Funding for Atlantis Shadowing Fellowship Program

My name is Courtney Li, and I am a rising junior at Yale University majoring in Psychology on the Neuroscience Track. I am also a pre-medical student aspiring to one day become a physician, building a career from my passion for providing service to other people.

I am fundraising to participate in an amazing opportunity I have received from the Atlantis Pre-Med Shadowing Fellowship Program for the summer of 2023. With this program, I will gain more clinical experience in two foreign countries with approximately 20 hours of shadowing per week. While healthcare exposure is essential to being a competitive medical school applicant, the intercultural perspective of shadowing in hospitals in Mérida, Spain and Mantua, Italy is an aspect of Atlantis’ program that I am particularly inspired by. Additionally, going to Spain would be a fantastic opportunity to continue practicing medical Spanish, as I have been studying Spanish for about six years.

Earlier this summer, I traveled to Costa Rica on a medical service-learning trip during which we set up ambulatory clinics in two communities of Guanacaste. As a medical volunteer, I was responsible for patient intake, taking vital signs, and performing preliminary physical examinations. This experience reaffirmed my desire and dedication to attending medical school and becoming a physician. Aside from taking part in and observing direct patient care in Costa Rica, one of the most informative experiences of that trip was learning about Costa Rica’s public healthcare system. What was particularly eye-opening was that even though Costa Rica’s healthcare system is considered one of the best in the world, a large portion of the populations we served in Guapinol and Barrio Guadalupe were uninsured. As a result, many could not receive treatments or referrals to specialty doctors. Traveling to a different part of the world with Atlantis would allow me to continue learning firsthand about other healthcare systems and immersing myself in different cultures.

Traveling to Europe is inevitably incredibly expensive. As a first-generation low-income college student, money is the only obstacle between the Atlantis Shadowing Fellowship Program and me. I have already used Yale’s one-time Summer Experience Award to fund rent and other living expenses for this summer as I continue doing research at a neuroscience lab (the Cardin Lab) at the Yale Medical School. As a result, I will not have access to university-funded grants to cover some of the costs of participating in this fellowship. I am currently applying for scholarships to try and cover at least a portion of the trip cost and will update the goal amount to reflect any scholarships I may receive.

The program I will be partaking in will last six weeks, with the first three in Mérida followed by another three weeks in Mantua. For complete transparency, the program cost is $13,298 (the amount paid directly to Atlantis). This amount will cover housing, some meals, and health insurance for the duration of the trip. I have rounded the goal amount to $15,000 to cover the cost of airfare, other travel expenses, food, and any extra expenses. While it might seem premature to start fundraising for a program in 2023, to soften the financial burden of a single lump payment, I am on a monthly payment plan until a month before the trip’s departure to pay off the trip cost. As a result, starting to fundraise sooner rather than later will be especially helpful as I try to save up to cover the monthly payments.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. Any contribution you can make would genuinely mean the world to me. I completely understand if you cannot contribute anything; sharing this with friends and family would also help a ton and would be much appreciated. And if you know of any scholarships that seem to apply to the Atlantis Pre-Med Shadowing Fellowship Program, please send any relevant information along!

If you have any further interest in the Atlantis Fellowship, please watch this video.

With Gratitude,

Courtney Li