Counting down to healthy habits in Columbus!

Schweitzer Fellow for Life Sabrina Smith

Ohio State University College of Medicine student and Schweitzer Fellow for Life Sabrina Smith partnered with the Central Ohio Diabetes Association to bring evidence-based messaging around health and nutrition to children struggling with obesity. The 5-2-1-0 Healthy Kids Countdown helps kids remember four simple rules for health: eat five servings of fruits or vegetables per day, limit screen time to less than two hours a day, get one hour of exercise a day, and drink no sugar-sweetened beverages. Smith also created a student group at OSU College of Medicine to work with her on her weekly classes with children and train them to keep the program going.

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?
A: When I saw the Schweitzer Fellowship application, I knew right away that it was exactly the type of project I’d been looking for in medical school. I immediately began working on an idea for my application. I decided to work with the Central Ohio Diabetes Association (CODA), an organization I had some experience volunteering with already, and I knew when I saw the 5-2-1-0 initiative that I had the perfect opportunity to incorporate this fabulous organization into a project designed for kids. Through CODA, I was able to locate a community with a need for health education and begin constructing healthy living lessons around diabetes prevention and the 5-2-1-0 initiative.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?
A: My method of creating a sustainable project was to draw volunteers from the Ohio State community to participate in the weekly healthy living lessons we offered kids at the Cap City Kids after-school programs. I created a student organization at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and enlisted the help of several student volunteers to make each week a success. Creating a student organization based around my project allowed for an easy means of sustainability—in preparation for my clinical years, I appointed new officers to take over the lessons and to work with the same student population next year. I was pleased by the enthusiasm of the new group leaders, as not only will they allow the themes of healthy living to be sustained at the Cap City Kids programs and allow the Central Ohio Diabetes Association to maintain a line of communication with the project, but it will offer the participants of the programs continuity of the mentorship that has been built over the past year.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?
A: I think the most pressing health related issue of our time is clearly equal distribution of care amongst our entire population. Asking how to address it is somewhat of a loaded question—clearly there is no easy answer. As a student in the medical profession, I can see all too clearly the financial difficulties of universal health care, and the practical boulders that must be overcome to achieve it. However, I think that we are making strides as a community to focus on using our individual abilities to work toward offering free health care to the best of our abilities in clinics across the country as our nation works at a higher level to pursue the options that will make healthcare more widely available to all demographics.

Q: What was the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?
A: I think the most surprising element of the Schweitzer Fellowship experience was how much support was available from all fronts throughout the year. I knew that working out a project while being a full time medical student would be challenging—and it was—but it was made so much easier by the time and support of the Columbus-Athens Schweitzer Fellowship board members, students and staff at Ohio State, and staff at the sites where I worked.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life mean to you?
A: Being a Fellow for Life is such an incredible honor, and I’m so excited to begin this next leg of my journey in the Schweitzer Fellowship. I have met so many like-minded individuals from a variety of backgrounds that have come together as members of the Schweitzer family this year, and I am looking forward to continuing to meet the people that will be a part of my personal and professional life in the years to come. I think that being a part of a network like the Fellows for Life means that I will always have a community of other professionals in the health fields that share a passion for service and for addressing disparities in healthcare, and that support will be invaluable as we move forward with our careers.

Click here to learn more about the Columbus-Athens Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

Serving up aces in Durham, North Carolina

Schweitzer Fellows Melissa Hector-Greene and Kimberly Cocce

Schweitzer Fellows Kimberly Cocce and Melissa Hector-Greene are medical students at Duke University School of Medicine. For their Fellowship project, they partnered with Playworks Durham on a tennis program for children ages seven through 10 designed to increase physical activity. “I’ve come to realize that one of the greatest barriers for children in becoming more active is a lack of mentors and role models who demonstrate that physical fitness provides health benefits and can be fun at the same time,” Cocce says. “Tennis is a wonderful sport for children because it provides cardiovascular exercise, as well as training in agility, strength, and mental focus.”

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?
Melissa: Moving to North Carolina for medical school really opened my eyes to the reality of the state of children’s health in America. Children and teenagers are now suffering from diseases usually reserved for older folk, such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. Instead of sports physicals and well-visits, more children were coming in to the pediatric clinics for weight control consultations and A1C tests. Furthermore, overweight children, many of whom are minority or low- income, face other barriers, such as lack of safe spaces to play, lack of family and community support for regular physical activity and lack of health education. In order to stem the trend toward obesity-related illnesses among children, we need to permanently adjust their and their families’ attitudes toward healthy lifestyle habits.

