Purdue Students Take Mission Trip to La Merced, Peru

By Megan Neely

The seven founding charter members of FIMRC at Purdue University: (left to right) Juniors Dan Wagner,
Rob Painter, Courtney Kelly, Courtney Cotsonas, Mattie White, Megan Carroll, Amir El-Khalili

Purdue University never limits the opportunities given to students, making the initiative
of involvement come from the individual students, themselves. The four years spent
during college are all about what students do with their time while they are here. They
have the freedom to be as involved, or uninvolved as they would like, as each
opportunity, at hand, allows them to create their own experience.
Junior Courtney Kelly takes advantage of every opportunity she has at the university.
There is not a doubt that she makes every initiative possible to be as involved as she can
be. Kelly is studying Health and Disease Biology, with aspirations to go on mission trip
overseas.
With this, Kelly has come in contact with a nonprofit organization, the Foundation for
International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC). FIMRC works with organizations on
college campuses all over the country, providing opportunities for mission trips to places
around the world. Through this organization Kelly has become involved with the
medically-oriented subprogram SIHC, which is the Summer International Health
Fellowship program for premed, first and second year medical students. Because FIMRC
reached out to Kelly, she collaborated with six other students, making her the president of
the organization with all seven members being the founding charter of FIMRC at Purdue
University.

For more information about FIMRC, visit http://www.fimrc.org or

http://www.fimrc.org/sihf
As the members work to develop the organization, their first step of progress is to take a
four-week mission trip to La Merced, Peru this summer. The dates are from May 30June 28th, 2015. Throughout this trip, the students will travel with doctors and nurses
from the United States and assist them in helping sick children. From 7:50am-5pm
everyday they will be giving vaccines, observing surgeries, and participating in hospital
rotations. Not only will this be a beneficial experience for the students and their future
careers, but they will also be saving the lives of sick children.
I wanted to go on a medical mission trip to get hands-on experience in helping others in
a developing country, Kelly explained. We will be getting a realistic perspective on
how we can improve global healthcare.
The students will be staying in Peru for four weeks assisting the doctors, and then
spending the rest of the trip climbing the Machu Picchu Mountains. Along with airfare,
traveling fees, and necessary vaccines to get before they leave, the students, individually,
have to raise $3,200 dollars to go on the trip.
As the students take the initiative to be as involved as they can be, they are making the
best of their time while they are at Purdue. They choose to use this time to develop their
medical experiences, preparing them for their future, as well as attempt to use their skills
in making the world a better place.
To contribute to the fundraising efforts of the students involved, visit
https://www.crowdrise.com/fimrcpurduemissiontriptoperu/fundraiser/robertpainter
For further questions about the trip or desire to be involved with FIMRC, see the
following contact information:
Courtney Kelly (President): kelly106@purdue.edu, 317.417.6227
Mattie White (Vice President): white242@purdue.edu, 317.412.4677
Robert Painter (Finance Chair): rpainter@purdue.edu, 317.409.3539