The trip of a lifetime: Local students partake in service learning trip to Costa Rica

A pair of local students recently embarked on the trip of a lifetime, taking in a gorgeous tropical scene while providing invaluable help to the less fortunate.

New Rockford-Sheyenne's Mya Cudworth and Harvey-Wells County's Carsyn Ziegler graduated high school back in 2022, and are now roommates at the University of North Dakota.

They're both planning to enter the medical field, and together they teamed up with MedLife Movement last month to spend more than a week in Costa Rica, where they provided health care services to those in need.

They arrived in the Central American country on January 6 and didn't return until January 15, and it was a week they'll never forget.

"Taking part in this service learning trip to Costa Rica was extremely rewarding and I am so grateful to have experienced something so purposeful and worthwhile with Carsyn," said Cudworth. "Not only were we given the opportunity to support and assist the people of Costa Rica, we learned so much and gained so many life-long friends."

Cudworth, who's pursuing a degree in pre-med biology, and Ziegler, who's majoring in biology/professional health with a minor in pre-medicine, were among about 60 students to travel with MedLife to Costa Rica.

MedLife is a non-profit organization that provides medicine, education and community development projects to low-income communities in Latin America and Africa.

With a poverty rate around 20 percent and an unemployment rate between seven and eight percent, Costa Rica has many communities that suffer from a lack of quality health care services. That's where organizations like MedLife aim to make a difference.

Ziegler and Cudworth said they shadowed and assisted local physicians at several mobile clinics that were set up in the neighboring towns around Tamarindo, Costa Rica – a city situated on the Pacific coast with a population of just over 6,000.

"At these clinics, we had a variety of stations set up including triage, general medicine, OBGYN, nutrition/education, toothbrushing and pharmacy," explained Cudworth. "I was able to aid the physicians, take vitals and teach children how to brush their teeth."

Both Cudworth and Ziegler said teaching the kids how to brush their teeth was a particularly special experience.

"Toothbrushing is a trivial activity in our daily lives, but I loved seeing how excited the children got when they received a toothbrush," said Ziegler.

"If I had to choose one thing I enjoyed the most from the clinics ... it would have to be teaching the children how to brush their teeth," added Cudworth. "Seeing how excited they got over something as simple as brushing their teeth was an extremely cathartic experience."

In addition to mobile clinics, Cudworth and Ziegler also worked on a service project with MedLife, which meant volunteering at a local animal sanctuary.

The sanctuary provides medical attention to animals in need before releasing them back into the wild, and the students helped out by building pathways in between the animals and repairing and painting old bamboo structures.

It was just one more opportunity to provide invaluable assistance to those who would otherwise go without, and it's hard to imagine a more rewarding experience.

Meanwhile, when they weren't working with MedLife, Cudworth and Ziegler also got to do some exploring and sight seeing.

"Outside of the clinics and service projects, we spent most of our free time on the beach and trying new coffees at the amazing cafes they had around town," said Cudworth.

On their last day in the country, they also got to visit the beautiful Llanos de Cortez waterfall, where they were able to swim and take photos to commemorate the whole experience.

Both Cudworth and Ziegler said they were grateful to experience it all with their close friend and roommate.

"I'm so grateful to have shared this experience with Mya. Having a friend with me while traveling and working with MedLife took away a lot of nerves and made the experience overall more enjoyable," said Ziegler.

"We both share a lot of the same interests and dreams so to partake in this trip together was nothing short of amazing," said Cudworth. "Carsyn and I also met a ton of amazing people and gained so many more friends to share the experience with."

Moving forward, both said they'd love to participate in another service learning trip one day.

Together, they got to take in an exotic country and experience a whole new culture, all while helping the less fortunate with critical healthcare services - who wouldn't want to do that again?

"My experience with MedLife in Costa Rica was nothing short of amazing," said Ziegler. "I am thankful for the experiences I got to share with Mya and for the new life-long friendships I formed. I would highly recommend partaking in a mission trip whether that is with MedLife or not because it is such a fulfilling activity."

This is just one of many articles featuring area college students, which can be read in this week's Collegiate Congratulations special section.

Download the full section here: https://www.fosterconews.com/home/cms_data/dfault/pdfs/misc/2024-02-05.pdf