I thought back to my own experience growing up, and realized that the physical activities I stuck with were the ones that I found enjoyable and that were easily sustainable. Unlike traditional team sports like football and soccer, tennis only required two people and was virtually free. It’s also an incredible workout and teaches valuable life skills such as patience and perseverance. I was excited about sharing my passion for this sport with children who might never have been exposed. Perhaps they too could find a physical activity to stick with for life. I imagined a physical activity mentorship program that provided children with a supportive space to learn the lifelong sport of tennis and to learn about the positive immediate and long-term benefits of exercise.

Kimberly: We worked with third and fourth graders who had little if any exposure to the sport of tennis. Typically, playing tennis on a large court with fast balls can be intimidating for young kids. For this reason the United States Tennis Association came up with a program called Ten and Under Tennis. Ten and Under Tennis introduces children 10 years old and younger to the game with a smaller court and racket, as well as slower ball. It also provides access to a low impact, life-long sport.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?
Kimberly: It is my hope that our project will inspire elementary students to take ownership of their physical and mental health, and to spread their newfound love for physical activity to their peers, families, and larger community. One of the most redeeming and admirable qualities of the Schweitzer Fellowship is the focus on creating sustainable programs that fill a need of the community. We are incredibly fortunate to have partnered with our local chapter of Playworks, in Durham, North Carolina. Playworks in a national non -profit which has been remarkably successful in establishing programs that provide organized physical activity both at recess and before and after school in underserved elementary schools. With their expertise, we implemented a program that is effective in school aged children. By providing another sport, including resources and additional training, our program adds diversity to the Playworks repertoire. Combined with the excitement of junior students to continue our project, Playworks annual presence will ensure that our efforts to create a new outlet for discovering the joy of physical activity are sustainable over the long-term.

Melissa: I hope our program helps change attitudes in low-income Durham communities about the value of active play in the short-term and long-term physical well-being of children. Not only do I want the children and parents to learn more about tennis as an option for daily exercise, but I want to increase awareness about other areas affecting health, such as nutrition and stress management. I have been heartened to learn that several of my associates in the current local tennis community got their starts through grassroots organizations such as this. Ultimately though, the most important impact would be to see a decrease in the number of children plagued with diseases resulting from persistent inactivity.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?
Melissa: I believe the most pressing health-related issue now is the rising incidence of diabetes and metabolic diseases in the population. Almost every body system is adversely affected by diabetes, and it is a major source of disability. The fact that younger and younger people are affected by these diseases is cause for great concern, from a public health perspective and an economic perspective. This trend, which has been building for several decades now, needs to slow down in order for us to maintain a healthy, productive nation.

This is a difficult problem to address because reversing the trend resists established societal norms such as sedentary jobs and entertainment and over-nutrition. However, I think educating families, especially the children, on healthy lifestyle habits may make a difference. I also think that promoting physical activity in a spirit of play and enjoyment, rather than duty will encourage people incorporate more activity into their lives, thereby decreasing their chances of disease.

Kimberly: The astounding numbers of individuals who are overweight or obese is the most pressing health-related issue of our time. In a recent report, North Carolina was named the 16th most obese state in the country. The state’s obesity rate has increased by more than 80 percent in the past 15 years and continues to grow at alarming rates. Given the significant comorbidities associated with obesity, including heart disease, asthma, osteoarthritis, and even certain types of cancer, it is no surprise that obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide. Targeting youth is the most effective way to address this issue. Adult habits are incredibly difficult to break; however, teaching children from a young age the value of physical activity and the importance of a healthy diet can help prevent those bad habits before they are formed. Children can learn by example that exercise can be fun and eating foods that are nutritious is good! When working with children, it is of the upmost importance to involve the entire family to ensure their individual success. Also, by involving parents in the learning process, the lessons can extend to the entire family.

Q: What was the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?
Kimberly: The community’s strong response and enthusiasm for our project. Since the outset of our planning, the idea for our project was met with great excitement. Members of our community were immediately motivated to connect us with the best resources for developing our program and have continued to be incredibly encouraging along the way. One of my favorite examples is the success of our tennis racquet drive. Recognizing a great need for equipment, but with limited funds, we reached out to local tennis clubs for donations of racquets appropriately sized for children. We collected more than 60 racquets solely from the generous donations by tennis lovers in our local community!

