Jennifer Pigoga is at home in an ambulance. As an emergency care technician, or EMT, she’s in a hurry to treat people who need help fast. Now the 22-year-old science whiz is taking her skills to South Africa—more than 7,800 miles away.

For the next year, she’ll work as a paid intern and study at the University of Cape Town, one of the best universities on the African continent. The once-in-a-lifetime journey was made possible through a highly competitive fellowship she won from the African Federation for Emergency Medicine.

Two things get Jenn charged up: emergency care and helping others. As a kid, she volunteered at local hospitals. At URI, she was an academic star, receiving private scholarships and many awards. Somehow she also found time to get her EMT license, which she put to good use as a volunteer for the Hope Valley Ambulance Squad.

In South Africa, many suffer because they can’t get proper medical care quickly. Jenn understands the importance of an immediate response, and she hopes to help. Cape Town will be her home base, and she will also travel to Ethiopia, Egypt, and Chad, writing educational materials and sharing her ideas.

She’ll come home next summer with a master of science degree in emergency care, then pack up a few weeks later to move to Emory University, where she’ll get a master of public health in global epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health, a top program in the United States.

“I’m getting a great start in my life thanks to URI,’’ Jenn says. “I’m so grateful.’’