International Service Learning: Experiential Education

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Want real clinical exposure before med school, but worried you don’t have the money, the connections, or the language skills to serve abroad? I sit down with Jonah, a University of South Carolina sophomore on the pre-med track, to unpack what actually happens on a short-term medical mission trip and what it taught him about persistence, patient care, and cultural competence.

Jonah shares how he chose biology for flexibility, how he pursued shadowing by refusing to take silence as an answer, and why that same mindset helped him say yes to a two-week program in Boquete, Panama. We get specific about the day-to-day reality of a pop-up clinic: rotating through intake, vitals, working alongside providers, and supporting the pharmacy station, with patient volume averaging around 80 a day. It’s a grounded look at global health work that goes beyond feel-good travel and into teamwork, role clarity, and learning to stay calm when resources are limited.

We also talk about the hard parts people don’t always mention: stepping outside your comfort zone, navigating Spanish with imperfect skills, and what respectful communication looks like when you’re face-to-face with someone who is scared and sick. Dr. Hickey connects those lessons to the future of healthcare in the United States, including interpreter services and caring for patients with limited English proficiency.

If you’re weighing cost, doubts, or the fear of going alone, Jonah offers practical advice on scholarships, fundraising, and why the experience can be an investment in becoming a better physician. Subscribe for more stories from international service learning, share this with a pre-med friend, and leave a review with your biggest question about volunteering abroad.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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A lodge that quietly bankrolls a school, two meals a day, uniforms, and English education for hundreds of kids sounds almost too simple until you hear how it works on the ground. We’re joined by Mama Teddy, our Tanzania country coordinator, calling in from a seven-hour time difference with the kind of warmth that instantly explains her nickname “Mama Bear.” She walks us through life at Stella Maris Lodge and the Stella Maris Primary School near Moshi and Mount Kilimanjaro, where lodge revenue helps families who could never afford expensive English primary programs prepare their children for secondary school and beyond.

We also get practical and honest about global health and medical volunteering in Tanzania. Mama Teddy breaks down what volunteer teams see in rural outreach clinics and why it changes by region: hypertension and diabetes in higher areas, and in other communities challenges like malnutrition, HIV, TB, and stubborn fungal skin infections. We talk about what happens when patients delay care until problems become chronic, and why access and affordability still shape health outcomes even as the country expands facilities and equipment.

What stays with us most are the stories. A single child fainting during assembly leads to breakfast for every student. Former students head to university and decide to become teachers and healthcare workers so they can help others the way they were helped. And volunteers leave with more than memories: cultural learning, new perspective on healthcare systems, and the reminder that education often outlasts any medication we hand out.

If you’ve ever wondered whether short-term international service learning can be ethical, effective, and deeply human, this conversation is a strong place to start. Subscribe, share this with a friend who wants to volunteer abroad, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you’re carrying forward.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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You don’t need a huge budget, months off work, or fluency in another language to do meaningful global health work, but you do need a plan. We sit down with Susan, a University of Maine nursing faculty member who has led multiple international service learning trips, to talk about what actually makes short-term service abroad safe, ethical, and deeply educational for nursing students. From Belize to Tanzania to Colombia, she shares what changes country to country and what stays constant: the power of structure, reflection, and showing up with humility.

We also go beyond travel and get real about the emotional core of nursing. Susan explains why she’s passionate about aging and end-of-life care, how students respond to an awareness-based course built around journaling, and why educators have to be mindful of grief, triggers, and the realities students may be facing during a semester. That same reflective muscle becomes essential overseas, where students see scarcity, resilience, and joy in places that challenge their assumptions about comfort and happiness.

Then we dig into the behind-the-scenes work that listeners rarely hear: vetting partners, working with a university travel office, navigating risk management and travel advisories, keeping scope of practice clear, and managing a full schedule so students learn more and wander less. We also talk about real outcomes, like students gaining confidence presenting patient cases to physicians and the surprisingly life-changing impact of simple tools like reading glasses.

If you’ve been curious about international service learning, nursing study abroad, experiential education, and global health training that translates back home, this conversation will give you a clear picture of what it takes and why it’s worth it. Subscribe, share this with a colleague or student, and leave a review with the one place you’d want to serve next.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

Send us Fan Mail

A lot of students want to serve abroad, but they worry they do not have the time, the money, or the language skills to actually help. We sit down with Georgia, a University of South Carolina student majoring in public health on the pre-dental track, to break down what it really looks like to join an international service learning experience and grow as a future healthcare professional at the same time.

