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Then the Ebola epidemic erupted in West Africa. In September 2014, Welch was back in New England for two weeks, driving to a concert in Vermont on a day off, when PIH鈥檚 chief nursing officer, Sheila Davis, called. What started as a brief discussion of PIH鈥檚 Ebola strategy quickly led to a question: could Welch move to Africa?

Social justice, says Welch, is about having the mindset that 鈥渋f you can do something to help someone, you absolutely should.鈥� A week later, he was at the CDC鈥檚 headquarters in Atlanta for Ebola training. Three weeks after that, he boarded a series of planes to Monrovia, Liberia, where he served as the chief clinical officer for PIH鈥檚 Ebola response.

Much of his work was devoted to building Ebola treatment units to prepare for and respond to flare-ups of the disease in rural areas. But he saw abandoned hospitals throughout the country. 鈥淭here was no essential health care happening,鈥� he says. Welch helped PIH reinstate screening and diagnosis for several infectious diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV. He also helped develop maternal child health programs and secured a lab on-site at a maternity hospital that reduced pregnant mothers鈥� waiting times for results of Ebola testing from days to minutes.

鈥淎t the end of my career, I鈥檇 like to be able to say my patient population was everyone who was sick and marginalized. That feels like the mission of the Connell School too.鈥� 鈥擩ohn Welch

In December 2014, Davis called Welch once again. 鈥淐an you fly to Sierra Leone tomorrow?鈥� she asked. Ebola rates had skyrocketed in Sierra Leone, killing hundreds of citizens as well as many health care workers. He flew on a United Nations plane to Port Loko, where he witnessed what was 鈥渨ell and truly an absolute nightmare.鈥� He worked out of a concrete vocational school that had been repurposed into a 110-bed treatment unit that was so overwhelmed that staff burned 100 Ebola hazmat suits an hour. (Each suit could only be worn once, and each health care provider was allowed inside the contaminated unit for no longer than an hour at a time.) Clothing, blankets, cellphones, and any other materials that entered the hospital were incinerated at all hours of the day.听

Welch worked 20-hour days, six to seven days a week, for five months in Port Loko. 听He helped develop a center for pregnant women with Ebola, a survivor clinic, and helped PIH partner with 20 Ebola treatment facilities throughout the country, he recalls. Welch and his team saw nearly 2,000 patients, about 400 of whom were Ebola positive, and screened more than 2,700 Ebola survivors.

After fulfilling a seven-month commitment with PIH in Africa in April 2015, Welch returned to Boston Children鈥檚 Hospital, where he remains a senior nurse anesthetist. He鈥檚 also an associate in anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. But he hopes his international work is far from over. 鈥淎t the end of my career,鈥� says Welch, 鈥淚鈥檇 like to be able to say my patient population was everyone who was sick and marginalized. That feels like the mission of the Connell School too.鈥�

Han received more than $2,000 to travel to Seoul, where she stayed with extended family. She explored the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), the universal health care provider to all South Koreans. Connell School Assistant Professor and native Korean Kyung Hee Lee connected Han with former health service nurses to interview. She also visited NHIS鈥檚 headquarters and library, and went for a checkup at a Korean clinic. She learned that the majority of Koreans frequently visit local clinics, where wait times are negligible and visits cost roughly the equivalent of $2.50.

鈥淪outh Korea is obviously much smaller, but I was amazed by how cheap and accessible it is to get treated,鈥� Han says. But the checkups themselves are too brief鈥攆ive to 10 minutes on average鈥攁nd often done 鈥渨ithout sincerity,鈥� she said. (Physicians, she explained, ask few questions, and are quick to prescribe.) Han鈥檚 findings were among those featured at the Connell School鈥檚 annual research symposium in April. Her experience, she says, solidified her interest in a career in global health policy. 鈥淚 hope to contribute to improving health care not only in the US but around the world.鈥�

The answer came in a Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital job posting seeking a Spanish-speaking nurse at a gynecology clinic. Krzmarzick ended up working with a patient population very similar to the one she had in Ecuador鈥攕ingle women, often poverty-stricken, often victims of violence. Her Rostro experience, she said, brought out the imagination and compassion she developed at the Connell School. She worked nights for nearly five years as she earned her master鈥檚 in family nursing, and then became a nurse practitioner in primary care at Massachusetts General Hospital. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just say, 鈥榯o treat your diabetes, you have to do A, B, and C,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淵ou have to be more creative and imaginative. You have to meet the person where they are. You have to ask, 鈥榃hat do you want to do to treat this?鈥欌��

Krzmarzick has been a clinical instructor at the Connell School since 2015. Her career came full circle last fall, when she prepared five undergraduates for a three-week nursing immersion program in Chile. (She would have joined the trip had she not given birth to her first child in October, she said.) Krzmarzick tells current students who feel called to social justice but also feel pressured to have stability and security, 鈥淵ou only have to answer to yourself at the end of the day. . . .There鈥檚 a path for every nurse and it doesn鈥檛 have to look identical to your nursing peer.鈥�

鈥揨achary Jason