A Fourth Year Medical Student’s Global Health Experience In Belize

You can feel the moment a clinician realizes the test they want simply doesn’t exist. That’s where our conversation with Rafik goes, and it’s why his reflections on Belize stay with us long after the trip ends.

We sit down with Rafik, a fourth-year medical student fresh off Match Day, to talk about choosing internal medicine, navigating the residency match process, and then stepping into a very different kind of classroom: an international service learning clinic in Belize. Our ISL model pairs fourth-year medical students with gap year students, so leadership and mentoring happen alongside real patient care. Rafik walks us through a typical clinic day, the patient flow, and the common problems the teams see, especially diabetes, hypertension, and seasonal cold and flu. If you care about global health, underserved communities, or experiential medical education, you’ll recognize how familiar conditions become challenging when time, supplies, and follow-up are limited.

We also dig into what surprised him most: how much overlap exists between protocols in Belize and the United States, and how powerful great teaching can be when attendings make space to debrief and explain their clinical reasoning. Coming home sparks a deeper reflection on medical privilege, technology, and how easily we can lose the art of history taking and physical exam skills when labs and imaging are always within reach. Rafik shares his poem “O The Privilege,” a vivid snapshot of practicing medicine with and without the safety net.

If this made you think differently about training, service, or what kind of clinician you want to become, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review. What’s one “resource” you rely on that you’d miss immediately in a low-resource setting?

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to not only share with you our guest’s introduction to international healthcare, but also to share with you how that exposure to international healthcare has shaped their future path in healthcare. As true patient advocates, we should all aspire to be as well rounded as possible in order to meet the needs of our diverse patient populations. 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with my students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that healthcare focused students need, and greatly benefit from the opportunity to have hands-on experiential healthcare experiences in an international setting! I have seen the growth of students post travel as their self-confidence in their newly acquired skillsets, both clinical and cultural, facilitates their ability to take advantage of opportunities that previously may not have been available to them. By rendering care internationally, and stepping outside one's comfort zone, many more doors of opportunity will be opened.

Feel free to check out our website at www.islonline.org, follow us on Instagram @ islmedical, and reach out to me @ DrH@islonline.org

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Dr. H 0:11

Hey there, I am Dr. Patrick H or Dr. H, as many of my students refer to me. I want to welcome you to another episode of the International Service Learning Experiential Medical Education Podcast. During each episode, I will be interviewing healthcare-focused students and faculty from high school to university that have had an opportunity to participate in an international service learning trip. Additionally, I will be discussing the benefits and challenges to international service with healthcare professionals that have served abroad, as well as industry leaders in healthcare, education, study abroad, spirituality, and those living in the countries being served. I'm real excited today to have uh Rafik with me and just to let you all know, we've met briefly uh in Belize. I believe it was in February, and we haven't chatted since. I reached out to see if he'd be interested in joining us on the podcast. Rafik is a fourth-year medical student who joined the International Service Learning Inaugural, fourth year med student gap year trip to Belize. And according to what I've heard from the students who went on the trip, it was a great success. Very unique model that we've developed where we have fourth-year med students who are kind of sort of learning about understurb populations themselves, yet on the other hand, they're mentoring Gap year students. So excited to hear from Rafik uh about that experience.

Medical School Path And The Match

Dr. H 1:37

But but first, Rafik, if you don't mind, tell us, because I don't have your resume in front of me, tell us where did you do your undergrad? Why did you choose uh the USC School of Medicine? And then follow up with that exciting news uh from what last week, your match. Yes, sir.

Rafik 1:51

First of all, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. I was very excited to be part of ISL and very excited to be part of this interview. Yeah, I did uh my undergrad at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, very small school, but I'm very proud of it. I chose USC because it was close by. I had a lot of friends going to USC, and the main reason why I chose USC is because of the culture. All of the friends that I had that went to USC for medical school, they talked about how collaborative the students were, how incredible the faculty and staff were, both in the clinical and the academic setting. And after being through all of medical school and being on the end uh end of the journey, I would say that they were absolutely right. I loved my time at USC. I'm kind of sad that I'm leaving. But, you know, it's it was a great opportunity. As for my match, I'm matching an internal medicine and I'm going to Asheville, North Carolina.

