{"id":13675,"date":"2020-07-06T14:33:58","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T18:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=13675"},"modified":"2020-07-06T15:46:05","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T19:46:05","slug":"one-week-five-reservations-countless-memories-three-geisel-students-share-their-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2020\/one-week-five-reservations-countless-memories-three-geisel-students-share-their-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"One Week, Five Reservations, Countless Memories\u2014Three Geisel Students Share Their Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left to Right: Tianrae Chu \u201921, McKenna Kelly \u201922, Morgan Mackey \u201921, Chris Jourdain: The Wellness Counselor at Red Lake Elementary School, Sarah Moore, MPH '18, Lindsay Holdcroft \u201921, and Kira Gressman \u201921<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each year, while many students spend spring break in a warmer climate, a group of first-year medical students from the Geisel School of Medicine travel to snowy Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Their destination: Five Native American reservations.<\/p>\n

Geisel\u2019s annual Indian Health Service Trip (IHST) takes interested Dartmouth medical and public health students to visit tribal communities on reservations in Minnesota during spring break. Divided into groups, each visits a different reservation. An elective course within the medical school\u2019s curriculum, IHST includes pre-trip preparation along with structured mid-trip and post-trip reflection. (Established in 1955, the Indian Health Service replaced the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the provider of healthcare to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.)<\/p>\n

The goal of this innovative experiential cultural learning program, created by Shawn O\u2019Leary, is to raise awareness of the complex social and healthcare issues facing Native American communities and to provide meaningful community service developed in collaboration with those community leaders.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary, director of Geisel\u2019s Office for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement and academic advisor to the Urban and Rural Health Scholars Programs, is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe in northern Minnesota and has been leading IHS trips for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone benefits from going on the trip,\u201d he says. \u201cThe tribal communities benefit on many levels\u2014they tell their stories and explain historical trauma in ways only they can. Opening their communities to others and openly telling their stories is healing. And through our service to others, the Dartmouth medical community learns so much. We hope to build a healthier, more empowered Native American community through this partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stories about others connect us\u2014they help us make sense of a world rife with complex issues. By listening to Native American stories about the history and challenges shaping tribal communities, medical students begin shaping their own narrative, putting into context both their relationship to those communities, and their place within the field of medicine.<\/p>\n

Geisel students Morgan Mackey \u201921, TlalliAztlan Moya-Smith MED \u201920, and Devin Van Dyke \u201921, share their experience.<\/p>\n


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