in class. I met a kid from a smaller town who had inquired about the process of learning the English language. While I was not entirely sure how to answer his question, I gave him my best piece of advice reflecting on my own personal experience from my youth. This interaction allowed me to visualize how far
I have come along with filling me with immense hope of my future. I was able to demonstrate that hard work does pay off by setting that example for him.
My summer internship with the GHI-Peru team was an important and helpful experience not only in my studies of Psychology and Spanish but also allowing me to grow as a person. Finally, I would like to say thank you to multiple people for allowing me to get this opportunity this summer to be an intern for GHI-Peru. First, I thank Dr. Wetzel, and Jill Rogers for allowing me to participate in this internship. Second, I thank the GHI-Peru team, including Beto, Milagros,
Bequet, Yair, Ariana, Maly and Blanca and many more for being mentors and friends during my time in Peru. Third, I thank the individuals of these programs for treating us with kindness and teaching me lessons. Lasty, I thank my fellow Wabash intern Jacob Ramirez. Thank you all for this amazing summer experience and for allowing it to be beneficial to my life experience.
