The group that I participated in for HELP
This week I spent most of my time working with the Rodham Institute’s HELP program. HELP stands for Health Education Leadership Program. I really enjoyed how this program doesn’t just allow for already high achieving students to enter; instead they focus on students who aren’t the traditional scholars. This allows for a program to be in place that molds students into community leaders regardless of the limitations that a school may put on the students.
In the group, we worked on a project to be presented at the Rodham Institute’s November summit. The topic of the project was teen pregnancy. We split the group into three teams with specific focuses to divvy up the work. On the last day, the group created a poster reflecting all the research that had been discovered. However, our learning was not limited to teen pregnancy, for we also learned about the nuances of urban health and gentrification. The topic of gentrification was most interesting to learn about, especially coming from a rural area without places to be gentrified.
Not only was I able to learn about gentrification from a textbook perspective, I was also able to listen in on the discussions the group was having. The group was comprised of kids from the D.C .wards 7 and 8, communities forced to face the fear of gentrification, and learn valuable and real perspectives on gentrification in D.C.
I learned how the history of D.C. in the last 50 years has been largely shaped by the changing of the city through gentrification. Take for example the decrease in the African American population from 70 to 30 percent. I also learned about what makes for a healthy community: access to grocery stores and a limited number of liquor stores are just two examples, and easy access to corner stores in wards 7 and 8 are damaging to the health of the communities.
Cupcakes that I got in Georgetown
On Friday, I worked at the Rodham Institute organizing surveys that had been taken the week before on the See the City You Serve tour for incoming resident doctors.
This weekend I was able to go Georgetown and try many different places to eat.
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