Amazing student: Madison Miracle

Through volunteer work and study abroad, Madison Miracle believes that medicine can be used as an agent of change and she’s already put that belief into practice. But that’s only the beginning for the senior majoring in biology and psychology:

The summer after my sophomore year, I was awarded a scholarship from the Honors International Scholar Program to study abroad and volunteer in Peru. As a part of the UGA en España Peru Medical Maymester, I learned medical Spanish while observing physicians in the Peruvian hospitals. One of the coolest things about this program was the fact that we were able to explore all the different parts of Peru — from the Andes Mountains and Machu Picchu to the desert lowlands and northwestern coast all the way to the Amazon jungle. After the program, I stayed behind to volunteer with the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children in Huancayo. I chose to work with FIMRC for its mission of establishing sustainable health care for and relationships with the communities they serve around the world, and it was awesome to take part in providing care and health education for the people of the rural communities we worked in. As one of the only Spanish-speaking volunteers, I had fun running back and forth as a translator!

After coming back from Peru, I began volunteering at Mercy Health Center, a free clinic for the uninsured where I currently serve in triage as a certified nursing assistant. In taking patient vitals and talking with them about their conditions and medications, I have been able to experience the diversity of our Athens community and see the importance of medicine in caring for the underserved — a definite highlight of my time in Athens. I also began working as an undergraduate research assistant in professor Ralph Tripp’s lab, where I investigated the role of microRNAs in affecting gene expression in the Respiratory Syncytial Virus and presented my findings at the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities Symposium and the annual Department of Infectious Diseases retreat.

Opportunity abounds at UGA, make [the most] of them what you will. We are grateful this holiday season for all of our Amazing Students.