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About

Also big shout out to

Ryan Selvaggio

This year the fellowship has 2 fellows which are myself and one of my dearest friends Ryan! (We were brother and sister on a retreat once back in 2011 and those bonds run real deep) Check out the amazing things he is doing this year too!

 

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/travelfellowship/selvaggio.php

 

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/travelfellowship/current.php

The Michael B. Keegan Fellowship enhances the development of future leaders through world travel and experiential learning. The program is designed to allow a graduating senior the opportunity to pursue an idea or an issue, about which the student is impassioned, and to do so in the context of daily life in a global scenario.*

Dignified Life and Death:

A Global Approach to End of Life Decisions and Care

Start Date: Monday June 15, 2015

My guiding questions for this fellowship are as follows: how do various cultures around the globe view death as well as a person’s dignity at the end of life and what are the features that make them similar and different?

 

Overarching goals:

 

  • Investigate how different cultures view and define death from the perspective of patients, families and healthcare professionals and further how age, healthcare setting and faith values effect this perception.

  •  Evaluate the unique aspects of each culture as well as those which are similar to others and look for underlying shared values.

  • Serve each community in which I am engaged in the clinical setting as a volunteer in order to immerse myself further in the culture as well as give back to these communities.

 

The purpose of the Keegan Fellowship for me is to recognize the universality of death across cultures and the dignity of the person at the end of his life, though expressed and viewed in many different forms.  This topic is of great interest to me personally because it is one that affects the care of a person in the most vulnerable stage in life, approaching death, which I believe to be of infinite worth and therefore deserving of respect, love and compassion. It is my hope that this project will allow me to cultivate a deeper understanding of how to serve and care for my fellow man at the end of life.

 

To see the press release: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/travelfellowship/walker.php

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