My Personal Development as an NHC Member

While serving as a member of the National Health Corps - Central California, two of the NHC core competencies I have gained have been health equity and communication. As a way to assure health equity in the community of Madera, I attend outreach events with my service site to provide information to the community about the services that are offered at Camarena Health. Through my service term at an FQHC, where a health center (Camarena Health) offers its services to anyone - to help low-income families or those who do not have insurance, I have learned how to communicate in a professional setting and I have been given projects to present information about my host site. 

Before my service term, I was more timid and shy, and I would refrain from voicing my opinion during our outreach team meetings. However, in my time here at my host site, I have learned how to communicate more effectively. Going out to outreach events and talking to people in the community of Madera has allowed me to learn how to talk to people. During my service term, I have been assigned to create presentations and have had to present them myself. One of the first projects that I was assigned here at my host site was creating and presenting a presentation for an Early Start workshop. I was very nervous about this presentation because it was the first time I would be going to an organization on my own. I created a presentation in English and in Spanish and I used all of the resources I could to gather information about my host site in order to ensure that I could answer everyone’s questions correctly and give them the right information. 

At first, I was very uncomfortable with this because I was terrified to speak in front of people and I would get nervous because I didn’t know much about my host site yet. On the day of my presentation, it was raining and I drove to the address that was given to me. However, when I got there, they told me the building I was looking for was behind that building. When I arrived at the correct building, I was greeted by the ladies in the Early Start office and set up my presentation. I was very nervous and hoped that I had prepared correctly and sufficiently. As I was presenting, the audience was very engaged and asked many questions that I tried to answer to the best of my ability and I referred them to where they could find more information. When the presentation finished, the staff at Early Start said I did very well and were very supportive when I told them it was my first time presenting alone. After my presentation, the staff told me more about the organization and we exchanged information to have future events with Camarena Health. From this specific project, I learned that I shouldn’t be afraid of speaking in front of people because they made me feel very welcome.