Edward

Hello friends!

Thanks for visiting the Ethiopia 2010 web log. While I have dabbled before as an amateur writer, this is my first venture into the blogosphere as an author, and I am excited to share with you all what promises to be an amazing experience.

My name is Edward Shipper AKA Shredward, and I was born in the District of Columbia. Within months, my family moved to Houston, TX, and that is where I spent my formative years growing up. Upon graduating from high school, I matriculated at Princeton University, alma mater to James Madison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and David Duchovny, and convenient launch pad to the Jersey Shore. In college, I majored in history, concentrating especially on the early American period from the ratification of the Constitution up to the Civil War. Despite my passion in the pursuit of a true liberal arts education, I managed to make time to complete my pre-medical requirements, and thus I write to you now as a member of the first year class at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UTHSCSA) Medical School.

I am especially grateful for the opportunity to go to Ethiopia as a first year medical student and provide care to an underserved population. Fundamentally, I hope that I can leave Ethiopia knowing that I made a difference in someone's life. As an aspiring physician and also as a human being, I also think it is important to make efforts to become a cultured individual. I have never been to Africa, and to be honest, it is a place that I really don't know too much about. I would like to change that. I feel that being able to see how other people experience life is the best way to learn about the full range of the human condition.