Dr. H 2:39

Now, tell us about the match process because you know I work with a lot of pre-med students at the undergrad level. They all kind of sort of think they know what they want to be when they start off. I don't know if if you were internal medicine when you started your undergrad or not. How do you come up with that decision process to in your case, internal medicine? I mean, do you go through your different rotations? I like this, I don't like this, or what what is the hook for you to pick internal medicine?

Rafik 3:06

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The match process is a pretty complicated process. To me personally, what you're asking about like what I came into medical thinking. I actually came into medical school thinking I would do surgery. And I kind of started medical school. And as I went through medical school, my priorities in my life kind of shifted. And I realized that there were certain things that I wanted in life that would be more challenging in a surgical specialty. And then as I kind of progressed, I you really kind of start to experience the different types of specialties when you get to your third year, uh is when a lot of people start to figure out what they want. Um, you go through your core rotations and you get to experience all of them. And after experiencing all of them, it was kind of a tie between internal medicine and pediatrics for me. But after kind of learning a little bit more about both specialties, I realized that I enjoyed the pathology of internal medicine more. The main reason why I chose internal medicine is because you have a very, very diverse pathology population. You get people with chronic diseases, acute diseases, acute on-chronic diseases. You have a whole host of different things that you see in the hospital. And internal medicine patients are really are like a puzzle. Every particular specialty has like a like a stereotype associated with it. Internal medicine are the nerds of the hospital. So I fit into that category pretty well. Um I had that before. The nerds really, why why do you say that? We for some reason, internal medicine doctors, we'd love to know all of the details about the pathology, even if it does not affect our plan at all. We could sit and talk about hypinatremia for like two hours in the middle of rounds just because we like to read about these kinds of things. But yeah.

Dr. H 4:47

Well, thank goodness we have people like you. I mean, I'd I'd rather have a nerd doctor that knows what they're talking about than not. So we we do appreciate

Choosing Internal Medicine

Dr. H 4:55

that. Um, Rafik, had you been on a service learning medical mission trip before this one that you went to Belize?

Rafik 5:01

No, actually, this was my first time doing some kind of medical service trip. And particularly, it was not only my first time doing like a medical trip, but an international one at that as well.

Dr. H 5:10

Wow. So what what was the process? What motivated you to go on the trip?

Rafik 5:15

I had always known for a very, very long time, for years before, that I wanted to do some kind of international trip, some kind of medical mission trip. Personally, I believe that service is a big part of who I am as a person, but it's also a big part of medicine. And I originally didn't really have too many big plans for fourth year of medical school. And then actually Gabby's the one who approached me and told me that, like, hey, we're doing this trip. I know that fourth year has a lot of free time. There's a lot of opportunities to do these things. I didn't, I I know that once I start residency, it's going to be a really, really busy time and I might not have a lot of opportunities to kind of do something like this. So when the opportunity presented itself, I just kind of jumped on the opportunity as soon as I saw it.

Dr. H 5:54

Now tell us about how service has been a part of your life prior to this, pro prior to this trip.

Rafik 6:00

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm originally from Egypt and I try to visit as much as possible. My family's back there. And whenever I go back, I try to participate with the like youth camps that we do, little retreats that we do. That's like probably one of my biggest passions back in Egypt. So I always knew that service was going to be a big part of my future and whether it's in or outside of medicine. But obviously, if I find something in medicine and my passion, I always try to take that opportunity.

Dr. H 6:26

Did you have any expectations or preconceived notions about the country that you were going to, in this case, Belize? Did you have any expectations about their healthcare system?

Rafik 6:36

I actually had very, very, very little prep, like I actually knew very, very little about Belize before going onto this trip. I did not know much about the country itself. I kind of, uh off of my very, very brief research before the trip, I kind of imagined that it would be very similar to my home country of Egypt. And when I went, I was actually very, very pleasantly surprised with the healthcare systems that they have there. Uh, it was a lot more robust than I was expecting it to be, which was it was honestly awesome to hear about. The hospital systems that they have there, the specialties that they offer, the work that they do is truly incredible.

Dr. H 7:09

Now, tell us about a typical day that you had on your trip, because it it it was

Why Belize And A Service Mindset

Dr. H 7:15

it was semi-planned for uh rural clinical opportunities and hospital. But tell us, because it was the inaugural trip, what was a typical day like for you?

