City Rounds

A Keck School of Medicine graduate makes people in need his medical priority.

by Jon Nalick

In a class of medical school graduates already renowned for its community service, 2005 Keck School of Medicine of USC graduate Chris Gruber, M.D., stands out as someone extraordinary.

At 28, he has already spent a year in Nicaragua and five weeks in Haiti to help administer programs in orphanages, and has volunteered his medical expertise in the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Mexico. Most recently, he spent his five-week break from classes at USC performing a volunteer medical rotation at a hospital in Tanzania.

Gruber, the son of an African-American mother and a Caucasian- German father, attributes his love of international community service in part to his multicultural and multiethnic upbringing and background.

But even more than that, he is attracted to “the sense that it’s like going on an adventure and doing something for others that really makes you feel good about yourself,” he says.

Gruber, who speaks five languages with varying degrees of fluency and holds dual citizenship in the United States and Germany, says his education at the Keck School honed his clinical skills and allowed him to work alongside physicians “with similar interests—and with a lot of people with a strong social conscience.”

Coming from a medically oriented family, Gruber says he originally planned to avoid the field.

“I tried for the longest time not to become a doctor. I had other interests—languages, traveling and music. But when I volunteered in Nicaragua, and saw how much a doctor could help so many people in need, I knew I wanted to become a physician,” he says.

In Nicaragua, Gruber acted as an activities coordinator for a dormitory of 60 orphaned and abandoned children, many who had substance abuse problems and inadequate educational and recreational activities.

With his workdays starting at 4:30 a.m. and lasting until late into the night, Gruber lost a dramatic amount of weight due to stress and wondered if he would be able to finish out his year of service. But after two months, he decided to stick with it and was able to institute new programs that allowed the children to work under an exchange program in which they received scrip for chores that enabled them to buy sundry items and clothes.

“The program taught them to value things that they previously got for free and it really made a difference in their behavior and attitudes,” he recalls.

Gruber also began tutoring programs as well as popular sports and activities programs including baseball, soccer, basketball and crafts.

His experiences served as a template for similar programs he would create for an orphanage in Haiti and became a firm foundation for a five-week medical rotation at a Mennonite hospital in Tanzania.

Gruber has begun a residency in family medicine at the Ventura County Medical Center. The program focuses on preparing physicians to work in isolated, medically underserved areas, where they will be the primary medical experts responsible for a wide range of medical problems and emergencies.

Althea Alexander, assistant dean of the Keck School Office of Diversity, describes Gruber as “the most well-rounded medical student I’ve had the opportunity to work with in my 30 years here. He really is one of those people who belongs to the world.”