He had just flown for the first time. He was about to learn about a culture that was entirely new to him.

“Going to Cuba was completely eye opening,” Hand said. The senior biology and Spanish major — then a sophomore — grew up in a small Illinois town of fewer than 300 people. Even stopping in Miami on the journey to Cuba for a two-week BreakAway “felt like a different world.”

When he got off the plane in Havana, the humidity hit him “all at once.” Then he noticed the many stray animals — cats and dogs — and the smell of tobacco in the air. But “it wasn’t a bad smell, he said, adding,”there’s a sweetness to it.”

Hand learned about the Cuban healthcare system, worked on bat research, and was immersed in Spanish outside of the classroom for the first time. He talked to the people who live there. By listening, he learned what it is like to live and work in a different economy and system of government.

He chose not to swim, but he did see the ocean for the first time. The whole experience of the trip was overwhelming, he explained.

“When you go abroad for the first time, you realize that you’re a lot braver than you were before, but you don’t necessarily get rid of all of your fears all at once,” he reflected. “You kind of have to work yourself into it. The first thing that I really experimented with was food. I tried to eat everything I could — and that’s not normal for me. I was always a picky eater, but I ate everything I could there. But some things — like the ocean — that was still just a little bit terrifying, because it’s so vast.”

As a Spanish major, Hand had planned to go abroad again. Visiting Cuba opened up a curiosity in him to return to Latin America. So, this fall he went to Ecuador to stay with a host family, study, have experiences and meet as many people as possible. Generous gifts from Miguel and Carmen Arce, the Frayn and Clifton Utley Foreign Studies Award, and the Edith Rammelkamp and F. Osborne Elliott Junior Year Abroad Award helped make Hand’s life-changing experiences abroad possible.

While in Ecuador, Hand did research looking at the accessibility of rural healthcare. Outside of his class schedule — and his
long 45-minute walk to campus from his host family’s home — Hand interviewed doctors, nurses and patients at a health center outside of Cuenca. The health center serves a large rural area of around 30 small towns and a population that includes many indigenous and impoverished people.

Hand returned to the U.S. in December and is using his research to write his honors thesis. His days are a little bit different now that he’s back on campus. He’s not walking so far to get to class. Instead of conducting interviews, he’s focused on finishing his senior year and getting back into condition for track and field. It has been a little bit of a “reverse culture shock,” but he feels he’s more creative at problem solving. Plus, he’s still communicating with the friends he made abroad.

“And I think that is where I have learned the most and that is where I continue to learn the most,” he said, “because I have
made friends that I can still talk to every day and that I still have been talking to every day.”

Hand’s experiences abroad were not alone in preparing him to graduate ready to pursue medical school. He received funding to do summer research and worked in the lab with Paul Hamilton ’09, assistant professor of biology, over the course of his first three years at IC. He also worked part time for a year at Passavant Area Hospital, tutored on campus and held leadership roles with the Campus Writing Center, Rotaract Club, Parker After Dark, and Chess Club, which he founded.

But as wide-ranging as Hand’s college experience has been, his  reason for wanting to be a doctor is similar to what he aimed to
do during his semester in Ecuador: He wants to make genuine connections with people.