Practicing Abroad
Our mission is to improve access to quality healthcare in underserved communities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. While our work transforms the lives of patients and communities we serve, it also profoundly impacts the healthcare professionals, students, and volunteers who join us in the field.
1
4
Why volunteer?
Learning Beyond the Classroom/Clinic
By working alongside local healthcare teams, volunteers gain firsthand insight into the social, economic, and structural factors that influence health outcomes. They witness the realities of health inequities, resource constraints, and barriers to care, and learn how communities adapt, innovate, and persevere despite these challenges.
Bringing the Impact Home
The lessons learned abroad do not stay abroad. Volunteers return to their communities with a renewed commitment to equity, service, and compassionate care. They become stronger advocates for underserved populations, more culturally responsive clinicians, and more effective leaders within their hospitals, clinics, schools, and communities.
2
5
Developing Compassionate Care
Working across languages, cultures, and healthcare systems teaches volunteers to communicate more effectively, practice cultural humility, and build trust with patients from diverse backgrounds. They learn to focus not only on a diagnosis, but on the person behind it – their family, circumstances, challenges, and strengths.
A Two-Way Exchange of Learning and Impact
We believe meaningful global health work is built on partnership and mutual learning. Our volunteers contribute their skills and expertise to support community-led healthcare initiatives, while gaining invaluable lessons from the patients, providers, and the community. Together, we are building healthier communities abroad and cultivating healthcare professionals who are better prepared to care for diverse communities at home.
3
Building Future Healthcare Leaders
Volunteering with CE provides exposure to real-world healthcare challenges that cannot be replicated in a classroom. Participants develop clinical reasoning, adaptability, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving skills while working alongside experienced healthcare professionals and community partners.
Joining us abroad?
Please download these essential documents before you go.
Global Health Reading List
NEJM Global Health Series
World Health Organization Fact Sheets
Articles & Reports
Books
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Surgery-specific Reading
Payment
Pay for you, a friend or a loved one's trip to work in medicine in the Dominican Republic or Haiti. These payments go directly towards our health initiatives in the communities we serve.
Note, if you are paying on behalf of someone else, please make sure to identify the recipient in your payment.