Abraham Hendryx

My name is Abraham Hendryx, and I did an internship in Riga, Latvia at the Dr. Kremnev Private Clinic. It was a private plastic surgery center specializing in cosmetic surgery. My supervisor was Dr. Andrei Kremnev, who is the founder and owner of the clinic and was known to be the best plastic surgeon in Latvia treating patients from all over the Baltics, Russia, and even Western Europe, including Great Britain.

During my internship, I shadowed the surgeon during all of the procedures. In between surgeries, I would sanitize and package all of the equipment according to high medical standards. I would also translate their website and various procedures into English for their English-speaking or non-Russian-speaking patients.

One of the most memorable and fun things that I did that summer outside of my internship, was play sand volleyball with the group of Egyptians I met. We would play multiple times a week and none of us were particularly good, but it was awesome to get to know this group of Egyptians and become their friend.

After my internship, I realized I did not want to go to Medical School, but instead, in part due to my interactions with my Egyptian friends playing volleyball in Riga, I decided to switch my major to Middle East Studies and Arabic.

Currently, I am attending law school, focusing on my studies with the intention of one day going into international law and diplomacy. My internship at the clinic itself didn’t have any real bearing on what I am doing now, but the two main things that really guided me in my education, career, and interests were those Egyptian friends that I made and the overall experience of living (studying, working, commuting, traveling) abroad. Who knows, maybe I would have ended up majoring in Middle East Studies and Arabic anyways, but my friendship with the Egyptians I met was definitely the tipping point. I have always wanted to live abroad but living in Latvia and seeing much of Europe definitely gave more life to that hope. The combination of those two things really pushed me to international law and diplomacy.

The Baltic States, Summer 2016