Rafik 7:24

Yeah, absolutely. So for us, we stayed at this really, really nice hotel. It was, it was, it was great there. We always woke up pretty early, try to get breakfast as soon as we can. Sometimes we'd have breakfast on our bus as we make our way either to the hospital to kind of uh see how the hospital system works there, help wherever we can, do a little bit of shadowing, or to the communities, or to the self where that's where a lot of the work happened. Most of the days we spent we spent in clinic. And we know we would see the patient, talk to them, try to figure out what's going on, come up with an assessment, come up with a plan, and then we would kind of do a handoff to the attending physician that was there to help guide us. And she would agree with our plan, make adjustments, and write up what's going on. We would try to keep notes of everything that's going on for the health records that they have in Belize. And we would see, I would like to say we would see probably maybe like 10, 15 patients per group, like per booth in the first half of the day, and then maybe 10 more patients in the second half of the day. That might be a little bit overestimating, but I'm I can't quite remember. Uh, but it was it was a decent amount. We would have lunch in the middle, and then we'd see patients. And then after that, we would be done, probably around like maybe four or five. And then after that, we would have, you know, dinner plans. Usually it would kind of just be the day winding down and have dinner, then we'd go back to the hotel.

Dr. H 8:41

Rafik, what were the the medical problems that you saw? Were they mostly chronic medical issues? And what were the majority of the medical problems that that you encountered?

Rafik 8:51

So one of the things that I was not expecting a lot actually was the larger majority of problems that we saw were either diabetes. Uh, there's a lot of diabetes in that region and a lot of high blood pressure. One of the things that was very interesting to learn about there is that their standard cutoff for what they consider high blood pressure is a little bit higher than what we have here in the States, uh, which is something that I found very interesting. And given the time that we were going in uh in February, we saw a lot of cold and flu, particularly in the pediatric uh patient population. That was also really interesting because of the different regions that it's in, to us, it was like incredibly hot. It was, it was just sweltering hot. But we had patients that were coming in with hoodies and sweatpants and just like all bundled up. And to them, that was that was cold weather. So it that was a lot of what we saw.

Dr. H 9:41

How did you balance learning yourself as a student, you know, working with an underserved population? But then on the other hand, you were mentoring Gap year students. How did you find that balance?

Rafik 9:53

That's that's a really interesting question. It was it was obviously something that us as medical students aren't entirely used to being in the in the leadership role of teaching, because usually, as the medical students, we're the ones that are being taught by our residents, by our attendings, by our professors, and so on and so forth. But it was it was really interesting because at the end of the day, this was truly the first time that we really kind of get to help share our medical knowledge with the with the gap year students. We get to kind of share what we know regardless of how general or how nuanced the information might be. And at the same time, we had access to the attendings there that would constantly teach us bits and pieces of information, a lot of differences between the states and Belize in terms of medical care, in terms of how they take care of their patients there versus how we take care of our patients here. So a lot of the times it would it would be, we would kind of be kind

Clinic Days And Common Conditions

Rafik 10:45

of the halfway point between the attendings and the gap year students, because we have a lot of information that we can give to the gap years, but we also have a huge gap in our knowledge that the attendings kind of give to us.

Dr. H 10:56

Well, what was the most surprising thing that you encountered and and what was the most challenging thing that you encountered?

Rafik 11:02

Yeah, absolutely. The most surprising thing that I encountered there was actually the like there are, even though I just said that there are some differences between how certain things are treated in the United States versus uh versus in Belize, there's actually surprisingly a lot of overlap, a lot of similar protocols, a lot of similar, a lot of similar ways that basically the patient flow works, how patients are handed off from one field to the other. It's it was there's actually like surprisingly like a lot of similarities in terms of how protocols are placed, which is something that I found really awesome.

Dr. H 11:36

Now you talked about working with the attendings. How did that compare to working with the attendings in medical school? Were they able to help educate you? Were they forthcoming with information and sharing that information with you?

Rafik 11:49

Yeah, it it was really, really nice working with the attendings in in in Belize. Uh, they have a huge, huge passion for education, and that's not only evident with how they would educate the patients, but it was also evident on how they would educate us. They would always be able to carve out time to help teach us about what's going on, to help debrief on a patient, to help us figure out what's going on. And that's something that I really appreciate. And even though that absolutely happens in the United States, obviously when you're in a very large hospital setting in the in the United States, sometimes the schedule can get in the way, the patient load can get in the way, but the attendings of Belize, they always figured out a way how to make it work, which was always really interesting.

