Oxford summer program

Pragnesh Kalyandrug Start Date: Mar 15, 2020 - End Date: May 23, 2020
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad
  • Oxford, United Kingdom

My Travel Story

by: Pragnesh Kalyandrug Start Date: Mar 15, 2020 - End Date: May 23, 2020
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad
It was my first quarter freshman year at UCSC.The weekend before my classes started, my mother had mentioned that my grandfather had passed away. I couldn’t go to India to see my grandfather as classes were starting soon and I wouldn’t be able to see him as his body was going to be cremated. Earlier that year,I had witnessed the deaths of two of my friends’ fathers and some of our closest acquaintances in India. This was the lowest point in my life, however, I had worked to put time and effort into my classes. Since the time my grandfather had passed away, three more family members had passed for various health conditions and one of them was in a devastating accident. This had put me in a really stressful situation in college as I couldn’t go see them before they were cremated and my parents couldn’t go to India as they were required to stay due to visa problems. Despite my unfavorable situations, I had convinced myself that diverting my mind towards academics will hopefully help me with my situation. I remember to this day my grandfather mentioning that education was an important aspect of life as it will help steer me in the right direction. Although I had various emotions and stress running through my mind, I have not had the opportunity to help some of the closest people in my life before they had passed away. However, I have understood that entering the medical field will provide me with the opportunity to care and support people on a daily basis that I have missed. With this in my mind, I had worked hard during finals week and gotten my name on the Dean's Honor list for getting a 4.0 which gave me motivation to pursue medicine. I am a person that likes to explore cultures around the World and would love to get immersed and thoroughly enjoy it. However, with the experience that I had during my freshman year ,as mentioned before, I also wanted to help people who are placed in medical situations where complete recovery is not an option. I saw that the only possibility of satisfying both of my interests is through volunteer abroad program and the flexmed program would give me the opportunity to take a gap year and pursue such interests. As of right now, I am currently interested in the Peace Corps program and trying to volunteer in certain remote areas throughout the World. By being part of such programs, I would get an opportunity to meet individuals who do not only seek medical attention but attention in general. I want to give them physical and emotional support that I wasn’t able to provide my family members and acquaintances that I have lost in the past year. I would most definitely agree there being communication issues in certain areas, however, I believe that support can be provided with basic facial and hand gestures. I feel like it gives me an opportunity to deeply understand their needs and find a way to communicate with them to develop a strong bond and this would really help such individuals. I believe in the idea that healing on an emotional level is necessary for providing a patient with maximum care and to reduce the recovery time. The Flexmed program would give me an opportunity to help such individuals and support them to a point where they become less worried about their worsening medical conditions. In the future, I would like to become part of the Doctors Without Borders and helping such patients. However, my opportunity that I have gotten to study in Oxford is considered to be really a stepping stone in my life to reach my goal of saving lives around the world.
  • Oxford, United Kingdom

Adventure Registry

  • backpack

    40

  • sanitizer

    20

  • books

    100