Cornell College students transform lives in Tanzania
Two Cornell College students can add “helping people walk again” to their resumes after getting selected as volunteers for an Operation Walk mission in Arusha, Tanzania.
“It was incredible to be part of a group that is restoring someone’s ability to walk and thrive,” said Elinor Ascher-Handlin, a junior from Minnesota. “Every person was happy and smiling after their joint replacement surgeries. It was the best feeling in the world.”
Ascher-Handlin and Samantha See, a junior from Iowa, were chosen through an interview process with Cornell’s Dimensions Program for Health Professions.
For more than a decade, Cornell students have received this special opportunity to go on an annual, all-expenses paid, trip with Operation Walk, thanks to Dr. Larry Dorr ’63. Door was a Cornell alum, member of the Board of Trustees, and donor who partnered with Cornell, notably Professor Emeritus of Biology Barbara Christie-Pope, to create Dimensions, the pre-health program.
He also founded Operation Walk, which is an all-volunteer medical organization that partners with hospitals in several countries, including in the U.S., to provide hip and knee surgeries free of charge to those who do not have access to the medical help they need.
“Dr. Dorr was spoken about so much by the OpWalk team, and you could tell he had a big impact on many of their lives through the mentorship and leadership he shared with the team before his passing,” See said. “I feel very grateful that Dr. Dorr thought back to his undergraduate experience at Cornell in order to give students this opportunity.”
Associate Director of Dimensions Mark Kendall serves on a committee that selects the students for each trip through a rigorous application process. He also works to get them prepared by assigning readings to understand the surgeries they’ll witness. Ascher-Handlin and See scrubbed in for a few of the 43 surgeries performed during the mission, helped with the patients’ post-operative recovery, organized and arranged supplies for the medical team, and much more.
“Many of the people they saw had been dealing with medical issues for years or even decades because they haven’t been able to get that care they need–whether that’s because of access or affordability,” Kendall said. “Some surgeries are relatively straightforward, and some are more involved. It’s a life-changing surgery for the patients that they work with.”
Both students confirmed that this trip helped cement their desire to enter the medical profession. Ascher-Handlin, a chemistry major, is planning a future as a prosthesis orthotist, someone who researches and builds orthotics and prosthetics for people. See, a kinesiology major, is planning to become a nurse practitioner.
These future medical providers couldn’t get enough of the patients they worked with in Tanzania.
“There was this young woman who was 24. She was the youngest patient we had. She had been hit by a bus as a child and was in constant pain and couldn’t walk,” Ascher-Handlin said. “She came in a wheelchair. Her big thing was she wanted to be able to dance and run. After the surgery, she was up and walking.”
And their experiences outside of the operating room also brought them joy.
“One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting Dr. Steve Meyer’s orphanage and interacting with the children there,” See said. “All of the children were so kind. They even shared soccer cleats with each other so everyone could have at least one shoe to kick the ball. It was incredible to see the joy, and it was honestly inspiring. I think we all, I included, should strive to find joy in what we are given, and in those around us.”
And that’s what Kendall says it’s all about.
“They come back changed; it’s usually in ways they don’t fully anticipate, and that’s what Larry wanted,” Kendall said. “These are exactly the kinds of experiences students need to be empathetic, caring, well-rounded, worldly clinicians and broader citizens.”
