Healing Honduras
T
hirteen senior nursing students are preparing to embark on a medical brigade to Honduras as volunteer nurses. The March trip will provide valuable field experience while aiding a country in need, combining the experiential learning, civic-mindedness, and study-abroad opportunities that have come to define a Castleton education. “Having a nursing license is such a privilege and we have an opportunity every day to make a difference in people’s lives,” said nursing student Kylah Livingston. “I really wanted to take the opportunity and do something more with it.” The students, along with Nursing Professor Margaret Young, will join a group of 46 healthcare professionals with the NYVT Nurses Unite Medical Brigade to provide quality health initiatives to struggling communities. Young says Honduras is in desperate need of more help and the students learn valuable lessons themselves. “They learn about global health
Amy Russell, president of NYVT Nurses has been on the trip three times before. She is leading the group of Castleton nursing students.
and the need for global awareness,” said Young. Upon arriving in Honduras, the group will spend their first day at a local orphanage working with young children. The rest of their trip will be spent at stationed clinics administering essential medicines and triage. Each volunteer nurse will be assigned a variety of medical tasks, from
dressing fractures and taking vital signs, to educating children on basic health and hygiene practices. Over the span of a week the group hopes to provide various healthcare services to more than 1,000 people. “This trip will give us real life experience,” said Livingston, “And the opportunity to make a significant difference in someone else’s life.”
Castleton Director of Budget and Finance, Heidi Whitney ’99, took vacationing to new heights on her recent ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Accompanied by ten other climbers, she spent seven days hiking, scaling and camping along the dormant volcano’s edge. “I have been adventure traveling for the past five years; there is such a big world out there, with a lot of places to see and things to do,” said Whitney. Mount Kilimanjaro stands at over 19,000 feet above sea level, and is Africa’s highest mountain, and was a personal-high climb for Whitney. Castleton Magazine 11