Melissa: The most surprising aspect of being a Schweitzer Fellow has been how open other community organizations have been to helping us achieve our goals. Even though our community partners had never heard of the Schweitzer program before we introduced them to it, having a well- established organization behind us added legitimacy to our proposals and made them more at ease working with us.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life mean to you?
Melissa: Being chosen as a Schweitzer Fellow was a great honor, and a testament to the organization’s confidence in our project’s potential for lasting positive impact on the community. In turn, that trust motivates me to ensure the success of our program. As a member of the Fellowship, I’ve benefitted greatly from the support and expertise of former fellows, as well as guidance from our leaders. Hearing past and present fellows’ stories about “boulders” and how they overcame them has been a real source of relief and hope. As a Fellow for Life, I know I will always have peers who share a passion for earnest and meaningful service to others.

Kimberly: Serving as a Schweitzer Fellow was a unique opportunity to provide meaningful service to members of our local community, combined with significant professional and personal development. My work as a Fellow will inform my future work as a healthcare provider. I’ve learned so much about the barriers that individuals in my community face to living healthy lives. By working with children in particular, I have been exposed to the detrimental habits people develop and the struggles they face from an early age. My interaction with these children will inform how I can work together with my patients to find healthy alternatives in their own lives. I have also begun to gain a greater knowledge about services that are available in the local community.

By serving as a Fellow for Life, I will always have an outlet and resource to share ideas, advice, successes and failures, so everyone — both the service providers and recipients — can benefit from past experiences. My lifetime involvement will give me longevity to gain further insight into the backgrounds and basic health attitudes of the North Carolina population. By better understanding my community through my own experiences and the experiences of others, both in the present and many years down the future, I will be better prepared to serve and to practice medicine in North Carolina.

Click here to learn more about the North Carolina Schweitzer Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

In Vermont, helping premature babies and their families thrive

Schweitzer Fellows for Life Jessie Evangelista and Janet Trang created a program pairing families with a baby in neonatal intensive care with a family that had successfully brought home a baby after a stay in neonatal intensive care. Evangelista and Trang, both students at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, partnered with the Fletcher Allen Health Center for their project. Evangelista shared some of what she learned through the experience with Beyond Boulders.

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?
A: I had my first exposure to babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) when I was in grammar school. The school bus used to drop my sister and me off at the hospital where my mother worked. Without fail, I would ask my mom to take us to see the babies in the NICU after work. A few years ago, I began volunteering as a cuddler at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital (MSCHONY) in New York City. With over 70 babies in the NICU at any given time, there was always at least one baby that needed someone to hold them, sing to them, or read them a bedtime story. While volunteering at MSCHONY, I had the opportunity to hold babies born more than 18 weeks early and weighing less than a pound at birth. When I started medical school at the University of Vermont College of Medicine in August 2011, I immediately asked how I could get involved in the NICU, and within two months I was a cuddler. When Janet and I were developing this project, I wanted to merge the passion that I have for working with babies with the genuine need that I saw in the babies and families in the NICU. Reading through the projects that all of the Schweitzer Fellows have developed, it is easy to see that life is filled with struggles. With all that life can throw at us, nothing compares to coming into this world already at a disadvantage. The babies that Janet and I worked with were struggling just to breathe, eat, and maintain their temperature. Our Schweitzer Fellowship has been an incredibly humbling experience for me. It reminds me each and every day that something as simple as my time can make a world of difference.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?
A: Janet and I created a Parent Matching Program to pair NICU graduate families to current NICU families and a medical student Cuddling Program. While the focus of this Schweitzer Fellowship is the immediate implementation these two programs, in the future, we will be relying on current first year medical students and the NICU staff to carry on and manage these programs. The hope is that years down the road, families currently being mentored will have become mentors themselves, and that their mentees will go on to do the same.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?
A: My gut reaction to this question was accessibility and affordability of healthcare. I think, however, that there is another issue at hand that was summed up well by Dr. Ariel Pablos, Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, when she said, “Too often the global health community has focused on disease- and population-specific programs, rather than on strengthening health systems as a whole. Such neglect has led to fragmentation and inequitable financing for general health services.” While there are incredible programs based on the treatment of specific diseases and populations, there is a need for a more widespread approach to healthcare. I believe that a reorganization and reallocation of our existing resources across the entire healthcare community would be more beneficial than having many small groups, all trying to tackle different diseases and problems individually.

Q: What was the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?
A: Most people are surprised to hear that I have volunteered close to 1,500 hours in Neonatal Intensive Care Units and nearly 400 hours since beginning medical school. What I find most surprising, however, is that the babies and families I worked with gave more to me than I could ever give them. In the first two years of medical school, it is easy to get caught up in the everyday stresses, but working with premature babies is a constant reminder of why I ever wanted to be a doctor in the first place.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life mean to you?
A: I had an incredible experience as a Schweitzer Fellow. This has been largely due to the constant inspiration and support of The Vermont and New Hampshire Schweitzer Fellows. To me, being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life means that I will have an opportunity to impact my peers and successors, not just on my own, but as part of a larger entity.

