Education, Vitals Magazine Spring 2026

Training Doctors for Every Community

A new program at Geisel School of Medicine provides unique experiential learning opportunities to help future doctors better help underserved communities.

A clinician's hands in blue medical gloves place a colorful bandaid on a child's arm

Erin Kelly MED ’27 immersing herself in Alaska during a family medicine clerkship. Photo courtesy of Erin Kelly MED ’27

Published: 
By Mara Johnson-Groh
3 min read
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When medical student Erin Kelly MED ’27 flew to Valdez, Alaska, population 4,000, for a family medical clerkship, she didn’t know how profoundly career-altering the experience was going to be—or that she’d spend lunch breaks shrimping. Over six weeks, she worked with the local doctors and nursing staff, practicing new skills, reconnecting to the things that drew her to becoming a doctor, and learning what rural medicine truly entails.  

“At one point I found myself fishing alongside the same patients I’d seen at the clinic that morning,” says Kelly, a third-year student at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth who is now considering family medicine. “It made me realize every role, from bartender to physician, holds equal value in keeping this community thriving.”

Kelly will be one of the first students to graduate from the new Rural Health Pathway of Concentration at Geisel, one of several new concentrations offered to medical students looking to augment their clinical training with curated co-curricular and experiential learning. Designed in response to a student request, the Pathways of Concentration program provides a small cohort of students a longitudinal, co-curricular experience that integrates intentionally with the medical school’s curriculum. Over four years, the Pathways offer exploratory preclinical didactics and experiential learning, continued immersive clinical experiences during the clerkship years, and a final scholarly project, all around a specific area of focus.

The original Pathway, focusing on medical Spanish, graduated its first cohort in 2025. On the heels of its success, three more Pathways were developed and launched in fall 2025: Global Health, Rural Health, and Urban Health.

“The Pathways are focused on areas where patients may have historically been hard to reach, underserved, or distrustful of the healthcare system due to systemic inequities or challenges with access,” says Sonia Chimienti, MD, FIDSA, program founding director and dean of educational affairs at Geisel. “By providing opportunities for more intentional deeper experiential learning beyond the standard curriculum, we hope to give our students the tools to become leaders and create systems of change within healthcare.”

Each Pathway has tailored programs and experiences. For example, in the Medical Spanish Pathway, students go through a structured, clinically based language instruction program and must pass a rigorous language certification. The program is structured to help students better connect with patients and create a more welcoming and comfortable space for them. Upon receiving their language certification and meeting the requirements of the Pathway curriculum, students are encouraged to include it in their residency applications. Geisel also notes their satisfactory progress in the Pathway in their Dean’s Letter, or Medical Student Performance Evaluation, which provides residency programs and potential employers with information about the student’s overall academic experiences and performance in medical school.

“In our first cohort, two of the students were selected for residency positions in part because of their demonstrated language proficiency in Spanish,” says Terri Eastman, MEd, CHES, director for integrated curriculum and interprofessional education at Geisel, and administrative director of the Pathways program. “This shows how the Pathway’s experiences and certificates can really make our students more competitive in the residency world.”

Students in the Global Health Pathway complete clerkships at clinics abroad, including in Tanzania, China, Rwanda, and a growing list of other partner locations. In addition to cultural differences, working in an international setting can force the students to practice with limited resources.

It made me realize every role, from bartender to physician, holds equal value in keeping this community thriving.

Erin Kelly MED ’27 medical student

“It teaches them to think more critically about clinical decisions, including things like ordering tests,” says Lisa V. Adams, MD, MED ’90, associate dean for Global Health and faculty advisor to the Center for Global Health Equity at Geisel, and director of the Global Health Pathway. “It also helps them understand what it truly means to work with a community that might have a different culture, different religion, different healthcare systems.”

Chimienti hopes to continue growing the Pathways program to include more focus areas. Already, the Pathways, which have limited cohort sizes, are receiving a surplus of interest from students.

“The students are incredibly passionate about these experiences because they provide a deeper layer of learning that supplements their formal curriculum,” Chimienti says. “We are excited to continue supporting these Pathways for the benefit of our students’ educational experiences, and ultimately to improve the health of the patients and communities we are privileged to serve.”

To learn more about Geisel educational programs, contact Kim Labonte at 603-646-5110 or Kim.Labonte@dartmouth.edu.

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