New Adventures and an Education in Addressing Community Health Disparities: Why I chose to serve with NHC Chicago
Posted on: August 18, 2016Chicago
Hello all! To understand why I decided to commit to a year of service with AmeriCorps, you need to know a few things about me. During my years as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), I had the privilege of getting involved with one of my school's Alternative Spring Break (ASB) programs. Through ASB I learned so much about ethical service, the importance of community partners, and about social inequalities. My work with ASB definitely created a nice balance between my other endeavors in college, which included working at a Skeletal Biology lab as well as writing a thesis on perceptions of Indigenous land claims agreements in Labrador-Newfoundland. Although I loved my lab job and my thesis, the lessons I learned from ASB pushed me to continue my social justice education and pursue a year of service with NHC Chicago.
This year I'm looking forward to getting to know and learning from my new colleagues, as well as getting to know the city of Chicago. As someone who grew up in the town that they went to college in, the opportunity to explore a new city and get to know new people with different backgrounds is really exciting for me! I also look forward to all of the experiences and knowledge that I will gain throughout the year. I hope to continue to learn more about how social inequalities impact community health as well as how one can actively, effectively, and ethically work to address these issues at a community level. My goal in life is to become a physician who works at community health centers similar to the one I will be serving with this coming year, and I know that my time with NHC Chicago will better prepare me to achieve that dream.
This blog post was written by incoming NHC Chicago 2016-17 member Katarina Alajbegovic.
