PCSF Day of Service
First Annual Day of Service a Success!
A New Millennium student works on painting a mural in the hallway
Contributing Authors: Geoff Stetson, Becky Levine, Dana Sun, Frui Awasum, MS1s
Faraz Ahmad, Marissa DeFreitas, Christina Jarosch, Jeffrey Eisen, MS4s
“I came back from the day inspired,” Enrique Escalante, a first-year medical student, reflected at the end of Pritzker’s inaugural Day of Service, which took place on Saturday, January 31st and drew approximately 40 Pritzker students and 20 community members. The event was organized and sponsored by the Pritzker Community Service Fellowship (PCSF) and the day was just as Enrique put it: inspiring. It was filled with meaningful interactions with community members from two of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods with whom Pritzker is planning long-term partnerships.
The partnerships build upon the Pritzker Society system; DeLee and Phemister members have partnered with organizations and community leaders in the South Chicago neighborhood and students in Huggins and Coggeshall have partnered with those in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. These neighborhoods were chosen based on their significant need for improved educational and medical resources and the enthusiasm of identified community partners.
Pritzker students in DeLee and Phemister began their day of service with a tour by Dinah Ramirez, RN, a life-long resident of South Chicago, as she discussed the changing demographics of the neighborhood and the rise and fall of the South Chicago economy. Afterwards, the DeLee and Phemister students arrived at Bowen High School, where they spent time with students from the New Millennium School of Health (NMSH) at the high school’s campus. NMSH was created to address the shortage of workers in health fields and South Chicago.
New Millennium and Pritzker students pose with the New Millennium principal
Students worked on a beautification project, painting a long hallway in the school, including an inspiring mural designed by students from Bowen. Medical and high school students shared many important moments, laughing while discussing musical taste and dancing style, and exchanging more somber sentiments when discussing mounting violence and gang affiliation in the community. When asked to identify areas in which Pritzker students might be able to work with the community, the high school students came up with several projects, including career advising, a pregnancy prevention program, community beautification, and construction of a teen-community center.
Pritzker students in Huggins and Coggeshall started their day with a tour of the Greater Grand Crossing Neighborhood led by Greg Mooney, Executive Director of the Comer Science and Education Foundation, and Sam Binion, life-long resident of the neighborhood and Program Director of Revere C.A.R.E., a group striving to promote neighborhood safety.
The tour highlighted the recent transformation of the neighborhood and several initiatives, guided by the leadership of community members and supported by the resources of the Comer Foundation, including the construction of a state-of-the-art youth center and the implementation of an affordable housing and skills training programs.
Hugginites and Coggeshallers conducted their service project at the Gary Comer Youth Center (GCYC), which was founded by Gary Comer in 2006 to provide youth with an opportunity to engage in positive extracurricular activities. Pritzker students worked on six different projects with high school students who attend the center’s programs. The service projects varied from decorating the center for Black History Month to recording an original hip-hop song track with a theme of combating health problems that impact the community. The high school students and Pritzker students discussed engaging in future service projects together that address their communities’ needs, such as writing newsletters on health issues for seniors in the neighborhood, workshops on teen pregnancy, and mentorship programs.
Pritzker students ready to go!
The idea for this innovative partnership program originally emerged in spring 2008 out of a subcommittee of the Urban Health Initiative designed to explore the future of community-based education at Pritzker. Since then, the PCSF (Pritzker Community Service Fellowship) leadership, Dr. Sarah-Anne Schumann, Dr. John Schumann, and the UCMC Office of Community Affairs have been developing partnerships with these two communities. The main goals are to engage in meaningful service-learning that addresses the needs identified by community stakeholders and to create opportunities for medical students to have an ongoing relationship with a South Side Chicago community by learning about their strengths and needs and better understanding the lives of those surrounding our medical community.
Overall, the Day of Service was a huge success. “This day was so inspiring because community members showed great hope for improvements in their neighborhoods even though they faced many set-backs and obstacles,” Enrique explained at the reflection session. The vision for our long-term partnerships is to leverage this “hope” with collaborative service projects to improve the health of our neighbors while developing skills crucial to becoming outstanding, compassionate physicians and leaders in medicine.
We would like to thank Dr. Sarah-Anne Schumann, Dr. John Schumann, Laura Derks, and Nubia Chaidez and her team from the UCMC Office of Community Affairs for their time and resources to make the Day of Service and long term community partnerships possible. We also greatly appreciate the ongoing support of Dr. Shalini Reddy, Dr. Vineet Arora, and Dean Holly Humphrey.
