Braden Hintze’s path to Africa started in a surprising place: Peru. There, as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he noticed how the communities he worked with were affected by their limited access to healthcare. “Seeing hospitals, clinics and other healthcare systems in Peru gave me an idea of how medicine was practiced in a different culture and part of the world,” he says. “It is where a spark for helping underserved communities, whether at home or abroad, began.”
In 2024 and 2025, that spark led him to Malawi, where he teaches English as part of the Fulbright US Student Program.
Understanding a New Culture
After his mission, Hintze returned to school at BYU with a new interest in healthcare, specifically global health. “I knew that my career would be largely in healthcare and that medical school was in my future,” he says. His hope is to eventually get involved with global humanitarian and education work to help underserved regions of the world gain access to high-quality healthcare. In preparation, he majored in neuroscience with a minor in gerontology.
The summer before his final year, he heard about a classmate who’d taken a year before medical school to do a Fulbright. Hintze was intrigued, as a Fulbright experience would give him a chance to immerse himself in a new country and culture, which would help him in his future profession. “When leading initiatives in global health, I believe it is absolutely vital to first understand the culture and perspective of the people with whom you are working,” he says. Living overseas for a year and experiencing a new culture firsthand would be invaluable in gaining that new perspective.
But he was also uncertain, as he wasn’t sure how Fulbright would fit into his med school goals. “While at first I was unsure whether this year-long commitment would fit right into my life story and plans, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot,” he says.
Applicants can pursue Fulbright grants for international study, research, or English teaching; Hintze decided to pursue the English teaching award (ETA), despite having relatively limited formal teaching experience. “I knew the award would be the right one for me as it would allow me to spend significant time in a healthcare setting, which was an invaluable opportunity,” he explains.
The other decision he had to make was which country to apply for. Though his missionary experience in Peru had influenced him deeply, he decided not to return to South America: “I felt like I had a good understanding of the culture and state of healthcare in that region of the world.”
Instead, he deliberately turned his attention to a continent he had no experience with: Africa. “I was eager to have an in-depth experience and understanding of this region of the world,” he explains. “If I ever wanted to make a real impact there, I would never be able to do so without really living in and immersing myself into the culture and communities.”
Malawi caught his eye for two reasons: “It seemed like it would offer me the most raw and authentic experience possible to see the challenges and understand the cultural dynamics of this region of the world,” he says. “My choice was confirmed upon hearing my sister’s stories from her recent HXP [a humanitarian nonprofit based in Utah] trip to Malawi. Malawi is known as ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’ and they really do seem to make it a priority to live up to that identity.”
Life in Malawi
In April 2024, he heard he’d received the award. In September, he flew to the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe, where landing on Kamuzu International Airport’s single runway was his first clue that he’d found himself in a very different world than he was used to. Another aspect of life in Malawi that has taken some getting accustomed to is the fact that less than 20% of the country has access to electricity, and what electricity there is can be unreliable and only available intermittently. Because of this, many residents rise with the sun and sleep when it sets; the students Hintze teaches wake up between 4 and 5 every morning. “I remember my first week at the school and the headteacher (principal) telling me how she has been requesting that students arise at 3–4 AM so that they can study under candlelight in preparation for the day’s school,” Hintze said in a post on his blog, which he created so his younger sister’s school class could follow along with his experience. “I was shocked and had to ask her again to make sure I heard the time correctly.” Before long, though, he’d started to adapt to the local schedule and began waking up before 6 AM.
Given how packed Hintze’s schedule in Malawi is, waking early may be a necessity. On Mondays and Wednesdays, he teaches at Kamuzu Palace Community Day Secondary School in Lilongwe; though his Fulbright award is for teaching English, he was also asked to teach chemistry. Class sizes can be anywhere from 50 to 100 students. “The school I was assigned to is a CDSS, meaning it is one of the lowest-resourced secondary schools in the country,” he says. “This provided its own challenges and obstacles,” including insufficient textbooks, pens, and desks. In a blog post, he wrote, “I will often see a student not working and ask them why they are not taking notes, and they will say it is because their neighbor is borrowing their pen and so they have to take turns. The principal of the school told me that last year some students even had to write those important national exams on the floor because there were not enough chairs, let alone desks, for everyone.”
In addition to teaching class, Hintze has implemented programs to enrich the students’ experiences: “I began English Club, where we did activities both at the school and at the American Center in coordination with the U.S. Embassy,” he says. “We had over 100 people that regularly attend the club.” He also started the first high school baseball team in Malawi, fundraising back home to purchase and ship baseball equipment to Lilongwe. “As this is the only baseball group I know of in the country, we have created a league amongst the different grade levels of our school where they compete monthly against each other with an end-of-year tournament coming up in May,” he says. “The students have picked up on it quickly and grown to love the new sport.”
Check out a video Hintze made showing his school here.
