Jesuit Alum Mark Dakkak ('06) Working on Global Health Issues

A recent graduate from returned to the Carmichael campus this week to speak during the school's annual .

Mark Dakkak, '06, a volunteer at the Program for International and Community Nutrition at the University of California, Davis, spoke about a past trip he took to Haiti. It was there that he visited poor families and learned that the youngest children are the most likely to be malnourished.

While a student at Jesuit, Dakkak played for the golf team, participated in Speech and Debate, went on an immersion trip to Chiapas, Mexico and led a Kairos retreat, school officials said.

He said the social justice mission of Jesuit had a huge impact on him.

"(Math teacher) Mr. (David) Zielke told us about his time with the Peace Corps," Dakkak said. "(Campus ministry director Paul) LeBoeuf told me to go after doing something I care about."

When Dakkak arrived at the University of California, Los Angeles, he said he wanted to volunteer. He became head of one of the largest community service organizations at UCLA-a student-run organization called Project Literacy that tutored at-risk youth in South Central Los Angeles, Jesuit officials said.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from UCLA.

During one summer, Dakkak spent five weeks volunteering at a children's hospital in El Salvador. He has continued to work on global health projects and spent a summer working at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University, Jesuit officials said.

He will begin medical school in the fall at Duke University and hopes to pursue a career in global health.

"I have kept in touch with Jesuit friends and teachers and I still carry things I learned here with me," Dakkak said. "When I have kids, I want to expose them to issues of social justice."

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To learn more about Partners in Health and their work in Haiti, go to
www.pih.org and http://www.pih.org/pages/haiti/.