As a Biology and Peace Studies student, I am very interested in learning about health and the barriers to access to healthcare, especially in the context of preventative healthcare and poverty. As I have taken classes here, Ihave taken great interest in the intersections of health and social justice that exist both domestically and internationally. The time I have been fortunate to spend at Notre Dame so far has been full of learning and opportunities to leave my comfort zone that I look forward to continuing in the upcoming years.

Many of the experiences in which I have had the opportunity to engage have been through Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns (CSC). During my freshman year, I became involved in the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center—an affordable clinic for those without health insurance living in St. Joseph County. I have the privilege of volunteering there weekly doing a variety of tasks, ranging from making patient reminder phone calls to rooming patients and taking their vital signs. I got to stay on campus for Spring Break last year, during which I volunteered fulltime in the Clinic. I learned so much, and got to meet many of the volunteer doctors there who generously donate their time to see patients outside of their regular medical commitments. This year, I have enjoyed being able to also volunteer at St. Joseph’s Hospital in the NICU and Family Birthplace, which has been very rewarding and something that I look forward to each week.

In addition, during my freshman year, I participated in a Fall Break service trip through the CSC to the David School, an alternative high school for at-risk students in the greater David, Kentucky area. This trip was phenomenal, and I felt fortunate to spend time with the inspiring and determined students of the David School. Throughout the week of tutoring and spending time with the David School students, the poor quality of the food provided to the students through the free school lunch program really stuck me. I realized that this poor diet was likely having a significant impact on their current and future health, making it impossible for them to focus in school, and making it extremely difficult to have academic success to escape the cycle of poverty in which the majority of students were trapped. Upon my return, I found out through some research that the lack of nutritious options at the David School was not unique among local and federally sponsored health programs across the United States. After speaking to some faculty members at the Center for Social Concerns, I was directed to Dr. Kimberly Rollings, director of the Architecture, Health, and Sustainability Research Group at Notre Dame (AHS-ND), who was pursuing exciting and relevant research. Her work hypothesizes that attention to Environment, Psychology, Architecture, and Behavioral Economics can result in better outcomes when welfare recipients have a choice of how to spend resources they are allocated.In light of my experience at the David School, I have participated in Dr. Rollings’ work to develop a tool for cafeterias that provides evidence-based, low- and no-cost interventions that promote increased fruit and vegetable selection and consumption here in South Bend.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to spend two and a half months in Guatemala volunteering with PrimerosPasos, a non-profit clinic serving the population of the Palajunoj Valley of Guatemala—a rural area with little access to medical care. My work at the Sister Maura Brannick Clinic with Spanish-speaking patients was challenging, but traveling to Guatemala by myself to speak only Spanish pushed me even further outside of my comfort zone. Yet, the work that I got to do each morning in the clinic as a fecal sample collector and clinic assistant demonstrated to me the incredible power of communication. It was exciting and energizing to return from the clinic each day and work on my Spanish, as I knew that I would be able to communicate more effectively the next day with a patient in the clinic or a student in one of the schools in the Palajunoj Valley.

As I collected fecal samples from the 10 schools in the Palajunoj Valley and brought them back to the lab to analyze, it became obvious that the reality of health there was even graver than was reflected by the statistics I researched before arriving. Every sample that was put under the microscope was infested with multiple types of eggs and worms. As a biology student who had only seen these creatures in textbook pictures, it was exciting. But it was hard to keep this excitement when I read the masking tape label on each sample cup and remembered the face if the child who had given it to me earlier that morning. I wrote down each parasite that was observed and it was hard not to feel a bit overwhelmed by the severity of the problem. However, despite the fact that my misery was comparable to that of nearly every single child that I had been working with in the Palajunoj Valley, my privilege was not. I had money. And because I had money, I got medical treatment. A doctor saw me. I got medicine. I was able to purchase more soap to prevent a parasite infection from happening again. And all of my needs were met—not because I was a human being who was unhealthy, suffering, and in pain, but because I had money. Ironically, while being one of the most privileged people in the entire Valley with my immediate access to medical care and treatment, I was also one of the only people in the Valley who was a citizen of the country who took a prominent role in causing the structural damage that exists and has existed in Guatemala for over fifty years.

During my time working at the clinic, I saw (and participated in) the diagnosis and treatment of parasitic infection, but I saw much less investment in the preventative side of the issue. Because soap has been proven to be one of the main drivers of reduced parasitic infections and other health-related hygiene problems, I have been working on a project to create local, economically sustainable soap manufacturing capability for the Palajunoj Valley since my return from Guatemala. The project aims to provide local women with the training, equipment and raw materials necessary to make soap to address the economic barrier to regular soap access that currently exists and to provide women of the Valley with a stable source of work. While oftentimes not fatal, parasitic infection causes economic friction–people miss work and school, resulting in extreme economic consequences to the region beyond the immediate health problems. Access to soap and partnership in health with the residents of the Valley are keys to breaking this cycle, and I look forward to returning to Guatemala this summer to work on the project and learn more about the complex problem that exists.