{"id":1300,"date":"2020-03-03T00:06:01","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T07:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2020-03-13T13:47:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T20:47:17","slug":"catching-up-with-changemaker-will-belshe-10-co-founder-of-project-malawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/2020\/03\/catching-up-with-changemaker-will-belshe-10-co-founder-of-project-malawi\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up With Changemaker Will Belsh\u00e9 (Class of 2010), Co-Founder of Project Malawi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mary Hammers, Hillbrook writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Hillbrook graduate Will Belsh\u00e9 (Class of 2010), the grind never stops, but you won\u2019t hear him complaining. He\u2019s in his first year of medical school at UCLA and between lectures, labs, research, and exams, his studies are fairly all-encompassing. However, for Will, this is living the dream. He has long wanted to go into medicine and started working toward the goal in earnest as an undergrad at USC. After graduating in 2018, Will took a gap year before starting med school and the long road to becoming a doctor. Will took a break from his studies to bring us up to date on his life and his work on global health projects, including improving the health and welfare of people in Malawi. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: Can you catch us up on what you\u2019re doing these days?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>I\u2019m in the middle of my first year of medical school at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. (Currently procrastinating from studying for my final next week, to be specific.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>Congratulations! UCLA is one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world, and you must have been thrilled to be admitted there. What do you think elevated you over the many qualified applicants?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>Getting into medical school obviously requires the basics\u2014good grades, test scores, etc.\u2014 but, if I had to guess, what set me apart was my global health experience. I co-founded an organization called Project Malawi with one of my best friends at USC and since its inception in late 2016, we\u2019ve fundraised close to $100,000 that has gone to an array of targeted medical and social interventions focused on improving health and equity in the rural Northern Region of the country. I also had a fair amount of clinical experience working as an EMT at USC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>You graduated from USC two years ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>I graduated USC in 2018 with a degree in Global Health and a minor in Natural Sciences. I took one gap year between graduating and starting medical school, during which time I traveled, worked at LA Care Health Plan, and continued my work and research in Malawi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>Any highlights from your Trojan days?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>Honestly, there\u2019s too many to count. It\u2019s hard to beat being at the Rose Bowl for our comeback win against Penn State in 2017, but I\u2019d have to say the highlight of USC was the group of friends I made during my four years there. Not to mention, it was also an awesome experience to have my little brother Jack there for my senior and his freshman year. Now I get to relive my time at USC vicariously through him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>How did you get started on the path to medicine and what appeals to you about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>I always had an affinity for the sciences and an inkling that I wanted to go into medicine, likely because my grandpa was a cardiologist and has always been someone I look up to. Going into college, I figured I\u2019d take a stab at pre-med and see how I liked it and whether or not I could handle the workload. I became an EMT, did some shadowing over summers, and really enjoyed my early clinical exposures, which solidified that med school was something I wanted to pursue. I\u2019ve always been a people person so the prospect of working together with colleagues and patients to solve complex problems has always been really appealing to me. I also love the breadth of what you can do in medicine. You can make a career in surgery, primary care, global health, health policy, education etc. Medical school definitely exposes you to the whole gamut and keeps you excited about all the opportunities you have after graduating. I\u2019m excited to see how it pans out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>As you\u2019re starting work on your medical degree, do you have an idea of a specialty you want to pursue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>It\u2019s a little too early to say. So far, my classes have ruled more specialties in than out. Most people get a better sense of what they\u2019ll ultimately go into when they start clinical rotations in their third year. Maybe I can submit an addendum then! For now, my shortlist of clinical interests include cardiology, emergency medicine, orthopedic surgery, and pediatrics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook:<\/strong> Where do you see taking the degree?