INDIANAPOLIS — Two Indiana University School of Medicine first-year students will gain hands-on experience this summer at Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya, as the 2015 Slemenda Scholars.
Jade Davis of Muncie, Ind., a first-year medical student at IU School of Medicine-South Bend, and Lashmi Nemani of West Lafayette, Ind., a first-year medical student at the IU School of Medicine-Lafayette, will spend two months learning about health care through work with AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare).
Slemenda Scholars attend classes, make rounds in the hospital, work with ongoing field projects conducted by AMPATH faculty in Kenya, and live with Kenyan medical students during their time in Eldoret. They also serve as IU School of Medicine ambassadors to the partnership, including blogging on the AMPATH website. The scholarship provides support for travel, room and board.
AMPATH is a partnership between Moi University, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and a consortium of 11 North American academic health centers led by IU. Over the past two decades, AMPATH has grown into one of the most comprehensive programs in sub-Saharan Africa to combat HIV/AIDS. The program continues to build on this success through providing primary care, chronic disease management and many other programs that support the overall health of the Kenyan people.
The award is named after the late IU School of Medicine epidemiologist Charles Slemenda, DrPH.