Click here to learn more about the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

Raising awareness about HPV among the LGBT community in Central Ohio

Schweitzer Fellow for Life James Carter

Schweitzer Fellow for Life James R. Carter, MPH, a doctoral student at The Ohio State University College of Social Work, realized that there was little awareness of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) among the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population. HPV is the most common sexually-transmitted infection and it impacts both men and women. While not everyone who is infected with HPV gets ill, those who do get ill can experience quite serious symptoms ranging from genital warts to certain cancers. The more he learned about HPV, the more Carter wanted to make raising awareness of the infection the focus of his Schweitzer Fellow Project.

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?

A: I was approached by a member of my community about a very personal experience that had inspired him to want to do more. We discussed the idea of doing a very grassroots program to get a conversation started in the gay and lesbian community of Central Ohio about the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). As we thought about our own personal knowledge, and asked some of our friends about their knowledge of HPV we realized very few people are aware of this emerging health concern. It was at that time that I heard about The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship and realized it was the perfect outlet for this type of project. Thus the project was developed, submitted, and accepted.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?
A: I hope that the lasting impact of my project will be a couple key things. The first is that a conversation is started and awareness created about HPV and its potential role in later in life conditions. In age groups where it is appropriate, our city provides services for vaccination against HPV through my partnering agency, Columbus Public Health. So we are empowering people with not only information, but services that protect them.

The other lasting impact I hope the program has is an increase on the participant’s ability to find information about health conditions and be critical consumers of the information that they find. Within the context of HPV, the program is empowering participants with skills applicable to a wide range of health conditions and related decision-making.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?
A: I think the most pressing health issue of our time is actually the Internet. And I know that this answer may cause some people to say, ‘What?,’ but the Internet is such a conduit of information dissemination, as well as behavioral facilitation. In other research I have conducted the Internet has quickly established a central-role in facilitating much of our human interaction, both virtually and physically. There is the issue of so much information, so quickly available to people, and the program I am conducting takes aim at this by guiding participants through trusted sources of information (i.e., the CDC) and accessible sources of critical services (i.e., vaccination at places like Columbus Public Health).

Q: What has been the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?
A: I think the most surprising element of my experience thus far has been a number of things. My mentor Dr. Randi Love, and site facilitator Dr. Audrey Regan, have been such amazing advocates for me, and provided such valuable assistance. Early on the original conception of the project was not working as efficiently as it could, and with their assistance we were able to quickly change the look of the project. This has ultimately made the project vastly more impactful, reaching more community members and in a more meaningful way, I believe. Also the experience of meeting with the other Fellows has provided many opportunities to look at my project differently and consider different ways that change is created.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life mean to you?
A: I am really excited to expand my exposure to the Schweitzer legacy by joining the Fellows for Life program at the conclusion of my program. Being a part of such a group of driven people, and dynamic views on social problems will be inspiring and provide me motivation to keep looking around and trying to figure out how to answer the problems that our society faces.

Click here to learn more about the Columbus-Athens Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

In North Carolina, implementing a brain fitness program for those living with Alzheimer’s

Schweitzer Fellows for Life Gerard Colmer, left, and Bryan Neth

Schweitzer Fellows for Life Henry Gerard Colmer and Bryan Neth are medical students at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Last year, partnering with both the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the Alzheimer’s Association, they created an eight- to 10-week cognitive and behavioral program for people living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?

Bryan: We ultimately decided to focus on the geriatric population, as we felt this is a population that can be easily overlooked. Our project mentors, Drs. Kaycee Sink and Morgan Bain, helped us narrow our focus to individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The very nature of these disorders (memory loss and cognitive impairment) leaves this population vulnerable. Both Gerad and I have previously seen the profound effects of dementia on both the patients and caregivers in clinic and in the community. Personally, serving those with dementia is very important, as I would ultimately like to receive training in Neurology and Dementia, and perform research to improve our understanding of these diseases in hopes of prevention and cure. As a second year medical student, to see this disease process and its effects on a weekly basis helps in my personal understanding of dementia and will surely impact my future work.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?

Gerard: We have worked with the gerontology interest group at Wake Forest School of Medicine to make our eight- to 10-week program part of their organization to help ensure that even while the individuals who attend Wake Forest may change with the passing years our program will continue on as new students fill the ranks of the gerontology interest group.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?

