 The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship™ The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in 1940 to support Dr. Schweitzer's medical work in Africa and to promote his ethic of Reverence for Life. Today, the Fellowship's mission is to contribute to human health and solidarity by inspiring and empowering individuals to act on their ideals, through serving and learning from communities in need. The U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs. In 1991, the ASF initiated the Boston Schweitzer Fellows Program, the first of now six U.S.-based Schweitzer Fellows Programs located in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New Hampshire/Vermont, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh. Inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer's example of dedicating his life to serving others, the Schweitzer Fellows Programs encourage students to act on their idealism by serving needy individuals and communities locally. Each Schweitzer Fellow contributes at least 200 hours of community service carrying out a health-related project that benefits underserved populations, working through an existing community agency. Each year, approximately 145 students are selected at Schweitzer Fellows at our six programs. To date, over 700 Schweitzer Fellows have contributed 140,000 hours of service at hundreds of community agencies in the U.S. Our program is unique in that we bring together students from across schools and across health disciplines for a fellowship year. Ultimately, these Schweitzer Fellows Programs encourage the Fellows to incorporate community service throughout their careers. The Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellows Program. Since 1978, the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship has sent over 90 Schweitzer Fellows from New England area medical schools to the Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. Four medical students are selected each year to work at the Schweitzer Hospital as junior doctors for three month rotations in surgery, internal medicine, or pediatrics. For more information on The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship and its programs, please call 617-667-5111 or visit our web page at: www.schweitzerfellowship.org. Albert Schweitzer on Reverence for Life "The fundamental fact of human awareness is this: 'I am life that wants to live in the midst of other life that wants to live.' A thinking person feels compelled to approach all life with the same reverence one has for one's own. Thus all life becomes part of one's own experience. . . . In essence then, a person can be considered ethical only if life as such is sacred to him/her -- both in people and in all creatures that inhabit the earth." Dr. Albert Schweitzer, winner of the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize, developed the idea of Reverence for Life as the elementary and universal principle of ethics for the world. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) A renowned theologian, philosopher, organist, world authority on Bach, and church pastor, Albert Schweitzer decided at the age of 30 to become a medical doctor. He dedicated his life to serving the people of Africa, explaining "I decided to make my life my argument." In 1913 he and Hélène Bresslau, his wife, established a hospital in Lambaréné, a province in French Equatorial Africa. During World War I, they were transported as German citizens and prisoners of war back to France and their hospital was closed. He returned to Lambaréné in 1924 to rebuild his hospital. He worked there until he died in 1965. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, Schweitzer devoted his last decade to warning of the dangers of nuclear weapons. Timeline | 1913 - Schweitzer and his wife, Hélène Bresslau open
what is to become the Schweitzer Hospital in
Lambaréné.
| | 1915 - Schweitzer develops his ethic of Reverence for Life.
| | 1940 - Schweitzer authorizes the formation of The
Albert Schweitzer Fellowship to support his
medical work in Africa during World War II.
| | 1955 - Schweitzer gives the Albert Schweitzer
Fellowship its second mandate:
To promote his ethic of Reverence for Life.
| | 1991 - The U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs is
established to encourage health students to
seek community service projects that address
unmet health needs. |
ASF Board of Directors
Honorable Mark L. Wolf, Chairman
Lachlan Forrow, MD, President
Judith Kurland, Vice President
Helaine Miller, Vice President
Eric E. Van Loon, Vice President
Harvey E. Bines, Secretary/Treasurer
Lawrence Gussman, Chairman Emeritus
Rhena Schweitzer Miller, Director Emerita
Antje Lemke, Director Emerita
John C. Baldwin, MD
Ralph Fuccillo
Laura D. Gates
Sally Harris
James G. Jones, MD
Daphne Kempner
Stefan Kertesz, MD
Robert Lawrence, MD
Wilfred Mbacham, DSc
James J.O'Connell, MD
Joseph F. O'Donnell , MD
Phillip Pulaski, MD
Mitchell T. Rabkin, MD
Ian Rawson, PhD
Rebecca Reynolds Weil, OTR/L
Christoph H. Westphal, MD, PhD
Patricia S. White, MD The Albert Schweitzer FellowshipTM
330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
(617) 667-5111 |
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