On July 26, 2009, 12 U.S. students from the Latin American School of Medicine (Escuela Latino Americana de Medicina) in Havana, Cuba, will kick off the first ¡Salud! Southwest Exchange (SSWE). This student-organized road-trip will visit Native American reservations, neighboring communities, hospitals and colleges in the Southwestern United States. The students on the tour will have the opportunity to learn about the communities and institutions they visit and will establish a dialogue with the people they meet. The SSWE team also will provide information about medical school opportunities with ELAM and work to exchange information between all interested parties throughout the tour.
Objectives
The ELAM team’s itinerary, pre-approved by community leaders at each stop, includes the following objectives:
1. to present in their own words their experiences of what it is like to study at ELAM and promote the availability of full scholarships to study there;
2. to volunteer their services while learning about some of the more significant health care concerns affecting American Indian populations; and
3. to build personal and professional relationships with health care practitioners and members of American Indian and other marginalized communities.
The SSWE team was selected out of a group of 104 U.S. students on full scholarships currently studying medicine in Cuba alongside peers from 27 countries throughout Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa. SSWE not only is composed of some of the brightest and most courageous medical students this country has to offer, many of whom originate from some of the toughest and poorest communities in the U.S.
The settlements and communities they plan to visit share characteristics with the underserved and at-risk communities U.S. ELAM students have pledged to work upon graduation.
The students’ shared enthusiasm and unique insights into cross-cultural interaction through learning medicine from world-class doctors give them exemplary credentials to face the global health care challenges ahead.
In addition, the students of the SSWE are highly motivated by the prospect of exchanging information with community leaders and health care experts about critical public health care issues and learning more about what to consider when embarking on a career as a physician in underserved communities.
