Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Richard Heinzl stressed the importance of creativity and discussed transformation in a rapidly changing borderless world in a lecture Monday night in the Kansas Union.
Heinzl created Doctors Without Borders Canada, based on the European Medecins Sans Frontieres, after extensive work in Cambodia and Turkey where he medically assisted the countries’ people and refugees.
“Change is this new constant,” Heinzl said. “You have got to recognize this, so you can jump at it and not let it slip by.”
The Doctors Without Borders program provides humanitarian medical aid to impoverished people in Third World countries.
The lecture, “Lessons from Abroad: The Opportunities of a Borderless World,” sponsored by Student Health Services and Student Union Activities. It was a Ralph Canuteson memorial lecture and a part of Student Health Services’ centennial celebration. Canuteson was the first doctor for Student Health Services and ran the program from 1928 to 1965.
Heinzl spoke to about 200 people about anecdotes from his experiences abroad and the lessons he learned about medical humanitarianism.
He detailed his first experience abroad in facing the arrival of a hundred thousand Kurdish refugees fleeing toward his base camp in Turkey during the early 1990s. Shortly after their arrival to the site, Heinzl and his three colleagues were informed that they would be providing all humanitarian assistance to the refugees.
“We just stared at each other, trying to look confident,” Heinzl said. “Our jaws dropped, and we just pushed them back up.”
He said none of them had done this before, but they knew they were going to have to find a way. Experiences like these, Heinzl said, taught him the most.
“Success can be a poor teacher,” Heinzl said. “I was lucky to have role models who said it was okay to be non-conventional and who applauded creativity.”
When in Cambodia, Heinzl described the most exciting day for the townspeople — the day a Frisbee arrived in the mail. He said the kids learned very quickly how to use it and eventually how to bring new ones across the Thai border.
“Our world is so borderless,” Heinzl said. “Even the little Frisbees can diffuse almost effortlessly worldwide.”
Technology is “double-exponentially” growing around the world, Heinzl said because the curve of new technology was so extreme. So many people are smart and capable to learn new things, especially children, he said, and half the population is under 20 years old, which shows that young people are very capable of turning into something extraordinary.
“The world’s youth is essential,” Heinzl said. “In a blink of an eye, those kids are our world’s future.”
Heinzl encouraged the young people in the audience to take a year off and travel and do something artistic and altruistic. He said it used to be viewed as frivolous to get education in one area, but work in another.
nutgraf
He said none of them had done this before, but they knew they were going to have to find a way. Experiences like these, Heinzl said, taught him the most.
“Now, being non-conventional is sometimes a successful way to go,” Heinzl said. “When you’re handed a piece of lined paper, write the other way.”
Marisa DeGennaro, Overland Park junior, and friend Erin Perkins, Olathe junior, were both drawn to the lecture because of their interests in this profession. Both pre-medicine students, DeGennaro and Perkins were impressed by the inspiration and the humanitarianism Heinzl provided in his lecture.
DeGennaro said she was interested in international medicine because she wanted to connect to people who were different, but still the same. “When you get down to it, everyone in the world is the same,” DeGennaro said. “We’re all human, with the same hopes, dreams, and aspirations.”
Kansan staff writer Danae DeShazer can be contacted at ddeshazer@kansan.com.
— Edited by Sharla Shivers
Volunteer holds no restraint in discussing humanitarian ...
Michael Barringer-Mills has served in Darfur, Sudan, and Nigeria with the organization, ...
The Secret to Happiness
According to the author of "The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Science ...
Development work abroad is worth facing challenges
Working with struggling communities in nations such as Guatemala poses problems, but ...
KU alumni find watch sites far away
Bars from Miami to New York find themselves host to Jayhawk sports ...
Hurricane Katrina “villain” voices his side
Michael Brown, former director of Federal Emergency Management Agency, spoke at the ...
Bringing Broadway to Kansas
Actor Andre De Shields talked to theatre students about the acting industry, ...
University student named as Rhodes scholar
Kelsey Murrell became the University's 26th Rhodes scholar after a year-long application ...
Frisbee offers students relaxing activity
A group of students spend their Friday afternoons playing Frisbee.
Senior promotes studying abroad in Germany
After his own meaningful study abroad experience in the country, Andreas Graf ...
Birth control prices get knocked up
After ending contracts with its pharmaceutical manufacturers, student health centers nationwide will ...
Kansas Life Sciences Innovation Center opens doors ...
More study options available for researchers in $52.7 million facility.
When relationships go bad . . .
Museum to let you be a kid ...
The Natural History Museum will offer several hands-on experiments involving several everyday ...
Students' Rights wins no seats in election
Smaller third party struggles with name recognition
Students see differences in health care
A growing number of pharmacy students are choosing to go abroad to ...
Students participate in mumps study
Center For Disease Control asked returning donors to participate in a mumps ...
Taste tests at tea time
A research group for the Kansas State University Sensory Analysis Center shared ...
Local Burger featured on Sundance
Doctors in the a new spin-off documentary called "Localize Me," will examine ...
Crop design to replicate butterfly stamp
A half-acre design of flowers and mulch will resemble the butterfly postage ...
School of Journalism wins writing award
Two reporters will travel to the National Writing Championship in San Francisco ...
Drug therapy could become individual, KU research ...
Recent KU research shows that aging affects drug dosage for patients.
Hall Center to hold lecture with T.R. ...
Writer and NPR regular will talk health care in the U.S. compared ...
Students aid humanitarian cause
Volunteer organization in Arizona leaves food, water on trails to help people ...
New fund to benefit study abroad students
The scholarship has been set up in memory of former student Gus ...
Driven to Cure
A new license plate design will be available by this fall. The ...
Web site helps correct harmful study habits
Students who deprive themselves of sleep to study will not retain information. ...
School receives top-five ranking, again
Pharmacy continues tradition of excellence with a 'faculty of stars', for sixth ...
Watkins holds free clinic for runners
The first two stages of the clinic are free and will analyze ...
Student aids tsunami victims
New lecture series examines creativity
Series tries to promote creativity as a conduit for discussion of society’s ...
KU 11th in study abroad participation
During the 2006-2007 school year, more than a quarter of KU undergraduates ...
Scholarship candidates inspire locally, abroad
Reikne helped build a house this past summer in Juarez, Mexico, for ...
Coping with different dialects
University and city deal with the language barrier.
Student to share experiences of trip to ...
David McLeod will give a lecture tonight about his research on frogs ...
HIV infects someone every 15 seconds
Shocking HIV/AIDS statistics inspire students to form awareness group. 15 Seconds Week ...
Alumni play different roles now at University
Former students have returned to the University not just for homecoming, but ...
Programs certifying more students
More students are involved in University programs dealing with service, research and ...
Langston Hughes Lecture to focus on civil ...
Randal Jelks, a visiting professor, will present the lecture on Tuesday.
Undergraduates research abroad
Students are finding new ways to earn credits and help people.
KU Med expands to encourage rural practice
Students now can study for four years in Wichita and Salina in ...
From left: Kimberlee Hinkle, Libby Johnson and Hannah ...
1 comment
Kansas Jayhawk fans hold aloft a reproduction of ...
2 comments
Erin Saupe, a Ph.D. student from St. Cloud, ...
1 comment
0 comments
Armed robbers continue to threaten.
3 comments
Lecture from Greg Mortenson, co-author of New York ...
0 comments
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID