Volunteer and Service

During the summer break, I worked with American Red Cross as a Blood Donor Ambassador. The American Red Cross is a well established, non-profit organization that provides humanitarian care and resources all over the country to those that need it most. As a Blood Donor Ambassador, I played a significant role in securing blood donations from donors all over Northern New Jersey and New York City. I worked very closely with blood donors and Red Cross medical professionals and I was primarily responsible for recruiting and scheduling donors and ensuring the health and safety of all donors before and after donating. As a pre-health student, it was absolutely fascinating to play such a hands on role in shadowing the Red Cross medical professionals. My experience at the American Red Cross has instilled in me an even deeper passion and appreciation for public health and humanitarian aid. As I look to attend medical school after studying at Franklin & Marshall College, I feel immensely prepared to begin a career where I can serve my community through medicine.

Over the summer I monitored sea turtle nests and rescued hatchlings who became disoriented due to light pollution.

This summer I volunteered at a covid-19 testing site in northern NJ. I registered patients, administered nasopharyngeal swabs, and packaged samples. All the workers were volunteers, and every test was free, no insurance needed. We tested over 15,000 people from March to the end of May. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve my community during the pandemic.

As the Approved Care Network Coordinator, I focused on connecting clients with mental health professionals or treatment centers, in their state, who have been vetted by our organization for specific trauma treatment qualifications such as specializations in EMDR therapy, Sensorimotor therapy, Brainspotting therapy, and more. Many mental health professionals and treatment centers do not have the certified training in brain-body based work, which has been proven to be necessary for the processing and healing processes of trauma survivors.

I worked to ensure trauma survivors received the specific treatment that they needed in order to heal. To do so, I had a few duties. First, when clients contacted me to find a professional or treatment center, I connected them with one who was a verified connection to the Network, who took their insurance, and who was located in their area. Second, if a client reached out and there wasn’t a certified clinician or treatment center that matched their specifications, already in our Network, I worked to find one. This responsibility consisted of provider outreach, reviewing applications, collecting certificates, and running a database. Third, I focused on outreach in order to expand the Network in different areas in every state to ensure healing is accessible to everyone.