September 22, 2010

Five Jefferson Students Awarded Albert Schweitzer Fellowships

PHILADELPHIA – Five students from Thomas Jefferson University have recently been named as 2010-11 Schweitzer Fellows, joining approximately 200 other exceptional emerging professionals across the country in conceptualizing and carrying out 200-hour service projects that address the unmet health-related needs of underserved individuals and communities. The students are Stephanie Wroten from Jefferson School of Population Health; Melissa Warriner from Jefferson School of Health Professions; Ravi Pujara from Jefferson Medical College; and Kenny Aristide and Stephanie Do, both from Jefferson School of Pharmacy.

Stephanie Wroten, Jefferson School of Population Health
Wroten aims to address the cycle of poverty and homelessness by developing The H.E.A.L.T.H. (Hygiene, Exercise, Academics, Literacy, and Teaching, to Humankind) Initiative in conjunction with the Honickman Center. Community Site: Project H.O.M.E. Community Partnership School

Melissa Warriner, Jefferson School of Health Professions, Physical Therapy
Partnering with Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine student Jillian Heck, Warriner aims to empower middle-school-aged youth by developing and implementing a physical activity and health education program that includes a focus on HIV/AIDS education and prevention. Community Site: North Light Community Center

Ravi Pujara, Jefferson Medical College
Pujara aims to empower at-risk students by developing the Jefferson Pipeline Project, which will promote healthy living and medical knowledge through exercise, weekly lectures, and didactic sessions on the Jefferson Medical College campus. Community Site: Jefferson Medical College

Kenny Aristide and Stephanie Do, Jefferson School of Pharmacy
Aristide and Do aim to address cardiovascular disease risk factors by implementing a health promotion and education program entitled “Work of Heart” that serves to assist parents and children within the Philadelphia School District. The program will address issues including hypertension, smoking cessation, physical activity and other cardiovascular-related disease states. Community Site: William H. Hunter Elementary School

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to address health disparities by developing Leaders in Service: individuals who are dedicated and skilled in meeting the health needs of underserved communities, and whose example influences and inspires others.

These Fellows — primarily university graduate students — partner with community-based organizations to identify an unmet health need, design a yearlong 200-hour service project with a demonstrable impact on that need, and bring that project from idea to implementation and impact—all on top of their usual academic responsibilities.

The kaleidoscopic array of Fellows’ Schweitzer projects focus on health in a broad sense and address not only clinical issues, but also the social determinants of health—defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and which are mostly responsible for health inequities.

Annually, Schweitzer Fellows deliver more than 40,000 hours of health-related community service at twelve locations across the U.S.  A number of Schweitzer Fellows also work at the Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Africa, collaborating with hospital staff to help provide skilled care through over 35,000 outpatient visits and more than 6,000 hospitalizations annually for patients from all parts of Gabon.

When Fellows’ initial year ends, they carry their commitment to meeting the health needs of underserved people forward as members of the Schweitzer Fellows for Life alumni network, now more than 2,000 strong.

For more information on ASF and the Greater Philadelphia Schweitzer Fellows Program, visit the website at http://schweitzerfellowship.org/philadephia or contact Greater Philadelphia Schweitzer Fellows Program Director Nicole Cobb Moore at 215-955-9995,  nicole.moore@jefferson.edu.

Media Only Contact:
Ed Federico
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Phone: (215) 955-6300
Published: 9/22/2010