School of Medicine Students Seek Out International Clinical Experience

Posted in News Stories  |  Tagged global health, international elective program, medical education, service to others, student experience

(June 4, 2025) — In the last stretch of classes before commencement, fourth-year medical students Evan Czulada (M’25) and Carlynn Winters (M’25) traveled abroad to gain new insight into the art of practicing before starting their residency programs.

Evan Czulada (M’25)

Czulada always wanted to study abroad while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Gettysburg College, but his commitments as a college athlete on the school’s basketball team prevented him from being able to do so. After enrolling in Georgetown University’s School of Medicine, Czulada began to explore international opportunities.

At the end of his first year, Czulada traveled to Bolivia for five weeks, where he worked with a group of researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University researching Chagas disease. He worked with the team to help build a database of 4,000 people with the disease, which included charting symptoms as well as collecting electrocardiograms and imaging.

“It was really an incredible experience,” said Czulada. “I loved working with this unique patient population made up of both newborn children and adults. It really opened my eyes to the sociocultural context of the condition, as it typically affects patients without adequate living or health care resources.”

His time in Bolivia left Czulada wanting to return to South America, in part to continue practicing his Spanish.

“Working as a medical interpreter in college taught me the value of speaking with someone in their native language, how to let people feel more at ease, especially when navigating a health system they could be unfamiliar with,” said Czulada.

During his fourth year, Czulada learned of the opportunity to study abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as part of the international elective program. For four weeks, he attended lectures and gained hands-on clinical experience through the Universidad del Salvador.

“Every day, we would meet with the attending physicians in charge of us, who would deliver a lecture and then walk us through meeting patients based on what we were learning,” said Czulada. “One of the lectures focused on ventilators, so we visited patients in the cardiovascular care unit using ventilators after the lecture.

“Studying abroad in medical school is eye-opening in seeing how medicine is performed by doctors in another part of the world,” said Czulada.

Czulada, who matched into internal medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, looks forward to visiting and learning about Atlanta, Georgia, when he starts his residency in a few weeks. He hopes to continue to travel and explore interests beyond the clinic.

“Being out of the United States also allows you to experience that cultural shock of being in a new country where you have to adapt, which can add so much to your character,” said Czulada. “Everyone should travel outside of the U.S. if they can, but especially as a future doctor, the experience can provide so much insight into connecting with other people, even strangers.”

Carlynn Winters (M’25)

For years, Winters watched her father, an orthopedic surgeon, travel to Kenya to volunteer at P.C.E.A. Chogoria Hospital. As a medical student, she hoped to join him and was able to do so by visiting during breaks and during her international elective experience in her fourth year.

“I shadowed in the orthopedic clinic, seeing about 20 patients a day with my father and a resident,” said Winters. “During my international elective, I also assisted in the operating room and rounded on surgical inpatients with the team.”

She is working at P.C.E.A. Chogoria Hospital in Chogoria, Kenya, the largest hospital in the region. According to Winters, there are only two full-time general surgeons attending at the hospital and several consulting specialist surgeons, such as Winters’ father, who volunteer their time.

“The male and female surgical patients are in separate wards, each a large room where beds are divided only by curtains,” said Winters. “It was pretty jarring at first, and I’m learning so much from every patient interaction.”

Winters matched into orthopedic surgery in March and will be starting her residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in just a few weeks.

“One case I remember involved a man with a 14-year-old distal tibia malunion,” said Winters. “His leg was severely crooked, and he struggled to walk. Our team performed surgery to realign the bone, and hopefully he’ll be able to walk normally again.”

Winters feels grateful for the opportunity to be part of the provider team at P.C.E.A. Chogoria Hospital. “On the orthopedic service, it’s often just me, my father and the surgical resident, so I’m able to interact with patients directly, ask questions, and contribute in meaningful ways — like ensuring patients have crutches or tracking surgical incisions post-op,” said Winters.

Where Winters works is less resourced than hospitals in the United States, shaping her clinical experience in unexpected ways. “For example, there aren’t fracture tables or certain types of implants we rely on in the U.S. for hip and tibia fractures,” she said. “More procedures are done through open approaches rather than under fluoroscopy. That kind of training teaches you to think creatively and adapt — skills that will be incredibly valuable in the future.”

One of the most rewarding aspects of Winters’ experience at P.C.E.A. Chogoria Hospital is the ability to practice in a mission-based setting. “It’s been a really wonderful experience to incorporate my faith into my practice here,” said Winters. “Physicians regularly pray for patients, and there is a church located at the center of the medical campus. You can hear sermons and music throughout the hospital during the day.”

“Traveling and learning about different cultures is such a mind-opening and humbling experience,” said Winters. “It’s also deeply rewarding to know that you are meeting a particular need in this region. I hope to remember from this experience how much I have, and how much I can truly do without — not just in practicing medicine, but in everyday life as well.”

Heather Wilpone-Welborn
GUMC Communications