Gerard: I would argue that the most pressing health-related issue of our time is the lack of access to health care that many individuals are facing. It’s a multifaceted issue that encompasses a wide variety of concerns that need to be addressed including health care costs, the rising number of uninsured/under-insured individuals, insufficient practitioners in certain geographic regions, as well as the lack of educational resources individuals need to empower them to make informed decisions about their health.

Bryan: I think the aging population of the United States will be the most pressing health-related issue of our time. The sheer number of Baby Boomers combined with the gaps in our knowledge of the aging process will present formidable challenges. The beauty of medicine is that when it works well individuals are able to live longer, healthier lives. This is great, yet in the history of the human population we have not lived as long as we do in the present. There will be disease processes, like Alzheimer’s disease, that will increase in incidence/prevalence. We will also see the long-term management of chronic conditions already facing our population.

Q: What has been the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?

Gerard: I have been pleasantly surprised at how eager and motivated the group participants have been in engaging in the various activities that we facilitate in our small group sessions. Also, based upon the task at hand you will often witness an individual who is ‘higher functioning’ in the domain that the task requires act to help the ‘lower functioning’ individuals. This really creates a special environment where, even though we are pushing them to ‘exercise their brains’ which can be very taxing, we all often end up laughing together and having a good time. The strength and resilience displayed, especially by the higher functioning individuals who are more self-aware of their cognitive decline, is very humbling and remarkable.

Bryan: I was surprised to see the enthusiasm of our participants for our activities. From our first session we were able to engage most of participants and their enjoyment shows at the end of our sessions. This observation has been consistent through our sessions. I am truly grateful for the enthusiasm and enjoyment of our participants, as this illustrates that we are having some impact in the community we chose to serve.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life mean to you?

Gerard: The core belief system of the Schweitzer Fellowship pertaining to service and the innate desire to improve the lives of those in our community is among one of the largest driving forces that led me to pursue a career in medicine and similarly has led me to pursue acceptance into the Schweitzer Fellowship program. As a medical student it is all too easy to fall into the grind of lectures and preparation for exams and forget why we started this whole journey in the first place.

Bryan: I would never have imagined that as a second year medical student I would have had the opportunity to co-lead a service project for a patient population that I seek to work with professionally. The various trainings, discussions with other Fellows, guidance, and overall structure of the Schweitzer Fellowship fostered the development of our Brain Fitness Program, and the Schweitzer Fellowship has provided me with a set of skills that will be useful in my career in developing future service projects.

Click here to learn more about the North Carolina Schweitzer Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

In Ohio, introducing kids to triathlon

Schweitzer Fellow Brooke Starkoff

Schweitzer Fellow Brooke Starkoff, a graduate student at Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology, partnered with the YMCA of Central Ohio to make routine exercise fun for kids. Although nearly none of her students had heard of the sport of triathlon—races that see competitors swimming, biking, and running in one race—before Brooke introduced them to it, they were all “incredibly excited” to train for an indoor race. 

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?
A: I believe most kids truly enjoy being active, but do not always have the opportunity to participate in physical activity. I wanted to offer a fun, low-pressure program in which these children can participate and feel part of a bigger group. For me, as a child and an adult, physical activity has been instrumental in maintaining health as well as developing confidence and pride. A sport like triathlon offers these kids the opportunity to accomplish a goal, which many of them never believed they could achieve.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?
A: I sincerely hope these children will be reminded of how much fun it is to be active. I would love for them to walk away from this program with a greater interest in taking care of their health. Even more so, I hope they have a stronger sense of self and become more aware of all they are able to achieve.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?
A: I truly believe that obesity, both in adults and children, is the most pressing health related issue. It is particular frightening in children, due to the greater number of years they are exposed to the negative impacts caused by obesity. The fact that we are seeing a significant number of children with Type 2 Diabetes and early indicators of cardiovascular disease is alarming. This generation of children will grow to be very sick adults if we do not intervene and make changes. We must help reintroduce regular physical activity to our children and work to offer them healthier food options both at school and at home.

Q: What has been the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?
A: Many of the children I am working with are incredibly excited to exercise with me and are looking forward to the indoor triathlon. This surprises me because many of these children have never before participated in or even seen a triathlon. It is great to hear them talk about the upcoming race and watch how hard they push themselves during our time together. I am incredibly proud of all of their efforts.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life mean to you?
A: It is truly an honor to be associated with the Albert Schweitzer name. Albert Schweitzer lived his life helping others, not as an obligatory chore, but as a way of being and I strive to do the same. Since my first day as a Schweitzer Fellow I have felt great pride in my project and in the hopes that I can make a difference in the lives of these children. However, I also feel that being a Schweitzer Fellow involves more than my kids’ triathlon project. I too feel the “reverence for life” and strive to continue to create change and make a difference.

