Darshil:

“When we came here for the Health Sciences Summer Camp, we were both rising seniors in high school. I went to Woodbridge High School and Jordan went to St. Georges Technical High School, so we met at camp. The camp really set it in stone that I wanted to come to UD.”

Jordan:

“I chose to come to UD because there are many opportunities for what I want to do with my career. One of my friends who was a counselor at camp talked about his opportunities here and how they really helped him get to where he is right now, and I really wanted that for myself. Our freshman year, we both joined the Pre-Health Living Learning Community in Gilbert Hall. Every now and then, we would receive an email with different opportunities. One opportunity, in particular, was a mission trip to Kenya, so we thought it would be a nice experience as a person and as a future health professional to see how medicine is practiced in different parts of the world, particularly in a third-world country such as Kenya.”

Darshil:

“We were there for a total of 17 days. We traveled to this part of Kenya near Uganda’s border called Bondo and volunteered at this little county hospital. It was the only one in a very big area and is very underfunded so we tried to help as much as we could. We first toured around different areas and the option was you could stick in one specific wing or you go to different places.

I decided that I wanted to be in the Med-Surg unit where the patients are recovering and the nurses are treating them. They would ask for a medication and I would take the prescription from the nurses to get it from the pharmacy or the supplies area and bring it back to them.”

Jordan:

“I did something very different from Darshil. I went around to different units: Med-Surg, surgical, pharmacy, maternity, HIV testing and the morgue unit. I spent the majority of my time in the surgical unit. But I did enjoy the maternity unit because you go in and see the miracle of life and some the mothers named their sons after me! It was really something else. Everyone was open and welcoming. I was really sad when it was time to leave.

This trip reaffirmed that I want to be a surgeon. Looking at how they interact with each other and how they have that family dynamic - I want that for myself.”

Darshil:

“I want to work in a hospital. Seeing the different treatment plans and how they work with limited funds, it opened up another door in research. They did a lot of things with the little supplies they have, so they had to be creative. All the nurses are so underpaid but they never lost their passion to treat their patients. I was considering nursing after that because it’s more direct with the patient - they really spend time with the patients.

You have a lot of reflection time there because you don’t have phones, there is no Internet, electricity sometimes. So you spend a lot of time thinking of what you want out of your career.”