Gunn Goes to … Belize!

In December, 10 students in Teresita Magaña’s P’26 Medical Immersion class traveled to Belize, on the eastern coast of Central America, to visit and work in a medical clinic that serves a diverse population. The sophomores, juniors, and seniors who enrolled in the course — one of 30 offered during Winterim 2022 — had opportunities to job shadow in the maternity, pediatric, and internal medicine wards as well as the emergency department. They accompanied health care providers on rounds, listened to the heart and lung sounds of babies, dressed the wounds of amputees, and helped triage patients by taking their blood pressure, temperature, weight, and pulse. One student even attended a live birth while another, who hopes to become an orthopedic surgeon, scrubbed in to observe a cesarean section.

The six-day trip — which included cultural excursions to Mayan ruins and a cacao farm to see chocolate made by hand, as well as a visit to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary & Jaguar Preserve and snorkeling along the Belize Barrier Reef — was organized by Magaña, who is a licensed physician in her native Belize. In addition to teaching Spanish at Gunn, she launched the school’s first Pre-Med course in 2019 and cotaught an Emergency Responder class with Morgen Fisher ’03 during Winterim 2020. This year, Magaña was thrilled to return with her students and Dean of Faculty Jess Lyon to the seaside village in southern Belize, where she was once the only doctor serving about 3,000 people.

Prior to their departure, Magaña teamed up with Caralyn Dea, Director of International Recruitment and Associate Director of Admissions, to teach students about nutrition. Dea, who was formerly a teacher in her native Australia, discussed the role of nutrition in the treatment of chronic disease.

“We were going to an area where chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and cancer are prevalent because of their culture, because of their food,” Magaña said. “They eat a lot of starches and a lot of carbohydrates. I wanted the students to know about the diseases and how they can be treated with nutrition and not just medication. Caralyn talked about healthy nutrition in general, where you can get your vitamins and minerals, and ‘If my patient is hypertensive, what would you recommend, and what would you not recommend?’”

“The main reason for taking them to Belize, especially those who are interested in pursuing careers in the medical field, is for them to be immersed in different cultures,”

Magaña said of her students, stressing, “You need empathy in the medical field, to be able to understand and accept differences so you are able to take proper care of a patient. Everybody has a different story. You treat people with more kindness and with more respect when you understand that difference — different cultures, traditions, beliefs, socioeconomic backgrounds. Not only that, but it makes you more aware of how blessed you are as well, to be living in a country like this, to be going to a school like Gunn. The kids tell me, ‘I know it, but going to Belize and seeing the houses and how the people live, and passing by schools and looking at their basketball court, I became more grateful for what I have.’ Maybe it was a little shocking, driving into this dirt parking lot and seeing, ‘Oh this is the hospital,’ but at the same time looking at how happy the people were.”