Jacqueline Foley

I am an AACPS: Alum, Annapolis High School

When I was in seventh grade at Annapolis Middle School, my social studies teacher handed me an old, roughly worn-out gavel and said “Jacqueline, I’m electing you as Secretary General for our school’s Model United Nation’s conference–be ready, it’s next week,” and without giving me a moment to either accept or refuse, walked away and went on with his day. As an overwhelmingly shy twelve-year-old, the thought of leading a conference on “The Somali Pirate Crisis,” a topic I hadn’t the faintest knowledge of, seemed utterly terrifying. I outwardly groaned at the amount of work the project presented me with, and inwardly shuddered at the prospect of standing before my classmates. I had no idea that leading this conference would awaken in me an idea that would shape the rest of my academic career at AACPS–the idea that I could someday change the world.

From that day onward, my fantasies took me to the farthest regions of the globe and every research paper or project I wrote in my years of IB study at Annapolis High school was on some globally focused issue like “Food-security in Sub-Saharan Africa” or “The Prevalence of Adolescent Anemia in Rural India.” During my senior year, when my friends were frantically completing college applications and staring bleary-eyed at endless lists of majors, minors and certificate programs, I focused my attention on another academic path–a Gap Year studying and volunteering abroad. On June 5th, 2015, I graduated from Annapolis High School. My classmates went on to join the College Class of 2019. I booked my flight for that exotic land of saris and sages: India.

And that is where the New Year 2016 finds me; sitting in the office of a small NGO called Aarohi, in the Central Himalayas of India. Working with the NGO’s Health Development team and Health Clinic, I have been exposed to such lessons and practical experience that I could never have found in a classroom my freshman year of college. For the first eight days of every month, I travel on a Mobile Medical Unit (a large bus equipped with an ultrasound, x-ray machine, lab and pharmacy) with a team of doctors, to villages so remote they have never received medical care before. While working with the unit’s Antenatal Care specialist, I learned how to take a pregnant woman’s blood pressure and perform an abdominal test, where one determines the position and size of the fetus. On one unforgettable day, I saw a woman’s water break right before me and watched as she was rushed to the hospital. I saw the same woman hiking home 5 hours later, caring her newborn baby girl. If 7th grade me could see where she would end up, her mind would be blown. Most exciting of all, it has only been two months since my arrival in India; with four more to go, I wonder what other adventures, experiences and lessons wait for me down the road?