On Aug. 6, Sergio Fernandez ’16 began his yearlong internship with Grassroot Soccer, an adolescent health organization that leverages the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize youth in developing countries to overcome their greatest health challenges, live healthier, more productive lives, and be agents for change in their communities. Living in Cape Town, South Africa, he is serving as the nonprofit’s programmes intern, which means he is helping to manage all of Grassroot Soccer’s programs throughout the country, including education initiatives designed to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Fernandez was a biology major with a neuroscience minor, but he is also a lifelong soccer player and fan. (Just look at how he decorated his senior year dorm room in the photo above!) He had already known about Grassroot Soccer, but he credits his friend Jo Haller ’16 for informing him about its postgraduate internship program, which presents a unique opportunity to the aspiring doctor to meld his passion for the sport of soccer with his health background.
“I saw it as a great way to expand my horizons beyond [biology], enabling me to learn more about business and communications while keeping the door open for medical school,” Fernandez says.
His Haverford biology courses did help prepare him for the medical and health-education aspects of his job, and he also thinks that “through sociology and psychology classes, I understand and respect the humanity of it as well.”
-Jamauri Bowles ’17
Photo by Caleb Eckert ’17
“Where They’re Headed” is a blog series reporting on the post-collegiate plans of recent Haverford graduates.