When not busy playing on the Cavalier soccer and basketball teams, acting as Vice President of the Physical Therapy Club, or riding with the newly formed Walsh equestrian team, junior Summer Prevost travels around the world spreading the Gospel through mission trips.
"I get excited about the adventure aspect and all the people I get to meet," said Prevost. "Having a heart of compassion for those who need physical or spiritual help and being the person who offers it to them in a unique way is important to me."
An Honors student, Summer Prevost is a Psychology Pre-Physical Therapy major and Biology minor, who spent last summer traveling to Uruguay and Brazil. Through Walsh’s Global Learning Program, Prevost and her fellow Honors students spent two weeks in Uruguay volunteering with the Brothers of Christian Instruction in the Maldonado Nuevo neighborhood working with students in their youth center. They played with the children and coordinated projects to manage the upkeep of the center. While in Niteroi, Brazil, Prevost served with the organization Wheels for the World to evangelize and provide 200 wheelchairs. She supported a physical therapist and spoke and prayed with patients and their families.
Her next opportunity to travel will be this summer when she journeys to the Republic of the Congo for three weeks in July. This trip through the Global Outreach Mission will take Prevost to the city of Impondo where she will serve at Pioneer Christian Hospital. The 60-bed general hospital is staffed by volunteers and serves 300,000 patients with malnutrition, leprosy, malaria, typhoid fever and monkey pox as well as other conditions. Prevost may also join the doctors on backpacking trips 15 miles through the jungle to care for patients unable to travel to the hospital.
The Republic of the Congo is a nation about the size of California, located in the heart of Africa, right on the Equator. Congo is home to approximately six million people.
"There are outcomes that aren’t good, and while I want to see the improvement of the patients’ bodies, I know I will need to focus more on their spiritual condition, which is far more important," said Prevost. "We’ll do what we can for their physical bodies but first and foremost is their relationship with God."
Prevost hopes this mission trip will give her a fresh perspective towards her goal to improve her global awareness, compassion, and confidence in helping others. After her graduation from Walsh, Prevost hopes to combine physical, mental, and spiritual healing to work with special needs patients.