Student Profile: Drew Zebley

While serving as the co-chair of the Temple Emergency Action Corps, Drew Zebley, MD ’18 organized week-long service trips to Guatemala and Ecuador.

Working with three faculty members and local physicians, in Guatemala Zebley and his peers saw and helped treat a child with chicken pox and farmers suffering from knee and back pain. In Ecuador, at the end of a long, rain-slicked dirt road, they conducted well-child checkups for 50 grade-schoolers.

“It gives you a perspective on things in terms of the resources, specialists and technology we have here,” he says. “But you also learn that the body is pretty much the same wherever you are.”

The Delaware County, Pennsylvania, native also participated in regular health literacy talks and wellness checks at local homeless shelters, and helped open a weekly student-run clinic for North Philadelphia residents.

A George Washington University classics graduate, Zebley worked two years as a GWU Hospital emergency department technician before completing Temple’s postbaccalaureate program. He just returned to GWU Hospital to start his residency in General Surgery.

“Temple really fosters relationships with people who have a passion for serving underserved communities,” says Zebley. “I’ve also found that if you are willing to extend a hand and show people in North Philadelphia—or anywhere in the world—that you care, they give you and teach you so much more than you can ever give them.”