HEALTH CAREERS SCHOLARSHIP DEPARTMENT

Eligibliity: Students preparing for careers in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, physical or occupational therapy, and medical technologies are eligible to apply. Astudent must be a U.S. or Canadian citizen, enrolled full-time in a school accredited in the field involved and application must be for at least the third year of college. R.N. students must have completed the first year of schooling. Pre-med students are not eligible to apply. For those students seeking degrees of M.D. or D.D.S., application must be for at least the second year of medical or dental school. There is no age limit. Scholarships are for $1000.00.

Process: Applicants must request an application via postal mail by sending a short note of request, along with a self-addressed, legal-sized, stamped envelope (in which the director will return an application) to:

IOKDS
Health Careers Scholarship Director
PO Box 1040
Chautauqua, NY 14722

Completed applications returned to the director must be postmarked by April 1st. of the current year.

The Health Careers Scholarship Program was started in May, 1976. It is supported through individual contributions of The King's Daughters and Sons' members. Since there is no set budget, the number of scholarships available may vary from year to year.

HEALTH CAREERS SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT SHARES AN IMMEASURABLE EXPERIENCE

Submitted by Peter Kooch

I had only been in medical school for five months when I wrote this piece. At the time, it felt incredibly premature for me to speak of a truly personal student-patient interaction. Yet I felt compelled to write about Doña Paulina. I ended up recording these experiences for my own reflection and future recollection.

These events occurred prior to my entrance into medical school, during the time I spent volunteering at a clinic in Guatemala. For much of that time, I worked as an aide for an elderly Mayan woman recovering from a sizeable ulcer. My friendship with this octogenarian hermit, Doña Paulina, with whom I share almost no language or cultural background, is among the oddest and most difficult relationships of my life. Yet, for those same reasons, it has been one of the most meaningful.

I first came to Guatemala in 2008. In Santa Cruz la Laguna, a community of indigenous Mayans in the Western highlands, I encountered a pair of physicians that operated a small clinic. After spending a few days around trying to lend a hand, I decided to stay to volunteer for the next seven months. More here.