Aaron was an Exercise Medicine Intern in Greece for Jayson Gifford during Spring 2025.
Briefly explain what you did and the result of your internship.
I traveled around Greece examining how environment and culture influence exercise tendencies and health outcomes. I stayed in Thessaloniki for several weeks shadowing doctors in hospitals. I made a ton of progress in my decision to pursue medical school and learned about the future lifestyle I want to have. I learned ways that I can integrate exercise into my life and my patients lives as it is the ultimate health sustainer.
What did you learn on your internship that you were not expecting to learn?
I learned that I want to do medical school.
How have your future plans changed because of what you learned from your internship experience?
It has potentially reshaped my entire future.
Please share how your experience led to personal inspiration or insightful revelation.
There were many opportunities to serve and have a spiritually enriching experience that I didn’t expect. I gave a talk in thessaloniki, one of our guides came to church twice, we had gospel conversations with several people, it was a big missionary experience. For me I think part of all of it was God showing me that love-share-invite really can work if the love part is truly genuine. I think our guide felt our love and genuine friendship, and I truly wanted to be her friend whether she embraced anything gospel related or not, but she showed some interest in our peculiar BYU group and it was cool to see someone we invite to church actually come.
Would you recommend this internship to other students?
Absolutely, if someone is trying to make a decision about whether or not they want to pursue med school, this study abroad helped many of us decide either that it was or wasn’t the right path for us. It is socially, spiritually, physically, and intellectually stimulating.
