Eligibility Criteria | Preliminary Steps | Submit an Application | Recipients

2008-2009 Grant Recipients:

Ashley Alexander and Ying Zhang, ECU Brody School of Medicine
Hope Lodge, Greenville, NC
Ashley and Ying’s project promoted the wellness of residents at the McConnell-Raab Hope Lodge, a residential facility for patients undergoing cancer treatments. By establishing therapeutic programming activities, they enhanced the quality of life, emotional well-being, and outlook on personal health of program participants. Understanding that total mind and body health should be approached holistically, they provided different therapeutic avenues for promoting patient wellness. They designed activities to be appealing to both males and females and all racial/ethnic groups. The population of residents served included Eastern North Carolinians from different socio-economic backgrounds and who ranged in age from 35 to 75. Approximately 65 patients participated in their program. Ashley and Ying were able to build a sense of community among cancer patients sharing similar experiences and able to help the residents become more physically active and socially interactive.

The ECU Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA) submitted a letter of intent to sustain the project by providing two to three student volunteers to conduct weekly therapeutic programming activities at the Hope Lodge. Their chair, Melissa Colcord, will lead the project for one year with new leaders to be elected thereafter. The grant monies went to the Hope Lodge to be distributed to SOTA to cover the costs of the supplies used in the weekly activities, i.e., arts and crafts, music CDs, food, games, etc.

Moira Breslin and Michael Raisch, Duke School of Medicine
Project Compassion, Chapel Hill, NC
Moira and Michael created an art-based healing program to improve the quality of life of palliative care patients at Project Compassion. To accomplish this goal, they developed a curriculum of arts and crafts projects to be lead by student volunteers.  The direction and pace of the projects was guided by patients’ interests and abilities. To this end, students were challenged to develop creative solutions to participants’ physical limitations. Healing Arts provided a practical approach towards achieving better emotional health during the most difficult of times, offering participants an additional mode of expression while helping them work towards dealing with the experience of grieving and ill-health. The secondary goal was to familiarize future clinicians with palliative care. Fifteen medical and nursing students have been trained by Healing Arts and Project Compassion. Students attended an orientation organized by Healing Art, trained as a support team by Project Compassion, and participated in Duke’s Geriatrics Interest Group Meetings and Lecture series.  The team-based care-giving initiative provided volunteers an opportunity to establish meaningful relationships with members of the community who were suffering from illness and loss. With 4 student teams and 7 participants, the feedback received from both student volunteers and participants’ was resoundingly positive.

Project Compassion is committed to sustaining the project will the help of Duke School of Medicine volunteers. Project Compassion will provide the necessary training and serve as a mentor in team formation and service delivery. They will connect the student volunteers with the community members. The grant monies went to Project Compassion and will be used for training materials, art supplies, and staff time.

Kerry Colby, UNC School of Medicine
Open Door Clinic, Raleigh, NC
Kerry’s project was a health care prevention and screening program for the patients of the Open Door Clinic.  The patients of the Open Door Clinic are uninsured and must meet certain income guidelines to be eligible for services at the clinic. Kerry’s project built on the efforts of previous Schweitzer Fellows, Brad Perez and Minali Patel, who implemented an STI screening program at the clinic.  Her project integrated their work with the nursing intake program and expanded it to include updating the patients’ past medical history and discussing preventative health care issues such as immunizations and cancer screening. 

The Open Door Clinic will continue to provide comprehensive preventative initiatives and will support immunization efforts during intake. The Kate B. Reynolds Sustainability Grant will fund the start-up costs for a new Zostavax immunization program which protects patients against herpes zoster (shingles). 

Chris Dibble and Courteney MacKuen, UNC School of Medicine
Lincoln Community Health Center, Durham, NC
Chris and Courteney initiated a free bimonthly HIV clinic providing Oraquick testing, counseling, and education at Lincoln Community Health Center (LCHC).  In addition, they held nine outreach events at diverse locations such as Latino Health Fairs, Pow-Wows, and homeless shelters in total testing well over 200 people.  Populations served were from uninsured high risk African American and Latino communities. The Fellows were able to dispense education to every person counseled and identified at least 3 positives in the Triangle area. The health department has also begun HIV testing at Lincoln on the opposite Tuesdays from Chris and Courteney’s project. With help from UNC School of Medicine, other medical students who are trained by SHAC to perform HIV testing and counseling will now be able to volunteer at Lincoln.

