Sophomore Rachel Brown used her summer to embrace the unknown. Unsure exactly what path she wants to take with her language and international health degree, Brown chose to immerse herself in both health and culture over the summer, gaining career clarity in more ways than one.

Brown spent the first half of her summer at MedEx Academy, a Prisma Health program designed to bring the world of healthcare to students. Brown and her classmates spent time shadowing various healthcare areas, attending lectures, engaging in medical ethics conversations, completing health-related projects and enjoying team bonding exercises.

“I wanted to have an experience that would allow me to step into a healthcare professional’s shoes to be able to see whether or not this was something I would want to do every day for the rest of my life,” Brown said, reflecting on why she chose the MedEx program.

Though she realized she may not want to pursue medical school, Brown graduated from MedEx Academy with a growing compassion for patients.

One of her favorite activities throughout the program was a simulation the students completed with a representative from the South Carolina Addiction and Treatment Center. Students were given different identity roles (most were assigned the role of someone just released from the center) and had to complete a list of tasks with limited resources and within a certain amount of time.

“To me, it was so eye-opening because a lot of times I think people tend to judge people without knowing their background, which is cliché, but true,” Brown said. “And until you’re in there experiencing it, you can’t see how frustrating it is to need to get one item, but before you can get that item, you have to get all these other things. You feel like you’re running out of time and are tempted to use things as a last resort.”

A visit from a chiropractic school. Brown (second to left) and fellow MedEx Academy students.

As MedEx Academy ended and July began, Brown packed her bags for her next adventure: teaching English in Costa Rica through Maximo Nivel, a Spanish-immersion program based in Latin America.

For her program, Brown was stationed at a local daycare center. She worked with students of varying ages, engaging with them in Spanish and teaching them words and phrases in English as they did daycare activities. Brown and her team facilitated cultural exchange opportunities as well, like teaching and learning cultural dances.

Brown expressed finding comfort in the similarities between the daycare children and her own nephew back in the United States.

“The language doesn’t propose a barrier in the sense that we’re different in our interactions, but just that we’re different in how we express ourselves and how we’re listening to other people,” she explained.

Her summer experiences have motivated Brown to continue exploring career fields as she looks for the one that is right for her. What she does feel confident in, though, is the way she wants to treat the people in her care: with kindness and understanding.

“You don’t need to know somebody a long time to develop a strong relationship with them and develop trust. It’s genuinely the quality that you have and the authenticity that you have with that individual that can really make a profound impact on their life, and therefore their habits and their health status as well. I think that’s something we can implement in any field as long as we’re working and interacting with individuals.”

Brown at the daycare center. Brown (right) and her team at a cultural-exchange event.