Published: Feb. 17, 2017
Local students apply what they’ve learned
LWL and East grads go to Guatemala to help provide medical care
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
Karina Klotz, a Living Word Lutheran High School graduate, will
graduate in May from Concordia University in Mequon with a degree in
biomedical science.
About two years ago, she began researching mission trips where she could
not only help people, but also apply what she’s learned in school —
something that could boost her post-graduate application.
Already an advocate of mission trips, she decided that was the best
way to do it. What she got in return was beyond her expectations.
“It has changed my life,” she said.
Klotz went to Guatemala.
“I had been on other mission trips in the past and I knew service and
mission work means a lot to me and I love that form of giving back,”
she said. “At the time, I was preparing to apply to PA (physician
assistant) school and have been recently accepted. I was looking to
enhance my application. I wanted to do something, do a medical mission,
apply what my career path looks like.”
Among the several activities she did in Guatemala was help provide
basic medical care, test blood pressure, test heart rate and check
blood/sugar levels.
“They are very patient, happy people despite having so little,” Klotz
said. “You definitely realize how impatient and demanding people here
are.”
When she went, she did so alone without knowing
anybody. She was nervous about it, but also put a lot of effort into
it. She found the trip on her own, she funded it on her own and left the
country by herself.
“That was something I was really proud of,” Klotz said.
When she returned to the U.S., she couldn’t wait to get back to Guatemala.
Having heard some of her stories, West Bend East High School graduate Melanie Fischer was inspired.
Fischer and Klotz are teammates on CUW’s volleyball team. “She came back and said, ‘I really want you guys to go with,’” Fischer said.
That was perfect for Fischer, as she was also looking to do a mission
trip where she could utilize what she’s learned in class and apply it in
the real world.
Fischer is studying exercise physiology, pre-physical therapy.
Fischer, along with three other classmates at CUW, followed Klotz back
to Guatemala on Jan. 8-14. They went with a group of people from a
church in Stevens Point.
To find the trip, Klotz did an internet search for “medical mission trips out of Wisconsin.”
In Guatemala, the group assisted with basic medical care, hosted a
vacation bible school and built a house for a family in need.
When Klotz got to Guatemala this time around, several people from the village remembered her from the year before.
“It was amazing,” Klotz said. “It happened almost immediately. The bus
driver that picked us up at the airport was the same bus driver that
transported us around last year. It was an amazing feeling.”
Fischer stood in awe of how people reacted to Klotz.
“There were kids all over her,” Fischer said. “I thought, ‘That is so
cool. They remember her.’ “People were lined up waiting for the clinic.
They were so appreciative. They waited there nicely, which
I think sometimes in the United States we’re very impatient and we want
everything now. They were so grateful and patient. That was really
cool.”
This was all part of a humbling experience for Fischer.
“We are very privileged here,” she said. “These people that came to
our clinic would walk four hours just to see us, four hours there and
four hours back.
“For me, I can just drive down the street and there’s like 17 different doctors.”
Going on a mission trip wasn’t new for Fischer. She went to India when she was in sixth grade and Mexico a year later.
For the India trip, her grandfather and grandmother went there
earlier to help an orphanage through their church. When her grandpa
passed away, his life insurance money went toward paying for a new
building. Fischer joined her family in India for the building’s
dedication.
Fischer’s church, Kettlebrook Church in West Bend, hosts regular mission trips to Mexico. She went one year with her family.
She had opportunities to go back, but passed because she didn’t want to take away an opportunity for someone else.
“God has blessed me
with a lot of opportunities and knowledge and abilities,” Fischer
said. “I feel like I can share those and benefit others, but also
benefit myself because you just learn so much and get a new appreciation
for life when you go down.”
Fischer concurred.
“(Klotz) got really close to some people there ... she was messaging
them on Facebook, still talking to them in a different language, but
how close of a connection you can get in that one week with those
people,” Fischer said when asked what stood out to her from Klotz’s
stories. “And her pictures of how happy the kids looked and she got to
use the knowledge she’s been learning in school with the blood pressures
and different medical stuff that she was learning and I was also
learning. It was really cool.
“She just had this glow when she talked about it and I wanted that experience.”
Klotz is going back in March and Fischer is going back in January.
“When I went to Mexico, we did a vacation bible school for the kids
and helped paint their building,” Fischer said. “That’s something
anyone can do.
“But doing this medical clinic, I felt I had more skill for.”
