Medical Mission Madrid: Sponsor Camryn to Spain

Hi everyone! I have never done this before in this fashion, but I wanted to take a moment to share some exciting news with you. I am overjoyed to share that I have been accepted into the Madrid, Spain, Atlantis program. Atlantis is a pre-med abroad program that connects pre-health students with doctors in hospitals across the world. It is designed to help students like me understand their place in the medical field and get first-hand experience shadowing physicians. As you may know, getting serious shadowing experience in the States is both extremely competitive and rigorously regulated. Yet, pre-med students are all but required to have shadowing experiences, along with unique extracurricular pursuits, to get accepted into medical school. On a separate note, one of my biggest driving forces for going to Tulane University was to participate in their renowned study abroad program and unfortunately, COVID-19 took that opportunity away from me. As a public health minor, I am determined to make a difference as a physician one day by leading the narrowing of the racial, education, and social disparity gaps. To truly understand and be able to empathize with a variety of perspectives, it is essential to immerse myself in new experiences with individuals unlike me. An Atlantis program satisfies all of these needs.

After looking into the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that Atlantis offers, I applied the next day, interviewed the following week, and was thankfully accepted soon afterward. Through this program, I will get the opportunity to: shadow international physicians, rotate weekly through various specialties, shadow for 20 hours per week, go on group excursions to experience my host country’s culture, connect with other pre-med students around the world, grow personally through this international experience, and volunteer to help tutor English to hospital staff. I will be traveling to Madrid, Spain for three weeks in summer 2023, and I am so excited to see healthcare from this new cultural perspective! Considering my passion for public health, this is a dream come true.

I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read this and learning about my summer plans. This is a costly trip- the total cost for the program is $8,000. My parents offered to pay for half of the trip and I am left with the rest. As many of you may know, most of my time in the past 4 years has been service based with a lack of pay: volunteering at the University Medical Center (UMC) in the Emergency Department and Infectious Disease Clinic, establishing the Music Therapy program at UMC where I sing and play the guitar for patients, and volunteering at the Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals in Brooklyn- aside from the countless hours of shadowing and research I have done at Tulane Hospital, Long Island Spine, McClain Laboratories, Sun River Health, etc.

Since Atlantis is the next best step for me on my path to medical school, I made the decision to pursue a full-time job as a medical scribe at the Louisiana Pain Specialists after graduation, in addition to setting up this GoFundMe page to raise the needed funds. Having said that, this is where I need your help — if you are willing and able to partner with me in my medical pursuits, I would greatly appreciate a monetary contribution of any amount. No gift is too small, so whether you give $10, $25, $50, $100, or $500, I would appreciate any support through this GoFundMe page. Thank you for your time and consideration and I can’t wait to make my dream come true!

https://joinatlantis.com/programs/madrid/