Dr. H 12:28

Now, speaking about education, I understand that you had an opportunity to educate Belizean medical students. Is that correct? That is correct, yes.

Rafik 12:38

We had about one or two days where we worked with some Belizean medical students, and it was really interesting kind of seeing how medical school works a little bit differently there. They go straight from high school right into medical school. And then I think, I believe if I'm not correct, I think it's like seven years of medical school straight from high school. And that's actually pretty similar to how it works in a lot of other countries.

Dr. H 13:01

Was there any specific patient or community member who made an impression on you? Yeah, absolutely.

Rafik 13:06

I uh I remember that on the day that we were going through the community, kind of talking to other patients, talking, sorry, to members of the community and helping them with whatever they got going on or telling them about the clinic. We had this one very, very, very sweet and welcoming family. It was it was like a really, really big family and living in their house. And we went and talked to them and spent a little bit of time with the grandparents, with the uh with the parents, with the children, and and we like ended up spending like 30 minutes with them, and they ended up, they have like a tree on their property, and all of a sudden we find their their their kid climbing the tree, and he's like collecting fruit for us, and they just come over and they just give us this big basket of fruit. Um, and I had never I can't even remember the name of the fruit. I think it was some kind of pear. And they give us all this fruit, and we're like, oh, this is this is like this is so sweet of you guys. Thank you so much. And then the the grandmother says, Oh, hold on one second, and she goes back to her kitchen. She comes out with a bag of salt and tells us, like, this is how you traditionally eat this fruit. This is how you traditionally you eat it with salt. And it was, it was just really, really sweet to have this conversation with them, talk to them, and then later seeing them in the clinic and being able to talk to them some more. It was just a really, really nice interaction with them.

Dr. H 14:21

What a neat cultural opportunity to to learn about their culture of eating that fruit with salt that you probably never would have thought, correct? Do you feel in

Mentoring Gap Year Students

Dr. H 14:30

the time that you were there that you made a difference? Because you were working with the patient population, you were working with attendings, and you were working with Gapier students also.

Rafik 14:40

Yeah, that's a really good question. It's I think it's one of one of the difficult parts of working in Belize for the short amount of time that we did, is that even though I'm I'm incredibly happy and proud of the opportunity that I had to be there, it's a lot of the times we have to face the reality that like we're only there for like eight or nine days, and then these patients might or these people might not have like access to another group like this for like another month or so. I hope, I really hope that we made a difference in people's lives, even if it was for a short little while, even if we were able to just educate them a little bit on on proper diet to take care of their diabetes or their hypertension. I hope that we that we were able to kind of help them get on the right track. Because a lot of the times a lot of these people just need someone to tell them, like, hey, this is what you need to be doing, this is what you not need to not be doing, and to kind of meet them halfway. And I'm hoping hoping that's that that's what we did. I I really hope that we worked really well with the with the Gap Year students as well to kind of help get them on the right track of figuring out medical school. I feel like we're we're still in contact with a lot of them, helping them through their journey. So I feel like we would definitely have a little bit more of a longitudinal effect on them.

Dr. H 15:50

And Rafik, just going back to the attendings, do you feel, I mean, how did how did you feel that that worked out with fourth year med student coming in? Did it mesh really well? Did they respect you for who you were? And I'm sure you had the same level of respect for them, of course. But did you feel that you were spoken to in a way that that they respected the education level that you brought to the table?

Rafik 16:15

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Working with the attendings there was incredible because they basically almost treated us kind of like residents, kind of like understanding that we have a pretty good foundation of medicine, but they also understood that there are definitely still gaps that we have. There are a lot of times where they would talk about a particular pathology or talk about a particular treatment, and they automatically knew that we know about this. And even if we didn't, if if I, for example, said, Hey, could you explain this a little bit more? They would, without any judgment at all, they would, they would, they would simply explain it. It was, I never felt like I was, I never felt like I was overestimated or underestimated in my abilities or

Working With Belizean Attendings

Rafik 16:55

or my knowledge. I thought they had like a very, very perfect balance.

