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[C. Dietzen] Well, in 1997, I was doing a lot of the international work. I was working in a number of countries, but I got distracted by one of my residents, who was training with me at the IU Med Center. Dr. Joe Bergeron was a former pastor in California, who wanted to do outreach in medicine in India. So he approached me and asked if I knew someone who would help him establish some medical programs in India, and I said \"Well sure, I would be happy to do that.\"

So in 1997, I made three trips to India, the first in January 97, and then returning in March 97, and again in August. But during that time I was working with the South India Church of Christ Mission and I worked with the Missionaries of Charity. I had the great blessing of meeting Mother Theresa, and it was then that I knew I could do more to help the underserved population in the world.

So the Timmy Foundation was begun in early 1997, with the idea that we could serve the underserved by activating the energy of our youth, and taking them to areas that they would get an opportunity to discern if they were meant to be doctors or nurses or therapists, while at the same time providing healthcare and education to kids who would otherwise not get it.

Initially we took a lot of adults and children--people who were interested in doing, as we said--medical mission work, but obviously when you get on the ground and you see what\'s going on in these areas. We had grade school kids up to grandparents who were working with us. And ultimately we realized that a big part of the focus of the Foundation needed to be shifted to nurturing this type of service learning for high school and college students.

So the medical explorer curriculum was designed to show them the situation that some of these children live in, take into consideration their culture, their geography, the epidemiology of a disease, political situation--what are all the factors that would keep this child from developing, from having the maximum opportunity for health and education, and therefore development.

so the curriculum is then used in high schools and colleges to prepare the students for what they will encounter in the field.

But ultimately, when I was seven, my life--there was a big change. My mom had told us there was a child who needed a home. And she said, \"What do you think? Should this little guy Mikey--who was then two years old--should he come and live with us?\" And I remember looking at my mom and saying \"He doesn\'t have a mom? He doesn\'t have a dad?\" I mean, to me, that was inconceivable. So Mikey was the first of 150 foster children that came to our home over the next 20 years.

Ultimately I went to Purdue, I got a bachelor\'s in agriculture, but realized my real calling was to take care of children.