The Volunteer Internship Program(VIP)
at Crossroad Health Center is a program that allows undergraduate and graduate
students interested in a variety of disciplines to work closely with the health
of the underserved populations in and around the Cincinnati area. The mission
of this program is to provide service-based, experiential learning to students
to help them ultimately understand poverty’s impact on health. What makes the
program particularly appealing to students is that VIP students can aid in
improving the health and wellbeing of the citizens of our surrounding
communities through directly communicating with patients as case managers. I
thought I understood this idea before applying to Crossroad myself, but gained
a whole new sense of understanding when I began my first semester of service. I
realized that the role of a VIP is not a simple one with repetitive tasks to be
accomplished in each shift. Instead, the role of a VIP is to learn about the
multitude of complex issues and difficulties patients in need may face, as well
as serve to assist the patient in eliminating these barriers to receiving quality
healthcare—a task which is quite different for every case.
These differences between cases allow
for VIP students to have a great variety of experiences at Crossroad. In order
to provide these students with a platform to express these experiences, we are
excited to reintroduce the Crossroad Volunteer Internship blog posts! Every
week for the next 16 weeks, there will be a unique blog post from each of the
VIP students in their second semester of service at Crossroad. Through these
posts, we hope to better convey why so many students decide to commit their
time to Crossroad every week, explain what students learn from the Volunteer
Internship Program, and detail the impact they have on the community. Follow us
on twitter and Instagram @crossroadvip and like our page on Facebook to stay
updated with these posts!
Great post!
ReplyDeletePersonally for me volunteering is the best way to making us more tolerant individuals and giving towards the global community. If you’ve resolved to travel and make a difference there are plenty of amazing volunteer programs awaiting you. Just get redirected here: http://www.agsinger.com/how-to-travel-and-help-people/. Lets make this world better.
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