Interview with the Researcher

My social engagement thesis began the spring of my sophomore year at Harvard. After taking a class on “Race, Poverty and Health,” taught by Professor David Williams in the African and African-American studies department, I discovered my passion for the field of health and healthcare disparities. As one way to explore my interest, I asked Professor Evelyn Higginbotham about the social engagement thesis program. I was captivated by the opportunity to combine rigorous intellectual study with meaningful community service. Professor Higginbotham introduced me to The Family Van, a mobile health clinic that serves several medically underserved communities in Boston. The fall of my junior year I volunteered on The Family Van as a service provider. I was especially interested in how the Van was particularly successful in serving its clients and how clients compared these methods of service delivery with other healthcare institutions. These questions became the foundation of my qualitative study on client experience on The Family Van. The summer before my senior year, I interviewed twenty-five clients with Zoe Bouchelle, a first-year medical student at Harvard Medical School. We analyzed the interviews using qualitative research methodology and created a model of client experience on The Family Van. During the fall and winter, I created an online curriculum to teach about this model and The Family Van’s model of service delivery, in collaboration with Family Van staff. This six-part curriculum will be available on YouTube and will be used as a part of future volunteers’ training. However, it is also designed to raise awareness of The Family Van, its methods and its successes in health care delivery for the medically underserved.