Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
We had this easy understanding of one another, all of us had a similar mindset — we went to Creighton and loved it — so we were able to find each other and have a great time together.
By Jon Nyatawa
Several of her fellow volunteers were on that same flight to Honduras in February. But Creighton graduate McCall Bromelkamp didn’t get to talk to anyone. She’d been delayed and had to race through the Dallas airport to ensure she didn’t miss the departure time and this much-anticipated chance to volunteer for a week with a nonprofit that provides high-quality surgeries.
So, when the plane landed, she was thrilled just to be in Honduras.
But also, yes, a little unsettled — because this was all new, and the orthopedic surgeries scheduled for the week weren’t exactly her specialty, and she’d almost missed her flight, and it was hot, and she needed a water refill…
Wait! Was that a Creighton shirt????
Bromelkamp, BA’19, thought she saw a familiar shade of blue.
She was navigating through the airport toward the bus that would take everyone to the volunteer site, a 2,000-acre ranch located about an hour outside of Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa.
What she did not know was, at that exact moment, Kathryn Milbert, OTD’15, thought she saw the shirt, too.
What neither Milbert nor Bromelkamp knew: Olivia Odegard, BSN’23, was indeed wearing a blue Creighton T-shirt she had received during Welcome Week six years earlier.
Three Bluejays. On the same service trip through One World Surgery. A couple thousand miles away from the U.S. They’d never met before and had no idea of their shared connection.
Until they saw Odegard’s shirt.
“It’s just cool. We were not on campus at the same time — we didn't know each other at all — but us all being Creighton grads was a foot in the door,” Odegard said. “We had this easy understanding of one another, all of us had a similar mindset — we went to Creighton and loved it — so we were able to find each other and have a great time together.”
Said Milbert: “Oh, I have two new friends now, who I would have never had the opportunity to meet. And it was Creighton that really brought us together.”
Milbert and Odegard started chatting before they got on the bus — they ran into each other at an airport coffee shop. It was later that day, during a group-wide gathering at the ranch, that Bromelkamp asked Odegard about her shirt. And Odegard immediately brought Bromelkamp over to Milbert.
Then came the reminiscing, and the stories, and all the thoughts about everything that made the college experience at Creighton so special.
As it turned out, Odegard knew Bromelkamp’s freshman roommate – she was friends with her younger sister. And Milbert completed her undergrad degree at the same college as Odegard’s mom, Sarah, who was also on the trip. Bromelkamp went to high school with one of Milbert’s cousins.
“We found out pretty quickly how much we had in common, that we were from similar upbringings, that we had similar values,” Milbert said. “And in all reality, had we been there and not had the Creighton connection, I don't know that we would have got to know each other in that way.”
Because there wasn't a ton of downtime.
One World Surgery is a nonprofit with a mission to transform lives through accessible surgical and primary care globally. In its 20 years of serving patients, it has performed over 14,000 surgeries and over 118,000 consultations in Honduras and the Dominican Republic. OWS hosts about 50 medical missions and 1,500 volunteers per year. The nonprofit partners with Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, the children’s home that owns the acreage in Honduras.
For Milbert, Odegard and Bromelkamp, their trip’s focus was orthopedic operations. They were three of about 50 volunteers.
Milbert works with Summit Orthopedics in Minnesota as an occupational therapist specializing in rehabilitation treatments for injured hands. She assisted in clinic with One World Surgery, but she spent a lot of her time at the children’s home helping young patients and the on-site therapists.
Odegard, who works on the liver and kidney transplant floor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, volunteered in the post-anesthesia care unit and estimates they saw nine or 10 patients a day.
Bromelkamp spent her time in the clinic and the OR, assisting doctors, observing and scribing. She’s a fourth-year medical student on Creighton’s Phoenix campus.
When there was time, the trio grabbed meals together, chatted during breaks, and explored the grounds. They eventually learned that they all brought at least one Creighton shirt, too.
It’ll be a trip they never forget. But for more reasons than the chance encounter with fellow Bluejay grads. It was a week defined by selflessness, hopefulness and compassion.
“I just left remarkably impressed by the people that I met and how much they cared about everyone,” Bromelkamp said. “Everyone was there for the intrinsic meaning of just helping and serving. There was no secondary gain, no promise to be recognized for it. There were just people caring for and connecting with their patients. It was just really refreshing to see.”
