For immediate release: November 1, 2002
For more information, contact George Stamatis, 216-368-3635 or gxs18@po.cwru.edu

CLEVELAND—Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine students Xi Fu and Monica Holly DeMasi have been awarded the Frederick C. Robbins and Janet S. and Thomas M. Daniel student travel fellowships.

These fellowships, endowed by gifts of friends of Robbins and by a gift from the. Daniels, are awarded competitively each year to fourth-year medical students after review by a committee of proposals submitted by the students.

DeMasi, who is fluent in Spanish, will use her award to travel to the remote village of Tres Reyes in the Mexican Yucatan. She will work in a clinic that she visited during the summer following her first year of medical school. There she plans to provide health education for women, including infant care and gynecologic disorders as well as other illnesses commonly seen among the clinic's patients.

In addition, she will organize a group of "health promoters" from the community to work with the clinic on a continuing basis.

Fu, who grew up in China and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, will travel to Shanghai to study sexually transmitted diseases among teen-agers.

Like DeMasi, Fu spent the summer after the first year working in the clinic to which she will return. On this return visit, she will conduct studies of high school and college students to evaluate the educational programs being used to make these students aware of sexually transmitted diseases and to help develop a more effective public health program aimed at diminishing their occurrence in these young people.

Each of these awards is in the amount of $1,200 this year.

"My wife and I are delighted to see this award made," said Daniel. "Our own experiences abroad and those of our children have been of great importance in our lives. We hope that these endowed funds can grow through future gifts so that international experiences will be possible for more CWRU medical students in the future."

James Kazura, director of the Center for International Health, added, "CWRU is known for its programs in international health. These student awards will help to ensure that future generations of CWRU medical graduates will have an interest in working in countries where health care needs are poorly served."

Each year, 20 to 25 senior CWRU medical students-about one fifth of the class-take electives overseas, most of them in developing countries. CWRU has two formal exchange programs, one with the Hebrew University School of Medicine in Jerusalem and one with Khon Kaen University School of Medicine in Khon Kaen, Thailand.

Many other international experiences are arranged through overseas contacts by faculty members of the Center for International Health. Some CWRU students draw on their own or family contacts to initiate individual international experiences, as did this year's award winners.

Robbins, a 1954 Nobel laureate for work cultivating the poliovirus, is currently university professor emeritus and medical school dean emeritus. He is a former director of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Cleveland City Hospital (now MetroHealth Medical Center) and former president of the Institute of Medicine.

Daniel is professor emeritus of medicine and international health and former director of the Center for International Health. Both Robbins and Daniel have been active in international medicine during their professional careers.

–CWRU–

 

Legal Information | © 2003 Case Western Reserve University | Contact the Department