Two UNC School of Medicine students, Maria Thekkekandam and Michael Clarke-Pearson, provided a letter of intent to lead the project. They will link bilingual Student Health Action Coalition (SHAC)-HIV volunteers with LCHC weekly testing events; make valuable connections with Durham community members and organizations involved with the Hispanic population; and train the next set of leaders from SHAC who will lead the project. They will use the grant money to advertise the HIV clinic on Durham bus lines to market the service to a larger population.

Amanda Hardy, UNCC School of Psychology
Jackson Park Ministries, Charlotte, NC
Amanda’s project focused on exercise promotion with an emphasis on modern dance for a group of children whose average age was 10 years old. These children were either living in a transitional housing facility called Jackson Park Ministries or resided in the surrounding impoverished neighborhood. She taught a dance class to a group of eight girls three times per week during the Ministries’ summer camp. Her project evolved into teaching dance and promoting and engaging in a variety of physical activities with 20 boys and girls. Over time, the children demonstrated better flexibility, balance, and endurance as well as exhibited increased self esteem.

Jack Park Ministries will sustain the physical activities with the children in their after school program. The grant will go toward a basketball goal and other playground equipment.

Amy Marietta, UNC School of Medicine
El Futuro, Carrboro, NC
Amy designed and implemented a project to provide yoga-based stress reduction and relaxation for women who are patients at El Futuro, a Latino mental health agency in Carrboro. Many of El Futuro’s clients are recent immigrants and suffer from anxiety and depression. These weekly classes were conducted in Spanish, and included energizing body stretches, calming breathing techniques, and a final guided meditation. Thirty-two members of the Latino community participated in the class with an average class size of six. Amy also worked to promote stress reduction and relaxation within the broader Latino community through outreach at local health fairs.

The grant was awarded to allow a community member, Griselda Rivera, to receive formal training to be a yoga class instructor at El Futuro. Ms. Rivera was a participant in Amy’s classes and wanted to give back to the community. She submitted a letter of intent and El Futuro will coordinate volunteers to provide childcare during the session and be substitute yoga teachers. El Futuro will use the monies for formal yoga training for Ms. Rivera and yoga-related materials.

Genevieve Ricart, Duke School of Medicine
Urban Ministries of Durham, Durham, NC
Genevieve addressed the nutritional health of the Durham homeless population at the Urban Ministries of Durham. She worked with the chef at the shelter to encourage preparation of healthier, balanced meals to make the most out of donated food. Each week, Genevieve spoke with the targeted population both individually and in small groups to encourage healthy behaviors and discuss ways in which small modifications in diet can lead to great strides in health. She worked with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle of Raleigh to offer nutrition and cooking classes where 20 participants learned to make healthy choices while on a limited budget.

The grant will allow Urban Ministries to offset the costs involved for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle to offer a set of classes in the fall and in the spring.

Anita Unnithan and Brandy Edwards, ECU School of Medicine
Operation Sunshine, Greenville, NC
Anita and Brandy created S.T.A.R.T. (Stop, Think, & Act Responsibly Today) First Aid to teach basic first aid skills to children ages 5 – 13 at Operation Sunshine and the Summer Significance Academy. Their program reached 150 children through five weeks of lessons focusing on emergency action steps, the Heimlich Maneuver, rescue breathing, treatment of wounds and burns, proper hand washing technique, personal safety when dealing with emergencies, prevention/treatment of heat exhaustion, and wilderness splinting. Through educational games, role playing, use of manikins, and tangible first aid tools, they provided both entertaining and highly instructive practice in first aid. 

Operation Sunshine has submitted a letter of intent for two permanent staff members to teach the lesson plans twice a year; once during the summer program and once during the academic year program. Interns will also be trained and serve as support teachers. Operation Sunshine will use the grant monies to purchase adult and infant manikins and other support materials.

Laura Wolfe, ECU School of Medicine
Little Willie Center, Greenville, NC
Laura created an after school program for children to learn how to plant and grow a vegetable garden at the Little Willie Center (LWC) in Greenville with the help of the NC Cooperative Extension. Vegetables harvested were served for the children’s lunch or sent home with the families. In addition, the children and their parents attended cooking classes to learn about nutrition and healthy meals. Laura also encouraged physical activity using the President’s Fitness Challenge. Forty children and their parents participated in her program.

A parent volunteer will lead the children’s garden project with the help of the Cooperative Extension Agent. The cooking classes will be sustained through the Cooperative Service. ECU Engineering students have agreed to design and install an irrigation system for the garden. The LWC submitted a letter of intent to sustain Laura’s initiatives and estimated their sustainability needs at $2,000, half of which they have agreed to fund through their budget. The grant monies will go toward the water bill, gardening tools, food for the cooking classes and playground equipment.