The school’s chapter of the Medicine, Education and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere (MEDLIFE) organization announced their trip to Lima, Peru that will take place from July 11-19 this upcoming summer.
According to the MEDLIFE Movement website, MEDLIFE is a program that focuses on working with low-income communities to provide education, healthcare and a safe home to residents.
Club member Charlotte Conrad ’28 said she agrees with the program’s goals and is looking forward to how it can help shape her future.
“Medical care and education, they are human rights,” Conrad said. “I want to be a doctor, so teaching and providing medicine will hopefully be a really large part of my life.”
Conrad said she already signed up for the trip and she is excited to explore the world outside of her community.
“[The trip] will be a great way to immerse yourself in a different culture,” Conrad said. “It’s a very good experience because it teaches you a lot about a community that’s outside of your own, which is very important to understanding the world that we live in.”
The MEDLIFE program also offers a potential scholarship for students interested in the trip. The organization’s chapter’s Service Learning Trip Director Sydney Zhang ’28 said the scholarship program that the school offers for the trip is something that prospective students should look into.
“You answer a few questions, and it could take $1,000 off of your trip,” Zhang said. “It’s a lot easier to apply for because it’s the club’s first year going to Peru.”
Zhang said one part of the overall program that she truly enjoys is being able to see her interest and joy in helping a community paralleled in others.
“It’s really interesting seeing how passionate other people are, even if it’s not what they want to do in the future,” Zhang said. “All of us are students, all of us on the team and we all work together to create this environment where we encourage you to learn about what you can do for others at Harvard Westlake.”
Zhang said she thinks the most valuable part of the MEDLIFE experience is the program’s unique ability to connect students to a wider range of people and broaden their social spheres.
“Here at Harvard-Westlake, I feel like we can sometimes be isolated from the world around us,” Zhang said. “Being able to interact with people in other communities is a great opportunity. That’s really what the trip and the program offer.”
