Now here’s a delicious University of Portland story. Two Holy Cross priests in Argatala, India (Fathers Emanuel Kallarackal and
Paul Pudussery) — one of the poorest regions in that vast nation — return to The Bluff a while ago and wonder if the University can help bring health and joy to thousands of children in their region. Can the University maybe help launch a nursing school in their new Holy Cross University there? Soon two business professors (Mark Meckler and John Schouten) and a Providence Health & Services nurse (Sandy Gregg) are wandering through Argatala, taking stock of the situation, and soon after that nursing professor and alumna Deb Burton, Providence’s chief nurse, visits Argatala with three M.B.A. students (Rachel Leiber, Richard Moehl and Richard Wallace) to assess infrastructure, health care needs, and medical supply chain strategies by which Providence might effectively send medicine to the 110 dispensaries at mission schools in a huge remote rural region with no running water, paved roads, or technology transmission lines. Today Providence, the School of Nursing, the Congregation of Holy Cross, and the Pamplin School of Business are all cobbling ways by which children in Argatala might have their days and hearts elevated by the University of Portland. Wow. Our thanks to Deb Burton and to students Rachel Leiber, Richard Moehl and Richard Wallace for the photographs here.
– Editors