Sports are a major part of his evenings as well; he coaches tennis at a nonprofit tennis academy, working with students from underserved populations in the city. “As a former tennis player myself, this has been a huge blessing as sports have always been my favorite form of relaxing and decompressing,” he says. He teaches large groups of teenaged tennis players on a single makeshift tennis court in the parking lot of a large soccer stadium. As his tennis students speak little English, he says, he has been “forced to learn how to communicate using broken English, very basic Chichewa and Swahili, and a lot of non-verbal gestures/cues.”
An Eye-opening Perspective on Healthcare
But he doesn’t only spend his time teaching and coaching. With his interest in global healthcare, he decided to use the days he wasn’t at the school to experience medical care in Malawi firsthand. “At the beginning of my grant period, I approached various hospitals and medical centers both within Lilongwe and a nearby refugee camp,” he says. “I was super fortunate to be given the opportunity to work 2–3 days a week at two of these institutions on opposite ends of the spectrum.”
The first is a well-resourced hospital in Lilongwe, ABC Mission Hospital, which is attached to an African Bible College campus. There he helps with intake, assessing needs, and taking vital signs, as well as data analysis and presentations.
But he wanted to experience more, as he wrote on his blog: “Because of my interest in global health, I was interested in learning about healthcare in refugee camps. I want an understanding of the healthcare system as a whole, not just one end of the spectrum.” He found an additional volunteer opportunity at Dzaleka Refugee Camp, which houses refugees from across Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The small and low-resourced medical center has only six people on staff to serve more than 50,000 refugees. There, Hintze does much of the same work that he does at ABC Mission Hospital, but in a very different setting. “I see patients crowding into the waiting room draped across the benches, waiting for their opportunity to speak to the doctor or nurse,” he wrote in the same blog post. “Some are admitted to the ward for several days at a time where they lay in beds separated only by a few feet and no curtains. It is sobering and eye-opening to see these meager accommodations, as someone with hopes to one day provide care to these types of communities, whether at home or abroad.”
Seeing the whole spectrum of medical care available is an eye-opening experience, he says. “This has been one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable, portions of the grant, as I have really been able to see what healthcare here is like and not just from the perspective of a short 2–3 week caravan to Malawi. While the work I do is very basic, as my Medical Assistant Certification doesn’t transfer to Malawi, I still get to work with the doctors and nurses and really immerse myself into the roots of the healthcare system. The perspective I am gaining from working at these hospitals has been one I don’t think I could ever have obtained in a classroom, no matter how good the class. It is a really unique perspective that I can return to the states and begin medical school looking through. I feel like I am obtaining the network and experience that will allow me to bridge cultural gaps and lead medical and educational initiatives in this region.”
Click here to check out a video showing the two medical institutions where Hintze volunteers.
The Warm Heart of Africa
Though his time in Malawi can be demanding, Hintze has come to genuinely love the people there: “These people and communities have become some of my closest friends, and, as they would consider it here: my family,” he wrote in a blog post.
His time in the country has taught him why Malawi is often referred to as “The Warm Heart of Africa”: “Despite the poverty I have found that the people here are some of the happiest people I have met in my entire life,” he wrote. “As a very religious country, they believe that happiness comes from God, from helping others and from having a strong sense of community. I think this is why everyone has been so kind to me […] They know they already have everything they need to be happy: their God, family, and community. […] It is such a cool experience to live in a culture where people are focused on the we rather than the me, and where people will sacrifice what they have to help those around them.”
What Comes Next
Hintze will return to the US in June. Reflecting on this ending, he recently wrote this in a blog post: “While goodbyes are always sad, I intend to come back. I hope that the network I have formed, along with the deep understanding I have gained, will allow me to be an effective leader in future initiatives in the country. This has been such a unique experience for me to not only see what life is like for these communities, but also immerse myself into the education and healthcare spaces as well. I am really excited to see how this experience shapes my future plans.”
Once back in the US, he plans to apply to medical schools and work toward getting involved with global humanitarian efforts: “The idea is that my platform and knowledge as a doctor, combined with my in-depth experiences from Peru and Malawi, will place me in a unique position to effectively lead initiatives to transcend boundaries and expand access to healthcare and education in underserved communities.”
Reflecting on his Fulbright experience, he says, “At first the Fulbright program seemed like a very unlikely stepping stone in my non-traditional path, but it ended up being the exact experience I needed to get where I want in my career and life. I thank God that he put it in my path and that I had enough faith to at least apply and leave the door open.” His experiences in Malawi, he says, have been nearly as impactful as his time studying at BYU and serving as a missionary: “My education and mission were experiences that I always knew would be part of my future, but this came out of the blue and ended up being just as life-changing.”
To those students who are considering doing a Fulbright, he says, “I feel like I am a very non-traditional recipient of this award; however, I was able to mold it into my own customized program that has been perfect for me. I think anyone with the right personality and drive will also be able to do the same. So take the time to submit an application, and who knows—maybe it will end up being exactly what you needed.”
Interested in a Fulbright experience of your own? Click here to find out how to apply.