Experiences
PAWS Pantry Lead Volunteer
As someone who would like to go into Public Health, it is an important passion of mine to promote initiatives related to public health improvement. One of the main public health focuses that I am interested in is the reduction of food insecurity in populations but especially in students and those within major cities, such as Indianapolis. For IUPUI students, staff, and faculty, IUPUI's PAWS' (Providing Advocacy With Support) Pantry is responsible for providing a wide range of products, including household items, menstrual and hygiene products, and canned, fresh, and frozen foods.
As a lead volunteer, I have a 2 hour weekly shift in which I help with checking students in and out of the Pantry, as well as assisting with recording inventory. I also have responsibilities with stocking items as they are needed and available, providing tours to those who are visiting for the first time, and cleaning up the Pantry whenever needed and at the end of every shift. PAWS' Pantry has proven to be a staple on campus for some people, and it is important for us to utilize our weekly responsibilities to adjust to the needs of all those who utilize the service and all those who may visit in the future.
Student grading
Beginning in Spring 2020, I have been a student grader for a class in the Health Sciences major curriculum titled Aging and the Older Person. I was asked to be a grader by my professor after taking the class during Fall 2019. With being a grader, I am responsible for following deadlines and responding to student questions to the best of my ability. This position has greatly tested my time management skills so far as I've been balancing my own classes as well as my internship and grading. Because this impacts student GPAs and futures, it has also given me a lot of responsibility skills.
One of my favorite things is helping people succeed and giving them advice, so it is a very ideal job to be able to help other people academically with understanding such an important part of the healthcare system. This class is also very meaningful to be because it helped me with exploring other healthcare options and gave me a connection to an amazing professor that has gone through the journey of picking a health career. Fortunately, if this semester of grading goes well, I will likely be doing this every semester until I graduate.
Care Rounding at Eskenazi Health
From January to April 2019, I was a Care Rounding volunteer at Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital. Some of my duties included assisting nurses in assuring all patient rooms were stocked and cleaned and communicating with nurses, patients, and visitors over their overall needs. Other than the nurses who were on the floors, I wasn't highly managed by anyone, so I had to have responsibility and be efficient and accountable personally.
Through this experience, I learned that I don't necessarily want to work in a hospital setting as I didn't enjoy the location of volunteering. I enjoyed helping patients and nurses, but I discovered that a career in which I could be within an office or clinic setting is more desirable for me. However, I did enjoy being able to hold myself accountable rather than reporting to other people the entire time.
Math and French Tutoring
In high school, I started tutoring fellow students in different math subjects (mainly pre-calculus) and French. These subjects were different experiences in that teaching math is more of a formulated process, while teaching French is more conversational and informal. However, in doing both, I learned how to communicate my points better and how to adapt to different situations and people. Also, I was able to discover new ways of helping myself learn information as I applied methods used on other people to help myself. Through tutoring, I was able to help multiple students while also learning more about myself.
Secret Service Day
This is a day dedicated to first year and transfer students give back to the Indianapolis community, as well as our own school community. When I participated, I helped with harvesting vegetables from the sustainability gardens located on campus. Along with harvesting, we planted different vegetables and were able to clean multiple parts of campus. Not only was it nice to give back to the community, it was interesting to learn that we even had a sustainability garden that directly provides food to IUPUI students, with the leftovers going to other places in Indianapolis. This day made me want to branch out to volunteer in areas that I had never considered before, including sustainability again.
Gleaner's Food Bank
Per a class project, I was required to volunteer at a non-profit Indianapolis organization for at least 4 hours. My group and I appreciated this volunteering experience greatly because we were able to interact with a lot of different groups of people and give back to people who needed help. We helped organize foods, check people in, and oversaw the shopping that took place. This experience made me want to explore more off campus volunteering experiences to see a broader view on Indianapolis, not just the school.
Indianapolis urban league
One of the topics that I have become increasingly passionate about is food insecurity and the presence of food deserts within the country, specifically in Indiana. The Indianapolis Urban League has dedicated weekly food drives to those in the community who are in need. I had the opportunity to volunteer with them in serving food boxes to the community, which showed the amount of care community members give towards each other. There was no judgment and an overwhelming sense of love and care, and it was very enjoyable to be a part of.
other experiences
Indy Zoo Special Events Volunteer
Hendricks County Humane Society Volunteer
IUPUI ALD/PES