Nursing program reaches abroad

By Harold Gwin

An art auction will raise money to help finance two medical missions.

YOUNGSTOWN — Art and medicine are topics that might not normally be mentioned in the same sentence, but the department of nursing at Youngstown State University has found a way to link the two.

Running medical missions to Mexico and Africa are expensive propositions, and the department of nursing intends to use an art auction to help raise funds for those upcoming trips.

A Nov. 20 auction, featuring more than 100 framed pieces of work from such artists as Wyeth, Rockwell, Brodinsky, Lui and Chagall, is in the works.

Proceeds will help finance a one-week trip to San Quintin, Mexico, in April and a two-week trip to Nigeria in January.

Both are being planned in collaboration with the Ohio Medical Clinic Missionaries, said Pamela McHugh Schuster, YSU professor of nursing, who led a mission trip involving YSU students and faculty to Mexico in September 2008.

The art auction primarily will feature prints of artists’ work in various price ranges. It will be in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center at YSU with a preview starting at 6 p.m. and the auction at 7.

The trip to Mexico is a repeat of last September’s visit arranged by the YSU department of nursing during which nursing students and staff, accompanied by doctors, nurses and others, set up and operated a one-week medical clinic in San Quintin.

She said eight students will be able to participate in the next trip.

Participants pay $800 each to make the journey, but that doesn’t cover all of the cost for medicines and supplies the clinic will need, Schuster said.

That’s where the art auction comes in.

The trip to Nigeria is a joint effort arranged by the department of nursing and YSU’s department of criminal justice and forensic science.

That cost is about $2,500 per participant, and there will be room for two nursing students, two social-work students and two criminal-justice students from YSU, Schuster said. The bulk of that cost will cover the flight, so additional funds again will be needed for medical supplies, she said.

“It’s a huge and expensive undertaking, but the benefits for our students are just tremendous,” she said.

Christian Onwudiwe, assistant professor of criminal justice at YSU, said he was at a meeting in which Schuster gave a report on the outcome of the September medical mission to Mexico, and she indicated there was interest in returning to Mexico and making a similar trip to Africa next year.

Onwudiwe said he approached Schuster about making the African trip a visit to Nigeria, his home country, and the idea took off from there.

He was in Nigeria this summer, approaching Imo State University there about possible collaborations with YSU that eventually could include faculty and student exchanges.

Nursing and social-work students will assist in operating a medical clinic in Dikenafai, Nigeria, Onwudiwe’s hometown, on the January trip, and Onwudiwe and his criminal-justice students will spend their time examining Nigerian police operations and their correction facilities with the intent of comparing them with U.S. operations.

Onwudiwe teaches international competitive justice systems, and the trip will be an excellent opportunity for students to be exposed to international programs, he said.

The African project is an exploratory trip that is hoped will pave the way for future missions to that continent, Schuster said.

The auction will be conducted by Marlin Fine Auctions and Creative Events.

Admission to the art auction is $15 ($5 for YSU students) and includes light refreshments. There will be a cash bar. Tickets are available by contacting the department of nursing at (724) 941-3293. Checks made payable to Ohio Medical Clinic Missionaries can be sent to the YSU Department of Nursing, 1 University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 45555.

Marlin also is offering items online at www.marlinart.com. Purchases made online will be credited to YSU if the buyer enters the code number 63750 at checkout.

The auction is sponsored by YSU’s Bitonte College of Health and Human Services and Center for International Studies and Programs and Ohio Medical Clinic Missionaries.

gwin@vindy.com