From South Africa to Peru, Cammeo Medici, AS’08, has traveled the globe thanks to her education at Drake University. Her next adventure will take her to Colombia, where she will finish her master’s in public health (MPH) through a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, sponsored by the Waukee Rotary Club.
Medici says her connections and learning experiences at Drake helped her earn the prestigious scholarship. Medici graduated with a degree in international relations and a minor in sociology. She credits David Skidmore, professor of politics and international relations, with helping to further cultivate her interest in foreign affairs.
“Drake played an absolutely invaluable role in the development and growth of my interest in international studies and global issues,” says Medici. “[My classes] at Drake provided me with a breadth and depth of knowledge on so many important international issues and ultimately played a very important role in changing what was an interest in international affairs into a genuine passion for global humanitarian issues.”
While at Drake, Medici was part of the Global Ambassador Program and served on the executive council of the International Student Association. She also earned a valuable internship with the World Food Prize Foundation. During the first half of her senior year, she studied with the School for International Training in Cape Town, South Africa. She says those months in South Africa affirmed her fervor for humanitarian efforts in developing countries.
“Through my study abroad experience I was exposed to the hardships and suffering that so much of the underdeveloped world must endure due to lack of public health services and education,” Medici wrote in her personal statement to the Rotary scholarship committee. “By the end of my research I was as passionate as ever to use my life, skills and career to help give a voice to those whose basic health needs and rights have for so long been denied.”
Medici will channel that zeal in Medellin, Colombia in 2013. As part of her scholarship, she will participate in a service project, which she hopes will address a local public health issue and be in collaboration with local organizations. She will attend the School of Public Health at the Universidad de Antioquia to finish her MPH, which she started at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
The Ambassadorial Scholarships program, which began in 1947, promotes international understanding and friendly relations among people of different parts of the world. While abroad, scholars serve as goodwill ambassadors to the country where they study and give presentations about their own culture to Rotary clubs and other groups.
“My goal is to learn and absorb as much as possible about global and Latin American public health from my coursework, service project, internship and colleagues,” says Medici.