Click here to learn more about the Columbus-Athens Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

Confronting the global obesity epidemic

In 2011, Lambaréné Fellows Laura M. Blinkhorn and Mascha A. Davis met a young woman at The Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Just 26-years old, she was suffering from blinding headaches and a burning pain in her chest. It turns out that Marie, an otherwise energetic and ambitious entrepreneur (she ran a busy food stall selling beignets), was suffering from high blood pressure, gastric reflux, and high blood sugar. She was also significantly overweight.

In a “Narrative Matters” column for the public health policy journal Health Affairs, Blinkhorn and Davis, recount their attempts to work with Marie about nutrition, and their reaction to Marie’s condition:

[I]t was strange to see a morbidly obese young woman being treated in the same hospital where one of us was also developing a protocol for the nutritional needs of undernourished children. The world’s rapidly changing caloric and nutritional imbalance – evident in the fact that the number of obese people worldwide is now estimated to exceed the number with malnutrition – was brought vividly home to us.

Health Affairs has made the full article, “Tackling the Weight of the World: What One African Woman Taught Us About Global Obesity,” available online. You can read it here.

In New Hampshire, helping African immigrants access healthcare

Schweitzer Fellow for Life Lina Shayo

Schweitzer Fellow for Life Lina Shayo, a student at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, recently completed her Schweitzer Fellowship in which she helped recent African immigrant women access healthcare in Manchester, NH. She created a pamphlet that explains their right to access healthcare. She also worked with community leaders to help train women to advocate for their right to access care. “My ultimate hope is that they will be able to use the skills they acquire to become better self-advocates in all aspects of their lives,” Shayo explained.

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?
A: As a new law student, I was learning about the law, the power it has and the protection it gives us. I was so eager to put the things I was learning in practice and when I learned about the Schweitzer Fellowship it seemed like the perfect fit. I focused on immigrant women because as an immigrant, I felt I had a better grasp of the issues. This Fellowship drew me in because it was a chance to combine the two things I was passionate about—immigrant rights and the law.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?
A: A focus of the Fellowship was creating a pamphlet explaining the benefits of using an interpreter, as well as patient rights. The goal is to have this pamphlet translated into different languages and displayed in health centers in my community. I hope eventually it will be prominently displayed in health care centers across New Hampshire! Also, as part of my Fellowship, I conducted workshops teaching women about how to be their own advocate as they access healthcare. My ultimate hope is that they will be able to use the skills they acquire to become better self-advocates in all aspects of their lives.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?
A: I think the most pressing issue is the lack of access to basic preventative health care. I see this problem within the demographic I work with, where many people never see a doctor until it’s too late. Part of this is influenced by culture, but also by cost. Hopefully this will change when the new federal health law is implemented and every American will be able to access basic health care.

Q: What has been the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?
A: The most surprising element has experiencing how open and available various people have been in helping me with this project. When I first began my Fellowship, I had an idea of what I wanted to do but did not know where to start. As I reached out to leaders in the immigrant community and the health care field, I found many people who were concerned about this issue and were willing to give their time and knowledge to help design and implement an effective and sustainable project. I am grateful for all the help I have received.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow for Life mean to you?
A: It means being part of a community of people who value service. This year, being a Fellow has given me a chance to work within my local community to affect change. I hope it will help me continue to serve my community as I progress in my career, and to inspire others to do the same, just as other Schweitzer Fellows have inspired me.

Click here to learn more about the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

In Baltimore, employing puppetry to talk about sexual abuse

Schweitzer Fellow Maya Nadison

As a summer teacher in a Baltimore City public school, Maya Nadison found out that one of her students lost a sibling to rape and murder. Learning of the violent crime itself was distressing, but Nadison was even more upset by how students reacted to the news. “The students in the classroom were unperturbed upon hearing this tragic story – they had already heard stories of sexual violence and murder in their communities,” Nadison recalled. “Although I was appalled at how quickly these students apparently ‘normalized’ the situation, I realized that they did not have the luxury of being sheltered, as I was, from these heart-wrenching events.”

Nadison took that experience and built her Schweitzer Fellowship project around it. Nadison, a PhD candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is teaching teens in Baltimore about body ownership, personal safety and communication with trusted adults. She partnered with the Baltimore Child Abuse Center to create a workshop employing puppetry to help teens talk about these difficult issues.

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?

