Leaving Panama Ready to Lead
Story by Dena Salehipour
Photo by Juanjo Marin
Ethan Richlak, a university student form Cleveland, Ohio, leaves Panama ready to share his inspiring journey with his fellow clubmates and Cleft Connect members. He has seen the impact that donations make and is ready to use that to further enhance his team’s fundraising efforts.
As Operation Smile Student Programs ramps up to send more students to serve on medical programs, we connected with Ethan to hear about his own experience.
Operation Smile Student Programs: You have experienced one of the greatest opportunities that a student has in the experience of Operation Smile, and that is going to a medical program. How was that?
Ethan Richlak: It was good. I’ve been wanting to go on this for a while, so I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to and I think it definitely lives up to the hype and definitely was worth the wait. I’m really happy I got to go. It has been like a significant paradigm-shifting experience for me already.
OS: And what do you think that you’re taking back to your club now?
ER: I’m taking back a change in perspective and maybe some extra drive now. Every time I go to a conference here, especially something like this program, I always come back feeling more motivated, and more driven to continue what we’re doing and do better. And also, I now have a unique kind of perspective I can share with my club members and other people I work with about what it’s actually like out here and more about the things we do. Now I have that point of view that I can share.
OS: How has your perspective changed, especially coming from a country that fundraises and going to a country with programs and seeing what you were fundraising for?
ER: It really is a full-circle moment when you go. We’ve been fundraising money, doing all these things and all these events like the bake sales or whatnot. You raise all this money, but you don’t really get the full picture of where what happens with it until you come to a program like this. Then you get to see firsthand where all of that money’s going toward, its breakdown, and the kind of impact it has.
OS: We always talk about how we change lives with Operation Smile — how was it seeing those kids going into the OR and leaving the post-OP room?
ER: I was talking with the surgeon, and he mentioned a patient that came in yesterday for surgery who was 10 years old and never had any surgery before. He had an unrepaired cleft with his teeth growing into it. He said that the patient had a hard time joining society, basically didn’t go to school, didn’t have any friends, and he was always covering his mouth and his face. And then he said that his mother didn’t even recognize him when he came out on the way into the post-op room. And now that kid will feel like he fits in better and will have an easier time making friends and growing up. So I get to see that in person and hear it from the surgeons themselves.
OS: And with your experience now, this tremendous opportunity that you have, how do you feel that it will impact Cleft Connect?
ER: Oh my, definitely. Just in terms of raising awareness, like being able to go back to them and report on what I saw and what experiences I had, and hopefully get them more charged up because of that. I would love to try and coordinate something with them to bring them here and have them do more hands-on things. I just feel like we can definitely get them charged up more and brought together as people with cleft conditions, working toward a common goal.
OS: It would be amazing to have more of the Cleft Connect kids here. Do you have any patients that you’ve connected with, especially?
ER: All the patients we saw yesterday, one specific patient, we were playing catch for a very long time and I was just having a lot of fun interactions with her. I saw her today in the post-op recovery room and she’s all happy.
