Summertime

This summer has been called the last free summer of my adult life by many. It is the summer between my first and second year of medical school and technically, I have no real obligations to complete anything significant (like standardized tests or class requirements). So, in the spirit of doing things that are fun and maybe un-academic, I have constructed a small list of activity options to do this summer. Here is what I have so far:

1. Internship at the W.H.O. This basically entails spending at least six weeks in Geneva, Switzerland working for a governmental organization and putting together studies related from anything to malaria, AIDS, or the health effects of global warming (Awesome!)
2. Shadowing a doctor in a rural part of the world, most likely India. USC may put together a class trip to India for six weeks, which will involve shadowing physicians, seeing third-world hospitals, and maybe traveling around India afterward.
3. Internship at UNICEF. This can happen anywhere in the world, basically any city that has a UNICEF office, although the headquarters for the organization are located in New York.
4. Research in Los Angeles. Self-explanatory.
5. Random traveling around some part of the globe.
6. Shadowing Dr. Sanchez to Africa. Dr. Sanchez is an infectious disease specialist here at County Hospital who takes annual trips to either Thailand or Africa to do research on malaria/AIDS. He also runs an AIDS clinic here in Los Angeles. Basically, he's awesome. It would be really cool to work under him and get some really dirt on my knees by doing research abroad.

As you can tell, most of my plans involve leaving the country for the summer. Hopefully, I can pull this off without a hitch (and get some school funding for this too!) More updates to follow with additional ideas and/or a final decision for the Summer 2008 Experience of a life-time!