This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Through a Dartmouth International Health Group (DIHG) fellowship, neuroscience graduate Andrew Saunders ’02 traveled to Nicaragua two years ago, the summer after his first year of medical school.
“I’ve always had an interest in global health,” he says. The DIHG strives to facilitate direct involvement of Dartmouth Medical School students in addressing medical needs worldwide by assisting students in designing and conducting public health projects.
Saunders and another medical student investigated the degree of drinking water contamination in a very remote 40-family village appropriately named Agua Sucia (“dirty water”), located in the jungle several hours on horseback from the town of Siuna where they lived. There they set up a makeshift lab and brought back water samples several times a week from Agua Sucia.
Significant E. coli bacterial contamination was found in most village water sources, Saunders notes. The information was submitted to Canada Save the Children, a non-governmental group that works to gain financial support and initiative for clean-water programs in communities such as Agua Sucia.
“Through individual contributions that we have solicited and larger contributions orchestrated by Canada Save the Children, we are hopeful that progress is being made in improving the quality of drinking water available to the children and families of Agua Sucia,” he says.
Saunders plans to spend time this year at a Dartmouth-affiliated clinic in Tanzania investigating TB vaccinations in HIV-positive populations and to return to Nicaragua to work in a more clinical capacity.
Saunders also is the recipient of an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, a service program open to graduate students.
“As my first year of medical school progressed, I realized that our studies were largely — and appropriately — targeted toward the preservation of health and human life, and did not specifically address the care of terminally ill patients,” he says.
Saunders worked with another medical student to design an elective course aimed at enabling doctors to provide more comfort to terminally ill patients and families. They organized a series of workshops with experts to discuss topics in end-of-life care and develop strategies for effective communication regarding delicate issues and whole-person care.
“At the culmination of the course, students were partnered with clinicians in Dartmouth’s palliative care department to spend time observing end-of-life care situations firsthand,” Saunders adds. “The course has since been taken over by a more junior medical student and will be offered again this year.”
Saunders’ outlook on life and career, he says, can be traced to a class he took at Lafayette.
“In the college environment, it is all too easy to succumb to the ‘group mentality’ and much harder to think for yourself,” he says. “I was somewhat guilty of this and didn’t realize so until I took Philosophy 101 under Dr. Julie Yoo. The class changed the way I looked at the world. For the first time, I was taught that everything was subject to question. This revolutionized my thought processes as they pertained to my academic studies as well as my personal life. It was no longer OK to not have an opinion, to not think it through for myself.
“At the risk of sounding clichéd and vague, I feel that this class set off the personal paradigm shift that has led me to the path I’m currently following.”