bensmanrs

I am currently a fourth year medical student at OSUCOM and CEO/COO of the ride this year. I am very excited to graduate in June and begin residency training in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's and University Hospital with a focus on Global Health. Like the rest of my family, I was born and raised in Ohio with modest roots, attending public schools up through Colerain High School. I am midwest proud but I have also intently nurtured a passion for travel and global citizenship since beginning college. I spent a semester studying in France while attending Xavier University and was fortunate to travel often at that time. However, my European voyages left me wanting to explore further corners of the world with more meaningful intention. I wanted to find ways to contribute to improving quality of life where there is pain, hunger, war, and poor health resources. Entering medical school was the initial step in this process and led me to spend a summer in South Africa two years ago. My passion for global health which had been simmering slowly up to that point was suddenly ignited. From my first day in a understaffed, overburdened rural South African hospital, I knew I would not be satisfied in this life without contributing a significant amount of my time and energy toward furthering goals and solutions for resource-poor health care, both globally and locally. I have since also spent time with an OSUCOM group, one of the 2011 beneficiaries, called PODEMOS in Honduras. Most recently, I returned to Africa this winter, specifically Malawi, and spent a month working in a rural mission hospital where the disparities and limitations of health care once again challenged me to commit more energy to improving health around the world.

I plan to continue to nurture my passion whenever possible while I complete my medical training and in my future career. R4WH is an amazing opportunity to share my passion for community health across the country while substantially directly supporting the work that non-profit organizations are doing to impact quality of life and health care worldwide. I am brimming with excitement for the ride and for the contributions that we will make to our very deserving beneficiary charities this year. I am grateful for having had an amazing family and many wonderful friends throughout my life and I hope that you join me now in supporting our efforts!