For years, Rowan College at Burlington County dental hygiene alum Amy Deluhery knew she wanted to give back. Using her clinical experience at RCBC, she thought a medical mission trip would be the perfect endeavor for personal and professional enrichment.
Initially unsure when that opportunity would come, it was laid right in her lap in the fall of 2023 when a patient at her job, a registered nurse, pitched an idea for Deluhery to join her and 30 individuals from her church on a trip to Guatemala to provide medical assistance to the citizens of a rural village.
A few months later, in March 2024, Deluhery was off to Central America. In Taxisco, a town two hours outside Guatemala City, Deluhery faced long days and temperatures exceeding 90 degrees in brick rooms without air conditioning. With the help of water, Gatorade, and pure determination, the team worked tirelessly for eight days.
Separate makeshift clinics were set up for each volunteer’s specialty, including nursing, pharmacy, psychology, and Deluhery and her dental team’s clinic. Prospective patients waited patiently for their appointment under a cool, shaded tent, and the younger ones played games in the field. When it was their turn, Dehulery, using her clinical experience, provided local anesthesia while the rest of her team performed extractions.
At home in the United States, Deluhery volunteers every year at RCBC’s Give Kids a Smile Day, an event that provides free dental care to underserved children; the next one to be on February 7. She knows how important it is to help those impacted by restricted access to healthcare. Unfortunately, in rural Guatemala, these kinds of events don’t happen.
“It was a very eye-opening experience,” Deluhery said. “It made me realize that we have so much here in America, which, unfortunately, not all countries have… it felt good to help them. But also, they were just such joyful people, and helping them gave me a lot of joy back.”
During these days, when she sweated through her scrubs as she worked, Deluhery stayed motivated thanks to the trip’s leader, Barry Graf. She said she wouldn’t feel ready to take on each day without him and his contributions, like morning huddles and insightful reviews of the day after dinner.
Especially admirable were Graf’s management skills; the way he expertly planned, organized, and deployed a medical mission trip with 30 people in a foreign country thousands of miles away left such an influence on Deluhery that she wrote a paper about him for a class at her current school, Thomas Edison State University.
“Empowerment through motivational communication was clearly seen throughout Barry’s management and directive leadership styles,” Deluhery said in her essay. “Both traits are essential in such a powerful event, especially when long, hot, and exhausting days are involved.”
At the culmination of the trip, Dehulery felt she “learned a lot of leadership and development skills.” Back home, as she studies toward a bachelor’s degree in health science and works a job at Marlton Dental Care, she will use those skills to conduct something on a more local, state level.
“And then I would definitely love to attend another medical mission trip in the future,” she added.