A: The school setting offers the unique opportunity to reach large numbers of children within the classroom, allowing for reflection about program content. I want to offer these students a more hopeful, yet realistic perspective on sexual abuse, and I am using puppets to communicate these sensitive messages. Puppets are “neutral”, meaning that they do not necessarily identify with a specific culture, language, or social class. This is particularly true when anthropomorphizing the characters (giving human attributes to animals). Therefore, puppets can deliver serious public health messages without offending or intimidating an audience.

For as long as I can remember, I have tried to integrate my passion for the arts with my chosen career in public health. My project is, at its core, interdisciplinary in nature — embracing the fields of child mental health, education, and theater. Child sexual abuse represents a significant public health challenge, and is consistently associated with increased vulnerability to depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sexual abuse is also correlated with academic and social-emotional problems. With support from a school social worker and staff from the Baltimore Child Abuse Center, I meet with middle-school students weekly to help them construct puppets and prepare for an end-of-year puppetry performance on the topic of sexual abuse. In parallel, I am working on a script, constructing puppets, and designing scenery for a school-based public outreach program to address child sexual abuse. Eventually, I hope to engage a troupe of volunteer adult thespians to perform in schools in, and around Baltimore.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?

A: Discussing sexual abuse with teenagers in the school context is a colossal task. I understand that some of the students in my puppetry workshop may know someone who experienced sexual abuse, or are victims themselves. Although I am not privy to this information, I am reassured by the thought that I can direct students to the Baltimore Child Abuse Center if they need help processing their feelings. Regardless of students’ history of victimization, the workshops deliver crucial information about ways to protect oneself from danger (whether sexual or other), while emphasizing the importance of communicating with a trusted adult in times of need. Additionally, the puppetry workshop creates a network of students who bond through shared activities (such as learning to sew, or rehearsing for a performance). The puppetry workshops provide a space for the students to create and acquire new skills, while learning essential life lessons.

Beyond my time as a Fellow, I hope that the prevention team at BCAC will continue to use the model that I will have created to sensitize students about sexual abuse through the use of puppetry. In the meantime, I plan to continue leading this puppetry workshop for as long as possible. To further assure the dissemination of this work, I intend to write and illustrate a children’s book to spread important messages about sexual abuse. My hope is that eventually this book will accompany the performance and serve to reinforce the important public health messages that I strive to communicate.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?

A: As a student of child mental health, I see child abuse and neglect as one of the most daunting public health challenges of our time. Child abuse is ubiquitous and includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Abused children experience a gamut of physical, emotional, developmental and social problems, often hindering their ability to live healthy and fruitful lives.

Given the devastating consequences of victimization through abuse, there is a growing need for universal programs to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect through education. I believe that prevention programs need to target both the children and their parents. Communicating about abuse and neglect can help lift the taboo that weighs on abused children. I hope that my project can contribute somehow to these prevention efforts.

Q: What has been the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?

A: During my time as a Schweitzer Fellow, I have come to realize just how prevalent child sexual abuse really is. It is one thing to read the statistics about the prevalence of child sexual abuse, but it is another to have people tell you firsthand about their histories of abuse. Over and over, I have encountered individuals, who upon hearing of my project, volunteered information about their personal history of abuse and asked if they could contribute to the project in some way. I am truly grateful for the trust these individuals have placed in me, and I firmly believe that talking about the abuse is the first step to healing.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow (and ultimately a Schweitzer Fellow for Life) mean to you?

A: Naturally, the Schweitzer Fellowship has created a community of talented individuals who strive for the betterment of their respective communities. Being a Schweitzer Fellow invokes respect and sets a standard for high quality community work. However, what I value most is how the Schweitzer community welcomes innovative projects, often involving the arts. Personally, I have struggled to combine my passions for theater and public health — often finding it difficult to capture the imagination of individuals I wished would be proponents of my work. Becoming a Schweitzer Fellow has renewed my fervor in theater for public health, and I am hopeful that this community will lead to collaborations in the future.

Click here to learn more about the Baltimore Schweitzer Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.

 

In Houston, empowering refugees to navigate the healthcare system

Schweitzer Fellow David Savage

Houston-Galveston Schweitzer Fellow David Savage, a third-year MD/PhD student at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, has developed an orientation program that empowers refugees to navigate Houston’s healthcare system, utilize entitled health benefits, and establish consistent medical homes. Partnering with The Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Savage helped run four health fairs for refugees that provided free blood sugar testing and flu vaccines. Savage recruited more than 30 medical students to help with each of the fairs that eventually served more than 500 clients. Savage also ran weekend classes at the apartments where refugees live. He hosted 20 classes over the course his fellowship, and he saw an average of 10 clients per class.

