Azeez Baig

Azeez Baig developed a life motto after participating in a six-week language program in Argentina the summer following his freshman year: When an opportunity to go abroad arises, take it.

It’s a mindset that convinced him to pursue a Fulbright U.S. Student Award to Spain during the height of COVID and to volunteer at a health clinic in Guatemala this spring.

From Leawood, Baig graduated from the University of Kansas in 2021 with degrees in biology and Spanish. International education helped shape Baig’s time at KU and led to an interest in health care. He’s currently a third-year student at the KU School of Medicine.

“My experiences at KU internationally just led me to pursue opportunities like the one in Guatemala,” Baig said. “In Argentina I had an experience more specific to language learning. In Spain it was a lot of professional and intercultural teaching experiences. And then in Guatemala, it was more of a medical experience.”

Baig’s first foray into study abroad at KU was a six-week summer language program in Buenos Aries, Argentina. He liked the efficiency of earning nine credits in six weeks but was also enticed by the opportunity to visit the country. Upon his return, Baig wanted to continue seeking opportunities where he could speak a different language and explore other cultures, so he began volunteering as an interpreter at the JayDoc Free Clinic.

At JayDoc, KU Medical Center students provide health care services for underserved populations in Kansas City, many of the clients are Spanish speaking. Baig interpreted for patients as they went through triage, physician visits and the pharmacy, getting a firsthand experience in health care. It was there that Baig decided to pursue a career in medicine.

“I got to see the teamwork aspect of it and the importance of the clinic to the community. There are a lot of people that we serve there who don’t have access to health care, so the clinic is really valuable to them,” Baig said.

Coming into his senior year, Baig decided to take a gap year between earning his undergraduate degrees and medical school and began looking into Fulbright opportunities. He worked with Rachel Sherman Johnson, director of internationalization and partnerships and the Fulbright program advisor, to apply for the program.

Fulbright has three types of awards available for domestic students: English teaching assistantships, graduate degree programs, and funding for independent research or art projects.

“Azeez is exactly the kind of student who is a great fit for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program: adaptable and resilient, engaged in the community, and sincerely interested in the language and culture of the host country,” Sherman Johnson said. “Fulbright provides recent graduates with an outstanding opportunity to experience life in another culture in a meaningful and in-depth way.”

During his time at KU, Baig had discovered he enjoyed teaching while tutoring through the Supplemental Instruction program and working as a teaching assistant for a microbiology course. When he learned about Fulbright’s English Teaching Assistant program, it seemed like a perfect fit.

“I wanted to pursue something in a Spanish-speaking country because I felt that would be extremely beneficial to not only my language skills but cultural competency and other aspects of communication that can only be picked up from being around people from different backgrounds and their environment.”

Baig’s Fulbright brought him to Madrid where he was a teaching assistant in the biology and health department at the Universidad de Camilo Jose Cela. As a teaching assistant, Baig helped incorporate English into four courses, developing students’ English comprehension and grammar skills and use of English in professional settings.

One of the lessons Baig picked up from his Fulbright experience was the ability to adapt. He remembers a day when he arrived at a classroom full of students and learned the teacher wasn’t there because of a strike. On the spot, he had to figure out what to do for the rest of the class.

“I think being adaptable and being able to just deal with circumstances that you’re thrown in is something that’s extremely valuable and important to working in a Spanish workplace,” Baig said. “That translates really well no matter where you’re working, but especially in medical school.”

One of the highlights of Baig’s experience in Spain was volunteering with the organization Solidarios, which aims to tackle social exclusion among different populations. Baig was paired with an elderly woman, whom he visited once a week. A native of Madrid, she would tell him stories of the places she had traveled all over the world and critique his Spanish.

“I was really glad I had time in Spain because it gave me that recharge and the life perspective to keep myself motivated as I was going into medical school,” Baig said.

At KUMC, Baig continues to use his Spanish. He volunteers as a medical student at the JayDoc Clinic. He also belongs to KUMC International Outreach, which traveled to Guatemala over spring break this year. For a week, he worked at a health care clinic and did community outreach in the Central American country.

“I learned about Guatemala and health care from the people’s perspective, but then also from a medical perspective as a provider. It was extremely valuable,” Baig said. “Pursuing opportunities like that has been a huge benefit of being able to speak Spanish and being interested in working with Spanish-speaking populations.”

By Christine Metz Howard