Diplomats don't have to be politicians, but being a president helps.
Penn President Amy Gutmann took a trip to Botswana this summer to visit the University of Botswana, which Penn has partnered with for the past six years.
On her trip, Gutmann met with the president of the university, the president of Botswana and the U.S. ambassador to the country.
In Botswana, Penn doctors, interns and undergraduates have been working to quell the country's raging HIV epidemic.
"I was really proud because they all did really good work," she said.
In Botswana, 34 percent of adults between the ages of 15 and 49 are infected with HIV.
In addition to its six year partnership with the university, Penn is also a significant contributor to the development of Botswana's first medical school, to open in August of 2008.
"Prior to 2008, [Botswana has] been sending students to train elsewhere, mainly in South Africa, Australia and Great Britain, at the expense of the government," said Harvey Friedman, the new deputy dean for academic development at the University of Botswana and a professor in the School of Medicine.
"They've been finding it difficult to attract the students back to the country."
But now, Friedman said, Botswanan medical students have been expressing a new desire to return to the country for post-medical graduate education.
To that end, Penn is helping the university develop an internship curriculum for returning students.
The new medical school's inaugural class will have 36 students.
For Gutmann, the trip wasn't all business: She had a chance to visit a Botswanan orphanage and meet others affected by HIV.
The most surprising thing, she said, was "to see what having such a high HIV positive rate means on the ground."
Friedman agreed about the wide-spread affects of HIV.
"HIV is such a complex disease that it reaches out to all segments of society, so you really can't deal with HIV as just a medical condition," he said.
As a result, the Penn program provides opportunities for students to work in a non-medical capacity.
Friedman is grateful for the University's support of the program in Botswana.
"If our intent to do good for mankind, Botswana is one of the best places we can be to make an impact," he said, adding that Gutmann's visit "makes a strong statement that Penn is deeply committed to Botswana."
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