Neighborhood Health Liaison (Flushing)

The Setting
A neighborhood health hub near the Main Street LIRR station in Flushing. Lina is 19. She graduated with a strong background in health sciences and is working as a community navigator while completing prerequisites at night.

The Narrative
By 2030, the city has expanded neighborhood-based care to support its aging population. Lina’s role is to help residents navigate an increasingly digital and fragmented health system. Today, she is meeting with Mrs. Lin, a 78-year-old widow whose city health account has been locked due to a data mismatch between her insurance and her city ID.

Because of the error, Mrs. Lin has missed multiple cardiology appointments. The shuttle booking system now requires biometric verification, which she does not know how to use. The official process is to submit a ticket and wait forty-eight hours. But as they sit together, Lina notices that Mrs. Lin’s anxiety is escalating and her blood pressure, tracked on a wearable device, is rising.

Lina has forty minutes before her next appointment. She must decide how to navigate multiple agency portals, negotiate with a call center agent using a script, and explain the situation to Mrs. Lin in a way that preserves her dignity and composure, all without formal authority to override the system.

Picture this...

Which Portrait of a Graduate competencies will benefit Lina in this situation?

What experiences already exist in your school that genuinely build those competencies? 

What should we expect to see in every school if this work is real and available to all students?