Georgia shares her path from arriving on campus as pre-med to realizing dentistry fit her better after talking with friends, shadowing multiple dental specialties, and finding a community in a pre-dental organization. Then she takes us to Panama, where her team sets up a pop-up dental clinic in a rural school and treats more than 80 patients across children, teens, and adults. We talk through the practical flow of care, from sterilization and prophylaxis to assisting the dentist, and what surprised her about access to dental care and prevention.

Some of the most powerful lessons are not about instruments at all. Georgia explains how they built trust with kids who were nervous, why simple human moments like talking about soccer can lower dental anxiety, and how language barriers in Spanish change the way you communicate medical history and instructions. We also dig into public health themes like sustainable impact, patient education, and why prevention and follow-up matter in global health dentistry.

Subscribe for more stories from international service, share this with someone considering a medical or dental mission trip, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. What part of Georgia’s experience would you want to try for yourself?

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

Send us Fan Mail

Serving the world can feel impossible when you’re short on time, money, or confidence, so we start somewhere smaller: a hello. Stephanie joins us to share how everyday kindness, real curiosity, and simple human connection can become a personal practice of service that travels with you anywhere. From chatting with a gas attendant to greeting someone in their language at a coffee shop, we dig into why being “seen” and “heard” is not soft, it’s foundational.

Stephanie also walks us through stepping outside her comfort zone in a big way, moving to Taiwan in her mid-30s and building a life as an educator while adapting to a new culture and language. We talk about what actually helps when you’re living abroad, from practical tools like maps and translation apps to the deeper skills of humility, flexibility, and cultural respect.

Then we get into international service on the ground: volunteering with the SALT collective to cook meals for unhoused people in Taipei, and organizing a Black Lives Matter support rally in Taiwan that raised roughly $10,000 USD and funded causes across Taiwan, Africa, and the United States. We close with her best advice for anyone considering volunteering abroad or international service learning: “lose yourself,” show up ready to learn, and you’ll discover we’re more alike than we are different. If this resonates, subscribe, share with a friend who needs a push, and leave a review so more people find the show.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

Send us Fan Mail

If you’ve ever wondered whether a short-term medical service trip can really matter, Kendra Ho brings the kind of detail that makes it real. Kendra is a University of South Carolina neuroscience major with a business minor on the pre-med track, and she joins me to talk about serving in the Dominican Republic through a service learning clinic that combines travel, hands-on care, and experiential education.

We walk through what the days actually look like: early mornings, setting up a mobile clinic in a church, going door to door with a community guide, practicing Spanish, and then shifting into triage, vitals, history, and patient conversations before a local physician evaluates and prescribes. Kendra shares what she sees most often in underserved communities including hypertension, diabetes, chronic headaches, and why antiparasitic meds come up so frequently when clean water and food safety aren’t guaranteed. We also talk about what it’s like to learn from doctors who teach generously and explain the “why” behind each diagnosis and medication.

Some of the most powerful moments are the hardest ones: patients who delay care for years, a blood pressure reading that signals a crisis, and the frustration of leaving without the follow-up you’d want in any healthcare system. That leads to our big takeaway for global health and for future physicians: education and communication may be the most sustainable care you can offer, especially when access is limited by distance, work, childcare, or cost.

If you care about global health, cultural competency, healthcare access, and becoming a better clinician, listen now. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s on the fence about service learning, and leave a review with the lesson you’re taking into your own community.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

Send us Fan Mail

You can spend a lifetime in healthcare and still get shocked by what “no resources” really means. We talk with Dr. David Gray, an emergency physician and lifelong mentor, about the moments that shaped him: learning medicine the hard way in Guadalajara, helping build a new style of ER practice back home, and then stepping into global health where he spent decades in medical service work across Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and parts of Africa, where electricity, supplies, and referral options can disappear overnight.

We trade stories from medical mission trips and international service learning in Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, Nigeria, Kenya, and even a teaching visit to Costa Rica that revealed how much emergency systems depend on training, not gadgets. Dr. Gray explains how teams “make do” when customs steals donated supplies, when regulators block medications, and when you face cases you cannot fix because surgery, transport, or follow-up simply are not available. We also dig into what responsible short-term service looks like: training local aides, building trust year after year, and treating patient education as the part that lasts.

Along the way, we come back to a simple skill that travels anywhere: human connection. A hand on a shoulder, eye contact, and a calm voice can change what a patient shares, how they cope, and how a team functions, especially in resource-limited settings where the history and physical exam matter more than a barrage of tests. If you’re a student, nurse, or physician curious about global health volunteering, this conversation offers practical guidance and an honest look at the emotional cost and the deep rewards.

