#students reflection

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My Journey at Victorious Kidss Educares - through Diploma Programme (DP)

Visit us @ http://www.victoriouskidsseducares.org/Students-Reflections.html

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Day #4 - Thursday

8:30-9:00 The group prepared for a meeting at St. Anthony’s Community Health Center by reading articles about public health and homelessness and discussing the articles.

9:00-10:30 The group toured St. Anthony’s Clinic and learned about the various services that it and other Community Health Centers like it provide for low-income populations.

10:30-11:30 The group relaxed by exploring the San Francisco Library.

11:30-12:30 The group traveled to San Mateo to meet with Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s District Communications Director, Katrina Rill.

12:30-1:00 The group picnicked while preparing for its meeting.

1:00-2:30 The group met with Katrina Rill to discuss the work of Congresswoman Jackie Speier in addressing inequality in her district.

2:30-3:00 The group watched a TED talk on a conservative’s plea for bipartisanship and cooperation between liberals and conservatives on the country’s war against poverty, then reflected on the video and the visits to St. Anthony’s Clinic and Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s office.

3:00-4:00 The day ended early after traveling back to San Francisco, while some went to the 50 State Dinner Party Project hosted by the National Alliance for Media Art and Culture.

STUDENTS REFLECTION - Hannah Ferguson

This morning, we went to visit St. Anthony’s clinic and shelter services. We were able to go into one of their conference rooms and listen to a presentation regarding what and how St. Anthony’s gets things done. This organization has been around for more than 45 years, providing services, specifically health services, for the homeless around the Tenderloin. We learned about the connections that St. Anthony’s has with other, larger medical groups like Laguna Honda and UCSF. This organization is on the verge of becoming a federally qualified health center, which involves more funding. 

The woman who gave us the presentation seemed extremely committed and interested in her work. She was informative and seemed to care greatly about the people she serves and works with. She mentioned the value of technology in the coming age, and also the importance of education for the youth AND the seniors. She also made the interesting distinction between charity and justice, which was a distinction that the woman there felt very strongly about. She wanted to show that there is a difference between handouts and making a long-term impact on the people. She said that St. Anthony’s is focused on providing good immediate health care and help, but also on providing preventatives and helping people learn from their mistakes. 

Several of St. Anthony’s biggest challenges involve the health aspect of the organization. One of the major one that she mentioned was the face that many patients fail to follow up after their first meetings or after screenings for cancer or HIV/AIDS. Another struggle that was mentioned was the issue of interpreting and drawing meaning from collected data. St. Anthony’s prides itself on being one of the first community health centers to begin using electronic health records. However, while this new development is definitely convenient, it is really beneficial if you can come to conclusions based on the information and data you are collecting from your patients. This becomes an issue because of strict laws that restrict the amount of medical information you can share with others. It is deemed pretty important to protect the privacy of your patients as a medical organization or company. 

Later on in the day, we took Bart down to San Mateo to visit people who work with Congresswoman Jackie Speier. Unfortunately, she could not be present herself, but we were able to speak with two women who work in her offices. It sounded like Speier was mostly concerned with sexual assault and rape cases. She played a key role in speaking out against the, what she deemed to be too small, six month penalty for a rape case at Stanford University. She seems like a strong woman who knows what she wants and is able to go out and get it.

One of the women we talked to was named Katrina. Katrina Rill works as the Deputy District director and District Communications Director for Congresswoman Speier. We learned that Rill began her career in journalism and had worked with Kevin Fagen before. She definitely looked up to Speier, and told us much about what they do for the district. She was passionate and it seems that she loves her job. The other woman who was with us was fresh out of college. She gave us some insight into her job and what it is like to have debt in terms of student loans. It was interesting to hear her speak about how this job that she has now was not necessarily in line with what she thought she was going to do. Both of the women were adamant in their advice concerning our futures. They kept telling us to follow our dreams and do what we can. This was inspirational and an interesting addition to the information they had already given us. 

Overall, today was a good day. It was nice to go outside of the city and escape the fog for a few hours! I felt that I learned many new ways to give back to the community, and also about the role of a woman in politics. To end our day, we headed back to the Bart station to get home.