Drs. Benjamin and Bernard Graham ’71 build foundation for new international clinical rotation
Ty Rheaume ’25 knew he should be prepared for anything. So, when one of the dental providers at the Nueva Santa Rosa medical clinic asked the ACPHS pharmacy student for help with a patient, Rheaume donned a pair of gloves and stepped in.
What happened next, though, was a surprise: The dentist handed him instruments to actually assist with a tooth extraction.
“I thought I was just going to be holding the light,” Rheaume said.
Assist Rheaume did, learning something about the root system of upper molars in the process—unexpected, yet totally in keeping with the spirit of work at the temporary clinic, set up for a week each spring by the Glens Falls Medical Mission Foundation (GFMMF). Their goal was to work as a team wherever the need was, to help the small Guatemalan town’s residents in whatever way they could before shutting down at week’s end.
Rheaume’s experience in April 2025 was part of the first ACPHS pharmacy rotation in Guatemala, one of the many ways the College is expanding global experiential opportunities for students and faculty through the vision of alumni.
The rotation grew from the efforts of twin brothers, Drs. Benjamin and Bernard Graham ’71. Ben, who earned a pharmacy degree and later became a dentist, has made 22 trips to the clinic in almost as many years with GFMMF. A military veteran, he enjoys the camaraderie and the sense of accomplishment after a long day, knowing he has made a difference in people’s lives.
“It’s a feeling of satisfaction: You’re doing something,” he said.
His enthusiasm inspired several family members to join him early on, including sister Beth Magin ’79 and daughter Amy Carroll ’96. He was most keen on enlisting brother Bernie, the founding dean of the Nesbitt School of Pharmacy at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, as the clinic needed pharmacy volunteers. Dr. Bernard Graham was indeed able to inspire pharmacy students to participate on a voluntary, non-credit-bearing basis, with more than 14 Wilkes students making 30 trips at their own expense over the years; students from St. John’s University joined in too. Bernie himself made 11 trips.
Ben Graham thought students at their alma mater could also benefit from the experience. Several years ago, he ignited a passion for the cause in ACPHS’ Associate Professor Dr. Kate Cabral, who signed up for a Guatemala tour in 2023 to scope out its appropriateness as a setting for a credit-bearing clinical experience. The Guatemala mission bug bit her, and she has gone back each year since. She brought her resident, Dr. Emily Persson, in 2024, and then Rheaume and classmate Christina Jung ’25 for the inaugural pharmacy student rotation in 2025. (Both graduates from the ACPHS Class of 2025, the former students are now properly Dr. Rheume and Dr. Jung.)
Dr. Cabral gave the inaugural students high praise.
“I never once had to say, ‘Can you please help do something?’” she said. “They were just constantly working, asking, ‘What can we do next?’”
Drs. Rheaume and Jung conceded they were spent at the end of each day. Yet they described the rotation, the last one before their Commencement, as a grand finale. In part, that was because they were allowed to put their full array of skills to practice, more than they might have been allowed at a U.S. clinic.
“This was way above and beyond my expectations,” Dr. Jung said. “I was counseling patients. I was administering antibiotics to patients, especially kids.”
They prepared with Spanish refresher lessons and training on tropical conditions such as parasite infections, as well as a review of a formulary of prescriptions not all commonly used in the United States.
They traveled expecting to join a team that was all-hands-on-deck, though they could often be surprised by what that meant.
The April clinic is one of only two held each year, for one week each time, in a rural town of about 13,000 people some 70 miles from Guatemala City. On the first day of their 10-day sojourn, the 32-person Glens Falls-based team stocked shelves with medications and supplies. On day two, patients lined up after long journeys on foot or bike to get care, the queue stretching the length of many city blocks. Whole families came together, parents holding children’s hands, mothers swaddling babies. The team was together all day, starting from a hotel that Dr. Rheaume described as upscale by Guatemalan standards. They ate breakfast together each morning, savoring the locally grown and roasted coffee, then departed with peanut-butter-and-jelly or tuna sandwiches for a bumpy hour-long bus ride to the clinic, where they put in long hours. They then returned for dinner, always with homemade tortillas.
During long workdays, they not only treated conditions they’d never encounter in the U.S., but also barriers of language and literacy.
While the students knew some Spanish and had translators, none were fluent in all the regional dialects. They sometimes used body language and drawings to show patients how to administer a drug or whether to take it with food.
They also learned what it’s like to be valued as part of a medical team. Their expertise was sought and advice valued, especially when a preferred drug was in short supply and treatment modifications were needed on the fly.
The former students described the experience as a dream come true. Ben Graham also realized his own dream of having ACPHS students with him on a Guatemala mission trip, his final one—probably.
“It’s been a joke in my family: I’ve been on 12 ‘last’ trips,” said Ben, who has been a co-leader of the trip for six of those missions. “I’ve found a replacement co-leader.”
A collaboration with Francisco Marroquin University Dental School in Guatemala City is being developed to operate the dental portion of the clinic.
Arguments over his replaceability aside, Ben Graham has also inspired a new generation of ACPHS alumni to share their knowledge and compassion around the world. Drs. Rheaume and Jung said they intend for this mission trip to be their first of many.
“I definitely want to continue this trip,” Dr. Rheaume said. “I can see taking students on trips like this and being a preceptor myself, for a college of pharmacy.”
To read more stories about alumni and students, visit 2025 Breakthroughs & Advances.
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