When Michael Dewan returned from a summer at St. Jude's he wrote the following:

 When I came back from Africa, I was different. I had found a purpose for my future. I learned more about life and medicine in those ten weeks than I had in the previous ten years. Within one week at an understaffed health services facility, I found myself running entire shifts in the lab and patient rooms. I learned how to mess up, to miss a vein, camouflaged among the dark pigment and act like it was standard procedure to prick a patient twice. Not understanding the purpose of the needle and swab, she read my eyes searching for clues. If I remained calm and upbeat so would she. In the future, I look forward to coming home, raising a family, and settling into a practice. However, at the same time, I am going to go back to Africa and I am going to invest a lot of my time, my family's time, and all of our efforts into those people. I know it is for me, and I cannot wait to do it.

Michael contracted malaria in Uganda, and his experience gave him firsthand insight into the difficulties of delivering health care in the Third World. Malaria is quite treatable at a cost of eight American dollars, but many Ugandans die because either the medicine is not available or they cannot afford it.