Loyola University Chicago

Eric Holmes
Dr. Paul Farmer
Newark International Airport is a busy place. Oftentimes the noises of this busy place mesh together in rhythm: the ringing of a cell phone, the footsteps of a woman walking to her gate, the click-click of a man’s fingers striking the keys on his laptop keyboard. While I waited for my flight, however, I heard another noise disrupt this rhythm. I turned and saw the source: a middle-aged woman had approached the check-in desk, sat down on the ground and burst into uncontrollable tears. At first, an airline official walked over to her, asking the questions she was required to ask, like “Is everything all right, ma’am?” When the airline official got no answer, she returned to her desk and helped the next customer.

I sat watching, devastated. I listened and noticed that the rhythm had not changed. Looking around confirmed this: not a single person had halted his or her activities—except perhaps for a quick glance to see what was happening. Initially, I was overcome by shock. Not a single person had gone to help this woman—or even given her a second look. At the same time, I foolishly realized that I was just as guilty, sitting there unable to do anything but gawk at the situation. I attributed this reaction to a moral imperfection in humans. We are able to ignore problems that, if addressed, may cause us personal inconvenience.

In the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, author Tracy Kidder describes one man—and a few of his friends—who could “cure the world.” Kidder makes a point not just to describe how extremely exceptional this one man (Dr. Paul Farmer) is, but also how this one man is rare in that he is just that: one man. Kidder attributes this to Farmer’s more impressive characteristics: a brilliant mind, supportive friends and a Harvard Medical School degree. It is not these things that separate Farmer from the rest of the world, though. The woman I saw did not need a Harvard doctor to comfort her: she just needed someone, anyone. Farmer is an exceptional man, but not just because of his degrees. It is because he lacks the moral imperfection I earlier described. Farmer’s morality is not something that he was taught in his many years of Ivy League schools. And while the things Farmer has done in the world could certainly not have been done without the academic training he received, it is not this training alone that enabled him to do his work.

The mission of Loyola University Chicago is not just to provide an academic education, but to provide a moral education as well. In doing so, the university ensures that the world will see a new generation of individuals who are not just talented in countless ways, but are able to use these talents for a greater good. Paul Farmer embodies these values not only in the things he does, but also in the manner that he does them: a manner of selflessness, compassion and integrity. Not all of the students at Loyola University Chicago will go on to do things that may seem to change the world, and of those who do, few will do so on the scale that Farmer did. That is not what is important. Kidder demonstrated that there are few who have the power to make great changes happen, but what I witnessed at the airport that day showed me that sometimes a great difference maker is not required. All that is necessary is someone who cares. Loyola University Chicago is a school that will educate a class of people who will be better enabled to change the world because they have been taught how to care.

Jennie Kuckertz
Becoming “Persons for Others”
Ask college-bound high school seniors why they are choosing to pursue their education, and for the most part you will get a small handful of similar answers—to secure future employment, to please their parents, to make more money, to party, to pursue a particular area of study that they find especially intriguing, or even to “better themselves as persons.” None of these are bad reasons to attend college, but they all share one thing in common: they serve in the students’ personal best interests. However, a select few of these students are pursuing academia because they want to make a difference to others, and eventually they do. This is the Loyola Mission. Loyola University Chicago seeks to be a nest for these students from which they are launched into lives of leadership in the world. In his book Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder describes the life of a man engulfed by such a vision. Dr. Paul Farmer sought to end health inequities throughout the world, and his impact by the beginning of the twenty-first century was unparalleled. His appreciation of diversity, emphasis on community, commitment to expanding knowledge and to learning, dedication to humanity, loyalty to justice, and his faith make Dr. Paul Farmer the quintessence of the Loyola Mission.

From the beginning of his life, Farmer was challenged to embrace learning in the broadest possible sense. As a child he listened to the Shakespeare his mother would read to him in their motor vehicle home, lectured to his family on the habits of unusual reptiles and amphibians, memorized the Latin names of various plants and trees, and submersed himself in books of all types, ranging from Lord of the Rings to War and Peace. His undergraduate career consisted of studies in medicine and anthropology, but he also traveled abroad, explored a component of Catholicism known as liberation theology and learned virtually every known fact about the history of Haiti. For Farmer, true learning was not about limiting oneself to one particular area, but was about expansion of all knowledge and truth. Farmer did this on many levels. On a personal level, he expanded his medical knowledge from Pediatrics to Gynecology to Tuberculosis to AIDS, etc. At the patient level, he sought accurate diagnoses for all patients, and never gave up in the quest to find individual treatments for each and every patient.

