In 2003, Jordan Feld, a gastroenterologist specializing in liver ailments, took a year off to travel in South America, Africa and India. An inveterate trekker, he greatly enjoyed the sights, but it was the short-term medical projects he participated in along the way that changed his life.

While doing clinical work, for instance, in an isolated community in northeastern Peru’s Amazon basin, Feld saw how distributing mosquito nets, spraying insecticide annually, and clearing stagnant water reduced malaria prevalence rates significantly, thus improving the community’s health far more than anything he was doing in clinic.

“Now that my clinical medical training is nearing completion, gaining formal training in public health will give me the skills to make a greater impact on global illness, particularly in developing countries,” says Feld.