Diane Zavotsky '82 practices family medicine in "medically underserved" northern New Hampshire. Each winter she volunteers in a clinic in the central highlands of Guatemala, treating people who otherwise have no access to health care.

It's discouraging to see sick people she simply can't help, but, Zavotsky said, "the handful of cases where you feel you really made a difference make it worthwhile." Like getting a baby with pneumonia to a hospital and literally saving its life.

Zavotsky confesses that her humanitarian instincts were mixed with selfish motives when she signed on. Beyond a break from winter in New Hampshire, there's the slogan of her sponsoring organization: "The life you change may be your own."

"It's had a dramatic impact on my consciousness of how we provide health care here," she said. Now when a patient complains about waiting three days for an appointment, she's tempted to say, "Try pushing your sick mother miles to the clinic in a wheelbarrow."