Q: Why did you decide to develop your particular project?

A: It was serendipity that brought me to my project and my community site. In November 2011, I worked with several other students to plan a large scale community health fair. Originally the YMCA had agreed to host our project, but that fell through and we were left scrambling for another community partner. A friend suggested the Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, which is one of Houston’s refugee resettlement agencies. The Alliance was super excited to have our fair and bent over backwards to make it a success.

About the same time I began considering applying for the Houston-Galveston Albert Schweitzer Fellowship after a faculty member encouraged me to do so. Originally I wanted to do a dental project after seeing a homeless patient in a downtown Houston clinic dealing with chronic tooth pain. He waited six months to get into a county dental clinic just to find out that he had high blood pressure and that it would have to be treated before he could get the tooth extractions he needed. I contacted several dentists but didn’t get much traction on finding a project.

After the success of the Alliance health fair I contacted them again to see if they’d be interested in having a year-long fellow. Again they were super excited by this opportunity, and we set up a time to meet and brainstorm about project ideas. This lead to my project, which improves the social determinants of healthcare access for refugees in Houston. My site mentor and the administrators at the Alliance have been incredibly committed to my project and I really could not have asked for a better arrangement.

Q: What do you hope will be the lasting impact of your project on the community it serves?

A: One of the aims of my project this year was to get other students involved. I set up a non-credit elective at my medical school where students that participate in a certain number of my project activities throughout the year get acknowledgement of their participation in their Dean’s letter for medical residency training. So far, seven students have completed all of the requirements to get this credit, and I fully expect that at least 10 will do so by the end of my project. I have also had nearly 30 student volunteers at each of the three health fairs I have hosted so far, and I should have at least as many at my final fair.

I hope that some of these students will be eager to continue some aspects of my project with the Alliance next year. I will also be renewing this non-credit elective opportunity in 2013-2014 and I have been in communication with a student from Baylor College of Medicine that plans to do a refugee-oriented project with the Alliance next year with a focus on mental health and youth way finding for their parents. It is my hope that her novel project will compliment mine and keep the momentum from this year going.

Q: What do you think is the most pressing health-related issue of our time, and how do you think it should be addressed?

A: I think obesity and diseases secondary to obesity will be the most trying health issue during my lifetime. In the US we are very fortunate to have easy access to abundant amounts of food. The consequence of this is that a growing portion of our population is obese, and this leads to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and joint disabilities that are extremely taxing on our healthcare system. I think it is very important that we tackle this issue from multiple fronts. Physicians need to confront the problem in each appointment; restaurants need to be more forthcoming with portion control and nutrition information; and we need major public awareness campaigns about nutrition and exercise. Right now it’s considered taboo in many places to talk about this since it’s such a sensitive issue for many people. However, I think that treating obesity as a disease and empowering the public to take action to improve their health will be essential.

Q: What has been the most surprising element of your experience as a Schweitzer Fellow?

A: I have been surprised by the altruism of the people that surround me, and by the outpouring of support I have received for my project. I started collaborating early last fall with a student leader at my medical school named Erika Wood who has been integral in recruiting volunteers for my health fairs. I have also had an overwhelming turnout of students at all of my events from both the University of Texas-Houston Medical School and the University of Houston Pharmacy School. Moreover, this spring the focus of my weekend apartment-based classes has been mental health. I have had the gracious support of two psychiatrists who have both helped plan my curriculum and have come to many of my classes. Finally, my agency and site mentor have showed unparalleled support of my project. Throughout the year the administrators at the Alliance have asked for project updates, and have organized staff to support and advertise my health fairs. My site mentor has touched base with me weekly, and she has spent her valuable time to help me plan events. She has also attended all of my health fairs and many of my weekend classes. Thus, my biggest advice to future fellows is to find an agency and site mentor that are equally committed to their projects, and to identify collaborators early on that want to volunteer. This has helped me overcome every boulder and has kept my project moving forward throughout the year.

Q: What does being a Schweitzer Fellow (and ultimately a Schweitzer Fellow for Life) mean to you?

A: The ASF program has taught me to make service an integral part of my life. It has taught me a lot about organizing resources and people for the greater good, and it has challenged me to find solutions to tough social issues facing refugees in the United States. As a physician I will be a servant to my patients, and as a Schweitzer Fellow for Life I will be a servant-leader to my community, wherever that may be, for the rest of my lifetime.

Click here to learn more about the Houston-Galveston Schweitzer Fellows Program and our work to develop leaders, create change, and improve health in vulnerable communities. We are supported entirely by charitable donations and grants.