A group of Brown students has found a way to combine their interests in biology and medicine-related studies with helping others.
They publish a preventive health newsletter called The Well Being. Funded by the Swearer Center for Public Service, the newsletter is aimed at people who have difficulty getting medical care due to lack of money.
The students decided to focus their attention on people who live in Providence's Mount Hope and West End neighborhoods. The newsletter, published in Spanish and English, is distributed at community centers and health clinics.
The students wanted to be sure the newsletter contained the ideas and suggestions of community residents, so they attended meetings where people gathered. Garrett Seale '01, Nicole Silvestri '00 and Michelle Bank '02 spent time at the Family Van, a free mobile health clinic, that pulls up in front of the Mount Hope Neighborhood Association at 199 Camp St. on Friday afternoons. They sought input from people in their late teens and early 20s attending GED classes. Through a translator, they addressed Spanish-speaking adults at a West End Community Center parents' night.
They learned that people wanted information on such topics as depression, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and immunizations for children.
In addition, they learned about neighborhood concerns. Nurses who staff the health van told them that young men who used to be visible in the neighborhood were lying low after a spate of shootings. They also learned that a newsletter article they had planned to write about the benefits of taking a daily multivitamin would be irrelevant to people who cannot afford to buy them.
Seale believes the students' visits to the neighborhoods could lead to other ways to serve the community, such as tutoring or working with children in an after-school program.
"It's part of building that relationship," Seale said. "It's not about us producing a newsletter. It's about us being part of the community."
The students plan to publish a second issue of the newsletter in the spring semester. "It has the potential to be a very good source of information," Bank said.