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>Like many of my classmates, I see myself practicing as a physician of some sort. I\u2019m interested in working in an academic hospital system so I can teach and stay involved in research, but I\u2019m a ways away from having to make those kinds of life decisions. I\u2019d love to incorporate some degree of global health work into my future practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>You mentioned your global health experience with Project Malawi, the non-profit you co-founded. Can you tell us how that came about and what you\u2019re doing with it now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Will: <\/strong>After spending a summer in Malawi, one of my best friends from USC came back and asked me if I wanted to help found and run a student organization that does global health work in Malawi. As a global health major without much hands-on global health experience, I eagerly accepted the offer and threw myself into the work. To make a very long story short, we started by submitting a proposal to a nonprofit called Project CURE that delivers donated medical devices to developing countries. The proposal consisted of a thorough needs assessment of three hospitals in the Northern Region and requested $500,000-worth of medical equipment to increase the region\u2019s intensive care capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We raised $27,000 over the course of the year to fund the shipment of the equipment and, in subsequent trips to Malawi, we\u2019ve seen the equipment being put to good use. Since then, we\u2019ve worked with a local nonprofit called Malawi Children\u2019s Village, to fund a $25,000 reusable menstrual pad project to help reduce female absenteeism\/dropout rate in primary school, and a $25,000 nursing school scholarship to enable women to participate in the workforce and improve the local health infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, we\u2019re working on addressing the burden of physical disability in the rural Northern Region through the provision of 2,000+ mobility devices (crutches, canes, wheelchairs, etc.). So far, I\u2019ve been to Malawi twice and am planning on returning this summer to continue researching the relationship between disability, physical activity levels, and life satisfaction.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>When you are not studying, what do you do for fun?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>LA is a great city to be a student in, so when I\u2019m not studying I like to get a meal or hit the town with friends. I\u2019m a huge football fan, so a big chunk of my non-academic time during the football season goes to sitting on a couch watching football with my USC gang. I play a lot of guitar and try to make it up to the mountains to ski when time permits. I\u2019ve been trying to pick up surfing too, but have some work to do in that area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>As you look back on your years at Hillbrook, are there any lasting lessons or impressions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>I look back on my years at Hillbrook very fondly\u2014the beautiful campus, the tight-knit community, the great teachers. My two best friends to this day were friends I made at Hillbrook\u2014shout out to AJ and Jimmy. Our English teacher, Mr. Bonoma, would assign us seats in opposite corners of the room in an effort to keep us quiet (to no avail). He then branded us as the \u201cBermuda Triangle,\u201d which is a name we still use today. I think that\u2019s a great example of why I loved Hillbrook. It was an incredibly intimate setting in which to learn, where you met your best friends and where teachers knew you as well as they know their peers. It really was an amazing learning environment and I credit Hillbrook with helping me see school not as a chore, but as something that you can enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>Are you still in touch with any Hillbrook friends?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>As I mentioned, my two best friends are friends I made at Hillbrook, but on top of that I\u2019ve actually stayed in touch with more classmates than I would have expected. One unique thing about Hillbrook is how close many of the families become\u2014even across grades. Family dinners, summer BBQs, and other functions we\u2019d go to back in our Hillbrook days still happen now. This is one of the things I appreciate most about how intimate of a community Hillbrook was. Also, this is admittedly a semi-unique situation, but five of my 36 classmates at Hillbrook went to USC with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>Anything else our readers might be surprised to know about you now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>It\u2019s not uncommon for people to assume I aced the MCAT (the medical school admissions test) in order to get into UCLA. I did NOT ace my MCAT. I bring that up because as you get older and go through high school, you might feel a lot of pressure to kill the SAT\/ACT\/whatever test is in the vogue\u2014but it\u2019s important to remember that your test scores and grades are not the be-all and end-all in applying to schools, jobs, etc. Sure, doing well helps, but I\u2019d argue it\u2019s equally as important to be a well-rounded applicant with passions outside of the classroom. I guess that the point I\u2019m trying to make is: don\u2019t compromise things you enjoy and find fulfilling because you feel pressure to fit the mold of what you think colleges and grad schools want in a student.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillbrook: <\/strong>Any advice for today\u2019s Hillbrook students?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will: <\/strong>As far as academic advice goes, learn how to work hard. School gets progressively more challenging as you get older. During my sophomore year at Bellarmine, I was having a really tough time with chemistry, so I would go in early almost every morning to work with my teacher until I finally got the hang of it. In college, chemistry was one of my strongest subjects. Not everything comes easy in school, but if you\u2019re willing to put in the time it will pay off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a less academic note: Be appreciative<\/em>. Going to Hillbrook is a privilege that very few people are lucky enough to have. Thank your parents profusely and take full advantage of what Hillbrook has to offer. As you enter high school and college, it\u2019s not a given that you\u2019ll have art classes, a campus surrounded by nature, or even good teachers that care about the personal success of every student in their class. These are all things that make Hillbrook unique and prepare its graduates for the next steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mary Hammers, Hillbrook writer For Hillbrook graduate Will Belsh\u00e9 (Class of 2010), the grind never stops, but you won\u2019t hear him complaining. He\u2019s in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-the-hillbrook-quarterly"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1366,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions\/1366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}