Some U.S. students are going to medical school for free — in Havana, Cuba.

For the past week, 13 of them have been traveling in New Mexico, visiting various local communities and promoting the Latin American International School of Medicine (ELAM for its Spanish acronym) in Cuba. At some point, some hope to return to New Mexico to fulfill their medical residency requirements.

Since 1998, at least 120 U.S. students have been selected for the full-ride scholarship — valued at about $200,000 — for a six- to seven-year program. Wt least three New Mexico students with ties to Albuquerque and Santa Fe are enrolled at what is known as the largest medical school in the world. ELAM has more than 12,000 students from 27 countries, said Louis Head, board member for the Southwest Organizing Project in Albuquerque.

In exchange for the free education, the Cuban government asks students to commit to serving in medically underserved communities in their home countries after graduation.

"I would say to students, 'Apply, don't even think about it, keep at it, stay determined," said Alicia Steele, 23, a native of Michigan who has just completed five months of premedical studies, which included an intensive Spanish course. Her tentative plans are to return to the U.S. and practice in a border town.

Other individual ELAM students have visited New Mexico before, but this is the first time they came as a group. The student-organized road trip — ¡Salud! Southwest Exchange — includes visits to Indian reservations, hospitals and colleges in the Southwestern United States.

Pasha Jackson, 26, who wants to specialize in geriatrics, said the visit to New Mexico has opened up many doors, especially with the Native American community.

"This program has allowed me to really get back into the real things in life, where you can dream," said Jackson, an Oakland, Calif., native who just completed his first year of medical school. "It gives me a chance to be a doctor, but be a doctor without being a slave. This program is free."

Both Jackson and Steele agree that the U.S. has a broken health care system that does not practice preventive medicine nor allow most of its doctors to bloom.

"The medications are free. You don't feel rushed like in the U.S.," Steele said of her experience during a doctor's visit in Havana. "In Cuba, the physician seems to have time to sit down and talk. There are great physicians in the U.S., but (the system) makes it harder (for them) to be the great physicians they want to be."

Contact Sandra Baltazar Martínez at 986-3062 or smartinez@sfnewmexican.com.

ON THE WEB
For more information about ELAM and the ¡Salud! Southwest Exchange, visit the students' blogs while they travel in the Southwest at: www.saludswexchange.org.