Dr. H 16:59

Sounds like you had a wonderful experience, but what was it like when you came back home? Was it was it a challenge coming back to America, so to speak? Even though you said the healthcare system seemed to be a little bit on par. I mean, there's there's huge gaps, I'm sure, but what did what did it make you feel like when you came back to the United States after having worked with this underserved population?

Rafik 17:19

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, I one of the things that I did as soon as I got back to the States was kind of reflect on the entire trip. I ended up writ writing a poem called Uh Owe the Privilege, and it kind of talks about a lot of the differences that we have between the United States and Belize. Like, for example, in the United States, we have access to all of these labs and we have access to all of these imaging modalities, we have access to all of these specialists that are like everywhere, all over the place. And you can, you if you're ever not sure about something, you can always check databases, you can always ask other specialties, you can consult, you can request something to help you confirm what your suspicions are. And and I think like a lot of times we take that, we take that for we take that for granted here in the United States. It was it was definitely kind of kind of eye-opening whenever we would diagnose something in Belize, and I'd ask the attending, like, don't we need this lab to confirm it, or don't we need this imaging modality? And the attending would be like, that would be great, but we simply don't have access to these things over here. So yeah, I think we have a lot of privilege in the medical field here in the United States.

Dr. H 18:26

But what what a wonderful experience for you to be able to present to the attending, hey, should we not validate with this test or that test? And for them to come back to say we'd love to, but we don't have it. So it sounds like they do as best as they can with what they have. Is that correct? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Rafik 18:43

I think one of the one of the pitfalls of having all these labs and imaging modalities and all the all this technology that we have in the United States is that we kind of lose our skills of medicine, which the attending example believes retained very, very well. Their history-taking abilities are absolutely incredible. Their ability to conduct a physical exam thoroughly and accurately, I think, is something that that I personally would love to be able to be better at. They can reach a diagnosis so, so quickly just from how the patient presents. But here in the United States, I feel like a lot of us feel a little bit unsure about making these diagnoses and reaching these decisions without the confirmation from labs, without the confirmation from imaging modalities.

Dr. H 19:27

It is a comfort level that we get, isn't it, because of the technology that we have at our fingertips. Now, did you say earlier, Rafik,

Culture Moments And Measuring Impact

Dr. H 19:35

that you wrote a poem about your experience?

Rafik 19:37

I did, yes, I did.

Dr. H 19:39

Is that something you'd like to share with us?

Rafik 19:42

Absolutely. I can I can definitely share that. This poem is called O the Privilege. A new admission, standard routine. Vitals are already done. Take a history to a physical a full physical. A cough, some congestion, maybe some chest pain. Let me ask some more questions. Smoking, eating habits? Please tell me the story of your boat trip. A new admission, standard routine. Let me take their vitals. What brings them in today? A focused physical. A cough, some congestion, maybe some chest pain. I can't ask more questions, not enough time. I would love to hear your story about your family's farm, but there's too many patients. A cold, the flu, pneumonia, a heart attack. The differential expands is both for my benefit and theirs. What to do, what to do. An EKG, an X-ray, a swab. All the tests I could want. All negative. Write up my report, robust and expansive. A happy patient who can see me again. A cold, the flu, pneumonia, a heart attack, too many considerations, not enough resources, what to do. No fancy gadgets for gizmos, no labs or tests, no reassuring images. It's just me, my stethoscope, and an underwhelming pack of vitamin C and Tylenol. I write up everything on a piece of paper and hand it to the patient, who I will never see again. Owe the privilege.

Dr. H 20:55

Wow. Oh, that's pretty cool. I love that. Having done uh 15 or 20 years of service learning medical mission trips, you really nailed it.

unknown 21:05

Thank you.

Dr. H 21:06

That sums up a lot of experiences that I've had. I mean, to to do as best you can with what you've got, that's that's amazing. Yeah, please send that to me. I'd love to, I'd love to hold it also. Now, if you don't mind, just just for those students who are probably on the fence, either fourth year med students or even gap year students, what would you what would you share with them to help them to make that decision that it that a trip like what you just had would be beneficial to them?

