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This experience isn’t about building your career, it’s about service, said Ana María Rodríguez-Vivaldi, associate dean of Student Affairs and Global Education.

She is the co-organizer of WSU Hearts in Motion, a faculty-led medical mission trip. Since 2008, students travel each year during spring break to Zacapa, Guatemala, to work at local medical clinics serving patients and providing treatments.

“The students come back totally fascinated with the experience,” Rodrìguez-Vivaldi said. “We are dealing with a broad spectrum of students with various interests.”

WSU is one of 12 schools that partners with Hearts in Motion, a non-profit organization that organizes medical mission trips in Guatemala. The program is open to students of health sciences and Spanish language. Participants come from a range of health science fields, including biology, nursing and veterinary medicine.

Two years ago, WSU conducted a research project on anemia rates of Guatemalan patients. Their findings concluded that many of the rural, impoverished patients they treated suffered from low iron content in their blood cells, which causes anemia. This affected their physical health and brain development, including pregnant women, said co-organizer Kathy Beerman, professor of human nutrition.

“Women who are anemic are way more likely to have complications during pregnancy,” she said, adding that the child usually has issues with anemia as they grow up.

A non-profit organization makes a product called a “Lucky Iron Fish,” which is connected to a household’s water source. It provides five years of iron-rich water for a family, which they hope will solve the issue of anemia. Last year, Hearts in Motion began providing local families with the fish, small iron fish figures to be placed in pots while cooking, Beerman said.

“It’s a brilliant way to help an entire family for an extended period of time at a low cost,” Beerman said. “We want to make this a very sustainable part of the program.”

Students who attend the trip have the opportunity to take part in multiple projects, including cleft palate surgeries, working at a speech clinic and researching anemia.

The program will also introduce a partnership between the on-site students and online students through WSU’s online college. This social media partnership will provide online students the opportunity to communicate with students abroad, said Rodrìguez-Vivaldi.

“This is such a bonding experience for our students,” Beerman said. “Before the program, they don’t know each other, and they come back very close and connected.”

Howard Wright brought the Hearts in Motion program to WSU, and continues to encourage students to take part in the program. He added that the experience students gain through the program helps them look competitive on graduate school applications.

“The combination of providing this program (during spring break) and the fact that all the graduate schools look for this experience is a really excellent coincidence,” Wright said.

He said students really took interest in the project when WSU began offering the opportunity during spring break. That way, students don’t miss 10 days of class to participate.

This year, WSU will send 25 students to participate in the program. Applications will be accepted until Oct. 17.