Search toggle
Contact toggle
Search toggle
Contact toggle
Search toggle
Say hello.
Focus Str. 5th Ave, 98/2 34746 Manhattan, New York
+1 222 44 55

MEDLIFE for Educators

Shape Tomorrow’s Leaders with MEDLIFE

Expand learning beyond the classroom. Empower students to make a lasting impact.

Start a Chapter

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 on 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.

the-heart-of-medlife
image34-c

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
LEARN MORE ABOUT MEDLIFE

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:

fundraising (2)

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.

doctor_woman

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.

volunteer-2

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.

beginning

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.

SLT-1

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

image39-c

“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”

image40-b

“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”

image41-b

“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.”