Four Indiana University School of Medicine students will spend their summer not just studying global health, but working in Kenya, engaging with community members and conducting research through one of IU’s longest-standing international partnerships.
Samuel Robinson, Elizabeth Sheddy, Kennedy Trapp and Keller Vincent will travel to Eldoret, Kenya, as Slemenda Scholars with the AMPATH Kenya partnership. The Slemenda program pairs students with faculty mentors and community-based research projects, emphasizing long-term collaboration and locally driven solutions to health challenges.
“The Slemenda Scholars opportunity is unique to Indiana University School of Medicine and gives first-year students an immersive global health experience early in their career,” said Debra Litzelman, MA, MD, MACP, director of education for the IU Center for Global Health. “Many of these students have chosen to attend IU because of opportunities like these and we see them as the future leaders of our global health partnerships,” she continued. The students' summer experiences are supported by donations to the Einterz Global Health Education Fund. The IU School of Medicine-Bloomington is also supporting some program expenses.
AMPATH, the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare, is a partnership between academic health centers around the world to deliver health care, train the next generation of health care providers and conduct research to improve lives. IU School of Medicine physicians began the partnership with Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) and Moi University School of Medicine in 1988. IU leads the AMPATH consortium of 17 leading universities and has had full-time faculty in Kenya for nearly 35 years. AMPATH now also includes partnerships in Ghana, Mexico and Nepal.
While each student scholar brings a distinct background and set of interests, they are connected by a shared belief that meaningful healthcare begins with listening and that lasting impact depends on the type of long-term partnership model that is embodied in AMPATH.
Robinson, an IU Indianapolis medical student and Purdue graduate who studied Spanish, brings a perspective rooted in language, policy and systems-level change. Interested in global surgery and trauma care, he sees community engagement as central to sustainable reform.
“For me community engagement means involving community members in the decision-making processes that shape the areas in which they live and work,” Robinson said.
His experiences as a Spanish interpreter in clinics, emergency departments and community settings have shown him how communication shapes care. “Speaking someone else’s language isn’t just a practical tool for communicating,” he said. “It tears down cultural differences and barriers to communication by establishing a common ground. It allows a speaker to express themselves authentically, and the listener to understand both what is said and what is meant.” In preparation for the Slemenda opportunity, he has been studying Swahili for the past several months.
Robinson emphasized that his interest in global health extends beyond short-term service. “I don’t view global health experiences as a standalone opportunity for service, but instead as a foundational component of my lifelong commitment towards improving global health infrastructure,” he said.
The Slemenda Scholars program began in 1998 and honors late IU faculty member Charles Slemenda, DrPH, who had a passion for international medical education. Dr. Slemenda spent three years in Lesotho working as a public health worker after completing his MPH in health services administration. The award in his name helps pay for travel, room and board and a small stipend for the students to participate in the partnership.
Sheddy, an IU Indianapolis student from Fishers, Indiana, has been shaped by both local and global experiences. A Notre Dame graduate who studied biology and Spanish, Sheddy worked at Matthew 25, a free clinic in Fort Wayne, where she assisted with patient care and conducted research on barriers facing underserved populations.
“Community engagement, to me, is a commitment to building genuine relationships with the people and places around me,” Sheddy said. “It goes beyond volunteering or outreach and is not a one-time act, but rather a long-term immersion within a community.”
That philosophy continues to guide her approach to medicine and research. “I believe research exists not in isolation, but as a powerful tool to strengthen evidence-based practice, improve our health systems, and ultimately deliver more equitable and effective care,” she said.
Sheddy said she is particularly drawn to the Slemenda Scholars program because of AMPATH's emphasis on sustained partnerships. “Global health research is important to me because it expands perspective, encourages worldwide collaboration, and drives medical innovation with the shared goal of improving healthcare for all people,” she said.
A similar emphasis on partnership shapes Trapp’s goals. A student on the Bloomington campus from Greenfield, Indiana, and Purdue graduate in biomedical health sciences, Trapp is considering pursuing emergency medicine with a focus on global health. Her understanding of community engagement was formed through her work co-founding Level Up, a mentoring nonprofit in Lafayette, Indiana.
“Community engagement is not just a one-time service, but rather a continuous process of creating long-term relationships with communities, listening to their needs, and working together to create a meaningful and lasting change,” Trapp said.
She recalls working with a young mentee who initially struggled to trust others and considered responding to bullying with violence. Through consistent conversations and support, Trapp helped her find a different path—an experience that reinforced her belief in the power of relationship-based care.
That same commitment drives Trapp’s interest in global health. “Access to healthcare should not depend on where someone is from or what language they speak, but too often it does,” she said. “Ultimately, I aim to be a physician who combines emergency medicine with global research, education, and advocacy to reduce global and domestic healthcare disparities.”
For Vincent, a Bloomington student and Evansville native who studied biology at IU, the path to global health began in an unexpected place: a paleoanthropology field site in Tanzania. While the research focused on early human ancestors, an opportunity to tour a nearby rural hospital left a lasting impression.
“Everything I learned on that tour deeply resonated with me—the importance of the facility to surrounding rural communities, its role in cultivating the next generations of healthcare professionals, the kindness of the workers in sharing their knowledge with me,” Vincent said.
That experience helped shape his vision for a career centered on improving access to care. Back in Indiana, Vincent has translated that commitment into action through leadership with the Gender Diverse and Queer Clinic, a student-run free clinic in Bloomington.
“Community engagement can be achieved and present itself in a multitude of ways,” he said, pointing to efforts ranging from fundraising and partnerships to direct patient care. “More individuals supporting one another means higher potential for health, happiness, and recovery from strife for anyone in the community.”
Vincent said the Slemenda Scholars program represents an opportunity to expand that work on a global scale. “When I look through the window that Dr. (Jim) Lemons and Dr. (Megan) McHenry gave me into their world, I see the future I want for myself,” he said. “I see fulfillment, joy, and priceless impact on the communities I serve.”
As the four scholars prepare for their summer in Kenya, their individual paths converge around a shared understanding: that improving health, in Indiana or abroad, requires humility, collaboration and a willingness to learn from the communities they serve.
In Eldoret, they will join a partnership built on those same principles.
