Experiencing Portugal as an Atlantis Project Fellow

By: Erika Dietrick, Undergraduate Director of Marketing and Communications

Learning about health care systems and practices, shadowing physicians, and getting acquainted with medical terminology are all activities pre-medical students have accepted as necessary preparation for medical school. Dedicating the time and intellect to these preparations is difficult enough in English — let alone in another language. However, opening her eyes to health care based in dissimilar cultures is exactly what sophomore EC Scholar Tulsi Patel set out to do when she applied to participate in the Atlantis Project.

Tulsi applied to travel to São Miguel Island of the Azores Islands in Portugal for the AP Medical Leadership Scholars Program.

After a string of competitive interviews, Tulsi was not only selected to be a 2016 Atlantis Project Fellow…she was also one of the first recipients to ever receive a $2,200 scholarship covering the full cost of the program. The merit scholarship is awarded on the basis of potential for excellence in the medical field, as evidenced by strong distinction in scholarship, leadership, and public service.

Tulsi is on São Miguel Island with 3 other Fellows (from New York, New Jersey, and Tennessee), a site coordinator, and a tour guide. They spend 4-5 days a week shadowing doctors in Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo.

In their spare time, the Fellows embark on a number of adventures, such as jumping off waterfalls, swimming in hot springs, playing soccer, and touring the city (to name a few).

Her cultural immersion–making friends with the locals and living in the city–has helped her understand the influence of culture on health care systems like that which exists on São Miguel Island. And really, when you get to look at views such as these every day, how could you not be inspired to learn about the people, place and culture?

At the end of her experience, Tulsi will study abroad in Spain for the Spring 2016 semester!