Helen grew up in Ames, Iowa. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Child and Family Studies and worked as a Lead Teacher at an early childhood education center following graduation. She is a third year dual Medical Doctorate (MD) and Master of Public Health (MPH) student. During her year of MPH training, Helen is working as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Master of Public Health Program. Helen is enjoying learning about all areas of public health and is particularly interested in the fields of pediatrics, maternal and child health and health policy. She serves as Co-President of the Pediatrics Interest Group and as a VP for the American Medical Association-Iowa Medical Society Student Organization at the Carver College of Medicine. She has recently begun volunteering for the Mobile Clinic. Helen enjoys cooking, spin classes, listening to public radio and traveling to visit family and friends around the country.
We have been in Tamil Nadu for over a week now. Over the last week my classmates and I have
shared some remarkable experiences, some heartbreaking, others inspiring. Every weekday morning begins with a 6:45 am
yoga class which we have on the roof of our hotel. After this we have our breakfast and head to
the organizations of the day. Here is a
brief recap of where we have been:
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| A Classroom at ANEW |
Jan 3rd: We visited Sai
Vocational Developed & Education Centre.
This is a program for teenagers with special needs to learn skills to
become employable. The achievements of
this programs graduates are really amazing.
Some of them are working doing data entry, some are at local businesses
and some even have their own businesses now.
On the 3rd we also
went to ANEW, a training program for young women which helps them obtain higher
paying and more rewarding employment. As
is the case everywhere we go, the leaders of both of these organizations were incredibly
dedicated to their work and were very wonderful people to get to meet.
Jan 4th: On Friday we went to Sri Ramachandra University and Medical Centre. This
school has programs in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, public health, nursing
and more. It was very interesting for me
to see how similar to our own system this teaching hospital was. I almost felt like I could have been back in
a group study room at MERF in Iowa City.
At the medical center we toured the free care portion of the
hospital. This was a modest area but the
physicians who provide care there work in the private portion of the hospital
as well.
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| Touring the Blood Bank at VHS |
Friday we also went to another hospital
called the Voluntary Health Services (VHS) and we learned about two of this hospitals
HIV/AIDs programs. Both hospitals we
visited provide HIV screening and treatment free of cost to those who cannot
afford to pay. I am planning to do my project for this class based on one or both of these hospitals - more on that later.
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