Samantha Bownes with CBU4VC members Lauryn Murphy (’13) and Prashant Patel (’12) after a recent collection from the book drive.
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program before she ever enrolled at CBU. She attended a MHIRT orientation session with her older brother, Anthony Bownes (’10), when she was still in high school, and said to herself, “I want to do that when I go to college.” The Minority Health International Research Training grants are designed to offer international biomedical and behavioral research programs to qualified students. The intent is to increase awareness of international research issues and opportunities, acquaint students with a range of career opportunities in biomedical and behavioral research, and encourage participants to pursue post-baccalaureate degrees and careers in biomedical and behavioral research, especially related to minority health and disparate populations. The grant, through the National Institutes of Health, provides all-expense-paid international research trips for students and staff involved. Once at CBU—but before her trip to Heifer Global Village—Bownes planned to pursue veterinary medicine as a career and majored in biomedical science. She applied for a MHIRT position as a sophomore, even though she knew the program usually only accepted juniors and seniors. She was accepted as an alternate, meaning that she was
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accepted for training but might not be sent to one of the international field studies. “We rarely send sophomores abroad, and 2010 was one of our most competitive years in terms of applications,” says Julia Hanebrink (’01), the program’s coordinator. “But we saw tremendous potential in Sammie; she even said MHIRT was one of the reasons she applied to CBU. She had expressed a lifelong love of animals and her intention to attend veterinary school after graduation, so we thought she would be a great fit for our carnivore conservation site in Brazil. We ended up not sending any alternates last year, which was a blessing in disguise for Sammie. It gave her time to grow and explore other interests.” Bownes came home to Memphis and CBU after that cold, wet, miserable night in the Global Village. She didn’t get to go to Brazil. But she couldn’t put the experience behind her. “It didn’t really hit until we got home, just how bad that really was,” she says. “I mean, we’re wearing North Faces and have sleeping bags. We ate in a group, even if it was just tiny portions of rice and carrots, and shared the work. We were able to do it together as a group and try to make it funny. We knew it was temporary, and we were going home. How bad would it be if you were living in that PHOTO BY CORY DUGAN