Subscribe for more stories from international service and experiential education, share this episode with a colleague who wants to serve abroad, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

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A short-term global health trip can feel like a drop in the ocean, until you hear what “no access” really means from someone who lives it. We sit down with Dr. Ciro Calderon, a Guatemalan physician in Antigua who runs his own clinic, collaborates with the Peace Corps, and mentors visiting service learning healthcare focused teams in rural and indigenous communities where resources can be scarce and the need is constant.

We talk candidly about Guatemala’s centralized healthcare system and the sharp gap between urban care and nearby villages that may still lack consistent medical coverage. Dr. Calderon shares what it’s like when a visiting clinic becomes the only chance a patient has to see a doctor, and how students must navigate language barriers, interpreters, and the ethics of being treated like “the doctor” before they’re fully trained. The message is clear: cultural humility, clear communication, and teamwork matter as much as clinical knowledge.

We also dig into the big health issues he sees most often; maternal and child health challenges, child nutrition and education, and the mental health stigma that keeps people from asking for help. Along the way, Dr. Calderon explains why patient education is the most sustainable intervention, why access to affordable medicines can be the hardest barrier, and how "presence" ... the simple human connection of touch, a smile, eye contact, and a listening ear can change a patient’s experience of care.

If you care about international service learning, experiential education, ethical medical mission trips, or global health in Guatemala, this conversation will give you practical perspective and a reason to reflect. Subscribe, share this with someone considering a service trip, and leave a review with the biggest question you’re still wrestling with.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

Send us Fan Mail

A garbage dump is not just a place where trash ends up. In many developing nations, it becomes a workplace, a food source, and the center of a community where families sort plastics and metal beside medical waste just to survive. That’s the world Mike Tenbush has spent the last eight years fighting for as president of International Samaritan, and his stories are impossible to shrug off.

We talk about what life looks like in unregulated dump site communities, why the health outcomes are so brutal, and why “help” has to be more than a one-week project. Mike explains how International Samaritan started in Guatemala City and evolved into a scholarship-driven strategy that helps children of recyclers stay in school, reach trade programs or college, and pull entire families out of the cycle. We also dig into the practical questions listeners ask about nonprofit transparency and responsible giving, including how to vet organizations and why their US overhead is covered separately so donations can flow directly to in-country work.

From there, we unpack a better model for international service learning: Learn Serve Grow. It’s built around a 52-week partnership where teams learn together before travel, serve with the community rather than “to” the community, and return home committed to fundraising that fuels long-term change. Mike shares moments that define the mission, from a child who didn’t understand the concept of “dreams” to urgent medical needs that can be solved with timely support.

If you care about global health, poverty alleviation, ethical volunteering, or service-learning trips abroad, listen through to the end and then take one step. Subscribe, share this with a friend who wants to serve, and leave a review so more people find the work.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort! 

Send us Fan Mail

The next pandemic problem is already here, and it is not just a virus. It is a system that fractures on impact. When a crisis hits, we send waves of institutions, NGOs, universities, and volunteers into the same space, often without shared situational awareness, shared data, or a unified plan. Dr. Meunier joins us to explain why global health has become an inefficient network of silos and why “reform” inside agencies will never be enough without real transformation in global health infrastructure. 

We dig into what the public health workforce decline and frozen development budgets mean on the ground, and why volunteer healthcare organizations and international service learning programs end up filling the void. Then we get practical: consolidation versus cooperation, how Ministries of Health can support coordination, and why bottom-up collaboration may be the only realistic starting point when there is no top-down orchestration. Dr. Meunier also challenges us to think about early warning systems, rapid data sharing, joint outbreak response capacity, and the uncomfortable reality of hidden agendas that can undermine humanitarian health work. 

We go deep on preparation for medical mission trips and global health volunteering, including cultural competency, avoiding saviorism, and the ethical pressure of practicing in resource-challenged environments where doing nothing can be deadly. Dr. Meunier shares a real public health success story from Papua New Guinea built on data gathering, water and sanitation, malaria control, nutrition, and community training, plus clear advice for future clinicians: be curious, be empathetic, stay cool, and keep your serenity. If you care about global health security, health equity, and making international service actually work, subscribe, share this episode, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

*To learn more about Dr Yann Meunier and his global efforts ... simply do a google search or check him out on LinkedIn as he is publising articles almost weekly!

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to "share the voices of international service" with you! 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that it is the hands-on experiential experiences that are most meaningful in life! I hope that by hearing these voices you too can become involved in service, whether it be locally, nationally, or internatioally. 

Feel free to check out our website at www.internationalservicelearning.org, follow us on Instagram @islmedical, or send me an email at                                      [email protected] if you wasnt to learn more about international opportunities for yourself, your school, your church, or any other cohort!