The incredible knowledge of Farmer is indeed impressive, however, this knowledge alone does not fully exemplify the Loyola Mission. Knowledge is essentially useless in the absence of the belief in the dignity of human life: all human life, no matter how diverse. A young boy ravaged by cancer in Haiti was no less worthy of costly treatment than the millionaires in the United States. Farmer never met a single person in his Hatian community, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter, that he believed was not worth treating. Farmer, or “Dokte Paul,” as he came to be known in Haiti, was an untiring advocate for the freedom to live for all persons, whether this freedom pertained to the mind, body or soul. Not only did he devote himself to the cause of saving individual lives from disease and hunger, but he also supported freedom regarding their spiritual lives. Though he did not believe in voodoo and sorcery, he understood that it was important to the Hatians’ everyday life and never once tried to argue with patients who believed they had been cursed with sicknesses from spirits. He simply administered medical treatment as a “supplement” to traditional healing ceremonies. Without compromising his own sense of faith, he respected theirs.

Loyola challenges its students to be “persons for others,” and indeed, that is exactly what Farmer was. He worked diligently in the service of others, never complaining, even in the face of personal struggle and exhaustion. He carried his cross for humanity just as Christ did several millennia ago—silently and with love. Ultimately, his life was dedicated to applying his acquired knowledge for the good of his fellow man. The Loyola Mission calls the members of its community to do the same.

Michelle Leahy
An Oeuvre of Green Mangoes: Dr. Paul Farmer’s fight for the mission of Loyola University Chicago
Yo pa voye wòch sou mango vèt. This typical Haitian proverb serves to illustrate the beauty and ethnic allure of the Haitian culture, and yet it also defines the very distant, foreign nature of Haiti as well. “You don’t throw rocks at a green mango.” While strange to our North American ears, this Haitian philosophy sings to the likes of Dr. Paul Farmer and his beloved people of Haiti. A man who takes claim to both global medical power and humble self-sacrificing servitude, Farmer traveled to Haiti and found a land burdened with non-existent health care and severe poverty. Troubled with turmoil and wrought with disease, this country was not a lost cause in Farmer’s eyes. While many would throw rocks of hopeless dismissal at this land of mountains beyond mountains, Farmer embraces it as an unripe green mango with the potential to grow healthy and flourish if given the chance and support. It is in this conviction that Dr. Paul Farmer becomes the perfect personification of the mission and values of Loyola University Chicago, “a Catholic University seeking God in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice and faith.”

Steadfast in its pursuit of learning, Loyola pays much attention to the evolving youth of today, a portion of America at which many have been quick to throw stones of judgment and doubt. With open arms of confidence and trust, Loyola takes those naïve, inexperienced youth, and yields the newest entrepreneurs of justice and success. Dr. Paul Farmer sees his patients in the same “Loyolan” light. Regarding the Haitians as a people who can learn to support and thrive as a healthy united people, Farmer instills in them the same trust and faith of Loyola University Chicago. “God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he’s not the one who’s supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid on us” (Kidder, 79). Farmer, thus, takes it upon himself to help distribute that loot.

To enrich by educating and nursing has become Dr. Farmer’s life’s vocation. Thus, he not only embodies Loyola’s mission to promote justice, but he also has come to fully embrace a most revered Jesuit mission: to educate. Tuberculosis and AIDS run rampant in such poverty stricken countries as Haiti, often because of a lack of education about the diseases. Recognizing this problem, Farmer would stop at nothing to teach the world about the many facets of these diseases. He would even go as far as walking many tens of miles to make house calls to his patients, explaining the danger associated with failure to complete their treatments. “If a patient doesn’t get better, it’s your own fault. Fix it” (Kidder, 36). His strong policy of responsibility to the patient greatly reflects the same devout responsibility Loyola’s mission has towards its students.

Moreover, Dr. Farmer was dedicated to the same philosophy of treating his patients’ whole self. Just as it is not enough for Loyola to simply teach students one academic subject, it is not enough for Farmer to only treat his patients’ immediate medical needs. Farmer also advocated providing economic support through monetary stipends for food and transportation. In more familiar terms, Farmer’s perspective core is that of nursing his patients’ whole self: body, mind and spirit.

From the coast of Peru to the frozen tundra of Russia, Dr. Farmer has come, in essence, to devote his entire life to the Loyola mission. Farmer realized the growing problem with health care and made it his vocation to educate. Haiti and the world need to grow in the understanding of and approach to infectious disease, and Dr. Farmer has become our teacher. He accepts those who are often faced with stones of hopeless disregard. He enriches life by educating and nursing humanity’s whole self. He is a teacher and protector for the many green mangos of today’s world and a perfect representative of the Loyola University Chicago’s mission.

Works Cited
Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountians. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003.