MED Senior Selected for Prestigious Schweitzer Fellowship
Kevin O’Connor (MED’07) will practice medicine in Gabon, Africa, as a 2007 Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellow.
Kevin O’Connor (MED’07) is among four students across the nation selected as 2007 Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellows. In this capacity, he will travel to Lambaréné, a city in Gabon, Africa, to work as a junior physician at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital on a pediatric or medicine clinical rotation.
“I’m excited about seeing the hospital that Albert Schweitzer built, which he described as his ‘improvisation on the theme of reverence for life,’” says O’Connor, whose interests include radiology and internal medicine. “I’m hoping it will inspire my own improvisation on this theme.”
The fellowships are named for 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, who gave up careers in music and theology to work as a physician in Africa. Through support from the Gabonese government and various Schweitzer organizations, the hospital Schweitzer built is today a modern medical facility with two operating rooms, a dental clinic, and inpatient wards for pediatric, adult medicine, surgical, and obstetrical patients.
“Kevin will have the opportunity to broaden his perspective on the world of health and medicine,” says Karen Antman, dean of the School of Medicine and provost of the Medical Campus. “We are proud of him and delighted he was offered this opportunity.”
Brittany Jasnoff can be reached at bjasnoff@bu.edu.