Rafik 21:33

Absolutely, yeah. Medicine is a field that has a lot of questions, has a lot of uncertainties, and it's a field in which you will always be learning. Never assume that you know everything about what's going on, never assume that you have the whole picture, never assume that you know what the patient's experience is. The more that you can experience, the better. And I think that ISL or an international trip in general is something that will give you an experience that you won't find here in the United States. As a medical professional, but the experiences that some of

Coming Home And O The Privilege

Rafik 22:05

your patients will have here, even in different forms. They might look a little bit different, they may have slightly different pathology. But a lot of the patients here in the United States don't have a lot of the resources similar to patients in Belize. And gaining that experience from going to Belize is something that you can you can adapt naturally to a lot of your practice here. Even if that's a long way down the road, if you're a Gap student, not only practically is it a great resume builder for when you're applying to medical school, but it's an experience that can truly give you a newfound appreciation of the medical field in general. And I think that that's worth a lot.

Dr. H 22:44

Yeah, that's fantastic. You know, I've I've talked to so many undergrads that when they went for their med school interview, they said that one thing that made them stand out was the fact that they had been on a service learning medical mission trip. And then you kind of just reinforced whether you do it undergrad or even in gap year, or or in your case as as a fourth year med student, that it's still a valuable experience.

Rafik 23:07

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Dr. H 23:09

Anything else you'd like to share with the listeners today, Rafik, about the trip or or the medicine itself for those that are we we talked a little bit just now about those that are deciding on whether or not to go on a medical mission trip, but what about those that are deciding on a pathway in healthcare? Because I do meet with a lot of students that are trying to figure out do I go down the path to be a doctor? Do I do go down the path to be a PA? Do I go down the path to be a nurse? You know, how do you how do you help them figure that out?

Rafik 23:37

That's a really good question. The medical field, regardless of the pathway, is it is a service industry. At the end of the day, if you're going to be in that field, you have to have a passion for service. Medicine is a calling that you really need to love what you do. You need to have a passion for service because that's what you're gonna do. You're gonna be seeing your patients on probably one of the worst days of their life, and you need to be able to have the compassion and the heart to be able to support them during this time. And that's a difficult thing to do. That's a challenging thing to do, but it is incredibly rewarding. It is incredibly rewarding. It is it is something that we drive a lot of our energy from. We gain a lot of our energy from this, from this need and desire to serve.

Dr. H 24:24

I think I've had someone share with me before about medicine. How cool is it that we get to go to work every day and we make a change in people's lives and they smile and we go home feeling really good about doing that. How many people can say that about their own jobs or their own professions?

Rafik 24:40

Yeah, absolutely. I I 100% agree. Like you, as someone who works in

Advice For Future Healthcare Paths

Rafik 24:45

the medical field, regardless of whether you're going to be a doctor, a PA, a nurse, it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, our goal is still the same. It's to support the patient and to make them feel better and to and to be there for them. And that can be that can be I've I've heard so many stories from so many physicians where they like remember very, very specific stories about certain patients. Some of them are still in contact with those patients. And it's sometimes like, you know, a patient just being being happy that there's someone there to listen to them and to support them through a really, really tough time is is is all they really need. Um, even I have like some some very, very mundane experiences that are incredibly valuable to me because of just the patient interactions that I've had.

Dr. H 25:24

Well, Rafik, I can see in the short time I've known you that your future patients and their families are going to be very privileged to have you as their caregiver. You've got a lot of a lot of compassion, and uh they're gonna be very fortunate to have you in their lives. And I'm very privileged to have met you, and and I really appreciate you taking the time today to share with us your journey and beliefs and and in healthcare. You share a lot of great pearls of wisdoms. I've I've often said that healthcare is servitude, and you've echoed that today. So I I do appreciate that, and and I look forward to following you on your path in internal medicine. And I'll know from here moving on that the internal medicine guys are the hospital nerds. I didn't know that.

Rafik 26:04

Thank you so much, Dr. Hickey, for the opportunity, for you know, here on the interview, and it believes it was it was truly a wonderful experience.

Dr. H 26:12

Well, great. Well, thank you so much. Been a privilege to meet you. You have a wonderful day.

Rafik 26:16

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Dr. Hickey. You as well.

Dr. H 26:18

Thank you. I want to sincerely thank our guest, Rafik, for his willingness to join us on the International Service Learning Experiential Medical Education podcast. But most importantly, I want to thank Rafik for the passion that he has shared with us. Rafik is a great ambassador for Med Students and Service Learning, and I'm hopeful that by sharing details from his service learning trip, he will inspire both medical students and Gap Year students to step outside their comfort zone and to go forward as far as planning a similar opportunity.