MASSARO: Student helps doctors in India

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 21, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Fordham University

After a summer in India, Jacob Pellinen will next teach science in Burkina Faso, Africa, with the Peace Corps.

Between school, work and volunteering, Jacob Pellinen doesn't have much time for sleep.

"I wake up at like 7 a.m. Last night didn't go to sleep until 11:30," he said. "I'm basically doing something all the time."

So when he went to India on a work-study program this past summer, he was able to sleep a little bit more.

But don't think he was loafing. He was helping doctors treat patients at clinics and in villages.

"It was hard as far as time. It was easy because it went by fast," he said. "There was a high volume of people with a variety of issues."

As soon as doctors treated one patient, another was ready for an exam.

"It was emotionally and physically draining," said Pellinen, a senior biology major at New York's Fordham University.

Pellinen is one of two Fordham University students to receive the annual Tobin Award, given to those "who show the most creativity and adventure in choosing a self-made summer abroad program between their junior and senior years," according to a Fordham release. The award is named in honor of Mark Tobin, a Fordham student killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Pellinen, 21, grew up in Highlands Ranch. He graduated from Littleton's Heritage High School.

In summer, he worked in Dehradun, Mussoorie and Than Gaon, India, with Child Family Health International. He lived with local families when he wasn't working alongside doctors.

"Basically, I shadowed doctors," he said.

Doctors told Pellinen and other students what to look for in patients. So students were able to do some preliminary exams.

"We were able to help take vital signs," Pellinen said. "We'd check for infections."

When they found something, they alerted doctors, who treated the people. Doctors told Pellinen what medicines they would prescribe when they were available. When standard medical supplies were scarce, doctors used local cures - herbs and tree bark mixed into poultices, for example.

"There were a lot of ear infections," Pellinen said. "We'd use a scope to look in the ear. It wasn't too hard to tell. Sometimes it was red. Sometimes, there was a fungus growing in there."

He's going to put book learning on hold after he graduates.

"I've joined the Peace Corps for 27 months," he said.

He'll be teaching science in French to secondary school students in Burkina Faso, Africa.

The summer experience reinforced for Pellinen what he wants to do with his life. After the Peace Corps, he plans to enroll in medical school.

"I find that when I spend my days helping people like this, when I'm caring for people that it's hard work, but very fulfilling for me," he said. "I sleep well at night when I do that."

• November 21, 2008

  2:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  nmonroey writes:

  This one time someone put my rye in the freezer and I thought it was Jacob Pellinen but then it wasn't.

• November 21, 2008

  2:43 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  nmonroey writes:

  This one time someone put my rye in the freezer even though I didn't want my rye to be in the freezer and I thought it was Jacob Pellinen but then it turned out it wasn't Jacob Pellinen.

• November 21, 2008

  4:10 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Jacob writes:

  The frozen rye may forever be a mystery.

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