Not a day goes by that Lauren Dobay ’13 doesn’t think about the people she provided care for in Uganda as a senior nursing student in the rural town of Kamuli. Forever etched in her mind are images of hallways lined with critically ill patients at the acute inpatient hospital unit where she worked -- a facility that had almost no basic supplies or access to diagnostic testing.

“I knew I was in for a life-changing experience, and two years later I am still amazed at how it continues to impact me as a nurse and as a person,” says Dobay, now a nurse in Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Surgical ICU. “It was one of the most important experiences in my education and has forever changed my perception of public health.”

Dobay, who entered Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Critical Care Nurse Residency Program after graduation, also helped run HIV clinics, child immunization clinics and made public health visits to remote villages around Uganda. “You learn to do the best with what you have," she says, "and you learn how to do it with grace.”

So moved by her experience, Dobay helped organize a microphilanthropy scholarship fund to help future nursing students pay for travel to Uganda as part of the travel course “Uganda: Public Health Nursing.”  Her effort is part of a larger initiative begun in 2012 by the College of Nursing and Health Sciences (CNHS) in conjunction with the UVM Foundation to fund student-driven microphilanthropy projects. Students create proposals and spearhead fundraising efforts via social media and other marketing methods. Direct donations can be made on the UVM Foundation website.

A culture of giving

“Microphilanthropy has been an innovative approach to engage our students in experiential learning and leadership through service, while building a culture of giving among their peers, young alumni and donors,” says Patty Prelcok, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences who meets with students and donates personally and with CNHS dean’s funds to each project. “I have been proud of and impressed with their creativity, thoughtfulness and diligence in developing and implementing their microphilanthropy projects over the last few years.”

For his project, Dylan Bellavance ’12 spent two weeks in Saigon working with 18 patients at the Center for Disabilities. While there, he helped develop a 90-minute live performance that incorporated movements, songs, and dance and presented it to a local audience to increase awareness about living with disabilities in Vietnam. A Saigon television station filmed the event and conducted interviews after the show during a live discussion with audience members facilitated by Bellavance and co-workers.

“It was a very empowering experience,” wrote Bellavance, a rehabilitation and movement major, who witnessed "increased confidence, enthusiasm and happiness" among the program's participants. "This was surely a life-changing experience I will never forget.” See photos from Bellavance's trip.

Some projects take place closer to home. Students from the Organization of Medical Radiation Sciences hosted a presentation on campus for students, faculty and staff on the relationship between smoking and alcohol use and cancer development. Students in Communication Sciences and Disorders raised funds to attend and support the 2013 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association national conference in Chicago, the most important conference in that field, says Shelley Velleman, chair and professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

"Attending the ASHA convention allowed me to speak with researchers whose articles I was reading my classes, network with experts in the field of speech pathology, and speak with (speech and language pathologists) about their experiences," says Claudia Abbiati '13, a graduate student who presented a poster in Chicago with her mentor Barry Guitar, professor of communication sciences and disorders, on the speech-related attitudes of preschoolers who stutter. “This opportunity helped to shape my path as a future speech-language pathologist and researcher."

For seniors Jessica Freemas and Colin Montogomery, both exercise and movement science majors, the promise of gaining cultural competency outside the “bubble” of the U.S. health care system led them to raise funds for a trip to Tanzania to work with the non-profit organization MEDLIFE, volunteering at mobile clinics, providing basic care and health screenings. With the ebola outbreak, however, the trip has been cancelled, so the pair are now fundraising for a trip to Lima, Peru, also organized by MEDLIFE, where they’ll be involved in similar work. Donations for their project can be made on the UVM Foundation’s website.

PUBLISHED

10-28-2014