Bending the Tree

A tree made into a beautiful sculpture in one of my favorite homes in Guatemala

Many of you have probably heard me invoke the African proverb, “You bend the tree while it is young.” The wisdom behind this simple statement is that just like a sapling is easier to mold into a large beautiful, complex adult tree than to change an older tree with thicker branches, young people are similar.  I think there is a critical period of brain development, particularly in late adolescence and early adulthood that has a profound impact on the trajectory of our lives.  That is exactly why involving undergraduate students or early graduate students in the Guatemala Interfaith Medical Service Program has always been one of the foundational parts of our project.  I think when young people have an immersive experience in medical service, it changes their careers.  Having an experience of providing healthcare in a holistic, comprehensive, team approach from a team committed to working together and coming up with solutions against some large odds, has made this program produce some pretty phenomenal healthcare providers in the 15 years we have taken students to Guatemala.  The first 8 years were Xavier students from Cincinnati, under the remarkable guidance of Rabbi Abie Ingber.   The last 7 have been Regis students from Denver.  I have lost count, but at this point I have had this immersive experience now with close to 200 students who are now doctors, nurses, dentists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, public health scientists, and healthcare administrators.  I have had a front row seat to the launching of some pretty amazing careers.  One is working on health systems in Africa, some are doing research in vaccines and sickle cell disease, one works with incarcerated youth, some are now part of the medical team that run this program every year.  Almost all of the students who become part of this program want to turn around and go right back to Guatemala after we return to the US.   I know that feeling.  Working with others toward a shared goal of comprehensive, compassionate, holistic care, even in a setting of strained and limited resources solidifies the “why” of why we chose healthcare as a career.  

So, 5 years ago when the world was still in lockdown from the pandemic, and we could not take university students out of the country, we took our first group of alumni of the program to Guatemala to help run the clinic for a week in the summer of 2021.  It was such a successful and different trip, we decided we would like to continue the tradition of an alumni trip every 5 years.  So this week 20 of us will depart as our second alumni team.  Four of us are on the core medical team that go every year, myself; Richard Walter, our internist; Eric Bertelsen, our pharmacist; and Stephanie Ibemere, our triage and research nurse.  We have two PTs joining the trip who have not been before - Peggy Newman and Alysa Janke.  And my dear friend, and former chief resident partner, Stephanie Stevens will join me in the peds room.  We have many alumni who are now RNs - Kara Rodeheaver, Jillian Szurcenski, Riley Hodges, and Adelaide Hoeschen. Logan Taylor is an alumna who is finishing PA school.  And 3 alumni are still in undergrad - John Nguyen, Ava DeBell and Chay Keran.  Binh Nguyen is an alumna who has a masters in public health now from Johns Hopkins.  Binh is leading a group who have designed a community needs assessment so we can get a better sense of what holes still need filling for the community in Cobán.  Laurel Petralia, senior director of University Advancement at Regis and JoAnn Muller, long-time, generous supporter of the program are part of that group working on the community needs assessment.  Kathleen Wilke, who has supported our efforts since the early days in Cincinnati, will join us as an interpreter, and Alexxis Munoz, an alumna of the program and recent Regis graduate will be coordinating all the details.

We plan on having three full clinic days.  Richard and I are thrilled that we can see some patients that we just saw on the May trip for some much-needed follow up.  We are both primary care physicians at heart so continuity of care, building relationships over time, and seeing problems through time with patients are what feed us.  We will see many new things on this trip, as we always do.  Every time we are faced with new challenges and that is always part of what drives us as well.  But in addition to launching the community needs assessment, we are also doing a full day of medical education for the community health workers around Cobán.  The clinic staff who run the clinic year-round and even some of the high school students at Ciudad de la Esperanza who are interested in health-related careers ,will be involved.  We have never done something quite like this before, so we are looking forward to this new piece and hope it is beneficial to the community.  As usual, I will encourage all to write for the blog.  So you can follow along on our webpage rubuildingcapacity.com - the blog is under the archives tab.  Come and read along to see how the trees bend.   

Also, Regis just wrote a very nice article about the Guatemala program, which I encourage you all to read.  We never can predict how the choreography of our lives will play out.  But I know that on the September day in 2010, when Rabbi Abie asked me in the parking lot of Kroger’s in Cincinnati to be the medical director for this program, the choreograph of my life changed and I have enjoyed watching so many new dancers come to life.

Lauri Pramuk, MD

click below

https://www.regis.edu/news/2026/regis-life/06/regis-service-in-guatemala