MEDLIFE for Educators
Shape Tomorrow’s Leaders with MEDLIFE
Expand learning beyond the classroom. Empower students to make a lasting impact.
WHAT IS medlife?
MEDLIFE (Medicine, Education, and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with over 20 years of partnering with low-income communities in Latin America and East Africa. We work to improve access to healthcare, education, and safe housing through Service Learning Trips, community development projects, and long-term patient follow-up care.
We empower students through ethical, hands-on educational experiences that center local leadership, sustainability, and community-driven solutions.We empower students to learn through ethical, hands-on experiences that prioritize local leadership, sustainability, and community voice.
How to Get Involved as an Educator?
How to Get Involved as an Educator?Teachers and faculty play a vital role in expanding student learning and civic engagement. MEDLIFE offers a variety of ways to enrich your classroom, programs, or student leadership initiatives:
- Support students in starting or growing a MEDLIFE Chapter as a faculty advisor
- Organize or co-create a Service Learning Trip to match your curriculum goals
- Use MEDLIFE’s global health & development resources in your curriculum
- Promote ethical global engagement and social responsibility on campus
Our Approach: Learning through Ethical Impact
At MEDLIFE — and across our family of educational programs including Engaged Education, Smiles Movement, Safe Homes and Good Life Expeditions — we’ve spent 20 years building a different kind of experience: one that centers equity, impact, and transformation for both students and the communities they visit. Here are the values that define our approach:
Purpose Over Profit
We reinvest every dollar where it matters most.
Unlike big box travel companies, MEDLIFE is a nonprofit. All funds go directly toward healthcare, housing, education, and jobs in the communities we serve. When families choose MEDLIFE, they support a mission — not a profit margin.
Field Learning with Depth
Real education requires context, not just travel.
We go beyond sightseeing. Our programs are led by local professionals and rooted in social justice — helping students understand poverty, health, and inequality through immersive, reflective learning.
Service Earns the Right to Learn
Students give before they receive.
Our trips begin with service — not extraction. By supporting public health and community projects, students earn a meaningful, ethical education based on respect and reciprocity.
A Beginning, Not a Credential
This isn’t a résumé line — it’s a launchpad.
Our trips spark deeper purpose. Students return with the drive to pursue research, advocacy, and leadership — building more than experience: they build resilience and a lifelong commitment to impact.
Systems Over Stereotypes
We don’t teach charity — we teach systems change.
Instead of oversimplified narratives, we help students see the bigger picture: how infrastructure, policy, and history shape lives. Our goal is to build thoughtful changemakers, not saviors.
Testimonials
“The best thing about this is that students get to learn leadership and see different things around the world that they would normally not learn”
“I found it really incredible attending this Service Learning Trip. I really recommend it because it is a very eye opening experience. If you’re thinking of joining MEDLIFE and you’re afraid of coming here alone don’t worry, I made new friends and I’m sure we’ll stay great friends after the program.”
“Seeing what my students could see and learn and how they were impacted, not only by the professionals but also by the community itself, was very enriching. I have brought other students, giving them a sense of purpose; they find their profession in it.”
Get Involved Today!
Book a meeting with a MEDLIFE advisor today: