Global Awareness: My involvement with UHA Columbus has allowed me to have a more expanded worldview, especially in terms of intercultural interaciton and cooperation. Columbus is home to large Hispanic, Somali, Butanese and Nepali populations, which are all disproportionately underserved in terms of healthcare. UHA Columbus puts on semesterly health screenings that are free to the general public, but with these demographics specifically in mind. In order to provide these populations with the best service as possible, all of our flyers, informational pamphlets and patient forms were printed in several languages so that a language deficit did not act as a barrier to quality healthcare.

Original Inquiry: 
Academic Enrichment: In order to gain valuable perspective into my educational path toward my future career as a doctor, I conducted an interview with senior Health Sciences Scholars member Ren Kuzmanovich. When asked which components of the HSS program have been most beneficial in her experience at Ohio State, Ren answered that the living-learning community of first-year Health Sciences Scholars has provided her with a social network of like-minded individuals that share similar professional aspirations. Furthermore, Ren explained that the HSS service requirements have pushed her to pursue her interests in a way that benefits the community. Ren’s second-year service project— a recycling initiative— allowed her to dedicate 40+ hours to an environmental cause about which she is very passionate, and to explore her non-medicine related interests. She used most of her time sorting different recyclables (i.e. aluminum, plastic, and glass items) and fundraising for a beach and marine biological conservation project. She noted that the second-year service project was enriching because it allowed her to become more well-rounded in her interests and compelled her to become more informed of current issues facing society.

Leadership Development: During my sophomore year, I have taken on much more responsibility as a leader, both in the Health Sciences Scholars program as well as in Universal Health Aid: Columbus. As far as my involvement as a leader in HSS, I have participated both as a peer mentor to a freshman HSS member with similar career interests and served on the HSS Second-Year Task Force. Being a peer mentor has been very rewarding because it was just last year that I was in my mentee’s position as a freshman unsure of how to navigate a pre-health path at one of the largest universities in the country. However, I stayed in close contact with my mentee throughout the year to make sure that everything was going well for her, academically and otherwise.

Furthermore, I worked with the HSS Second-Year Task Force team, which aimed to foster a stronger sense of involvement and engagement among the sophomore HSS members. Our main tasks included planning and putting on events (i.e. monthly meetings) for both first- and second-year HSS students so that the Health Sciences Scholars members of all ranks could be part of a tightly knit academic and pre-professional community in their undergraduate years here at Ohio State.

While HSS has allowed me the opportunity to serve as a leader in my immediate community, my roles in UHA Columbus are what truly fostered and developed my leadership skills. During the autumn semester, I was appointed as the organization’s Executive Assistant, which granted me the opportunity to work closely with other members of the executive board in making decisions and executing plans. The following semester I was elected by the general body as the Vice President of Internal Affairs, so my main responsibilities are bridging the gap between the executive board and the general body members. Serving in various leadership positions in UHA Columbus has not only taught me what it takes to be successful as a leader, but also how to effectively cooperate with others.

Service Engagement: Over the course of freshman year, I have committed myself to healthcare-related service activities in order to enrich my relationship with the community and to help in fostering a more equitable environment for the underprivileged. The vast majority of my volunteer time was completed through Universal Health Aid: Columbus, a non-profit student organization here on campus that is dedicated to educating the greater Columbus community about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, emphasizing the importance of preventive medicine, and providing free health screenings bi-annually for the uninsured members of the community. Working the registration table at both the fall and spring screenings has opened my eyes to the fact that without volunteer-based resources such as UHA: Columbus, many basic needs, such as healthcare, go unmet for so many people in my very own community. Although the screenings require a lot of preparation and dedication, it is fulfilling to know that all of the time and energy spent planning the events are making a difference in the lives of its beneficiaries and helping to produce more favorable health outcomes in the Columbus area.