News/Press Release Archive
Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Comes to Crescent City
July 11th, 2008
The New Orleans Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) has announced 12 new fellows for the 2008-09 year. The Schweitzer Fellowship aims to help underserved or uninsured communities, while simultaneously enhancing the education of health professionals in the area.
New Orleans represents the newest of ten Schweitzer Fellowship Programs across the country and it was recently established in New Orleans in response to the escalating health needs of the local community. The twelve newly selected 2008-2009 New Orleans Schweitzer Fellows will collectively provide 2,400 hours of direct service addressing the health priorities in New Orleans.
The mission of The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship is to develop and support leaders in health-related service to communities in need in the U.S. and internationally, said Dr. Benjamin P. Sachs, Senior Vice President of Tulane University and Dean of the Tulane School of Medicine. I am excited that the Schweitzer Program has now come to New Orleans, and that graduate students from all of our local schools now have the opportunity to become Schweitzer Fellows. The passion for service these young people have can help enormously in addressing the serious unmet health-related needs of our local communities.
The start-up has also been warmly welcomed by Louisiana State University (LSU). LSU Health Sciences Center is pleased to welcome the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Program to New Orleans, said Dr. Larry Hollier, Chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans. The inaugural Schweitzer Fellows will help our students reduce health disparities at a critically important time in our history. The Fellows will also help inspire and shape each next generation of Louisianas health care leaders. Were very proud of our new Schweitzer Fellows and their dedication to making a difference right here at home.
The fellows were recruited from graduate programs throughout New Orleans. In a competitive application and interview process, the 12 students were selected based on their individual proposals for projects that directly address what the students identified as unmet health needs in New Orleans.
In addition to their direct service, the fellows meet monthly to share ideas and experiences. Once the Fellows have completed their year of service, they will become part of a national alumni support network of over 1,300 Fellows for Life, across the United States and abroad. Virtually all Fellows for Life continue to support and inspire each other through continuing commitment to service.
Located at the Louisiana Public Health Institute, and headed by Fellow for Life Raymond Tsai, the New Orleans Schweitzer Fellow Program is part of a national program of similar activities of service, involving Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Delaware Valley, Los Angeles, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, San Francisco (Bay Area), and Vermont. Because the work of the Fellows is donated without charge to the communities served, each citys program is supported through charitable gifts.
The New Orleans Program is supported by the National Schweitzer Fellows Program through a Merck Foundation grant, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation, The American Medical Association, Wachovia Bank, and independent philanthropists.
The following are recipients of the 2008-09 Albert Schweitzer Fellowships:
David Canales, a student at Tulane University Law School, will work with the New Orleans Pro Bono Project and offer bilingual legal counsel to the immigrant worker community that arrived post-Katrina on issues such as wage claims, divorce, foreclosures and bankruptcy.
Emily Donaldson-Fletcher, a student at Tulane University School of Medicine, will work with the New Orleans Healthy Start Program to decrease the incidence of low birth weight babies in New Orleans.
Valerie Fontenot and Tyra Toston, both from the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Public Health, will work to provide health education that focuses on responsible sexual behavior for at-risk adolescents in the Greater New Orleans Area, specifically minority female populations.
Jonathan Howe from the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Public Health will introduce dance intervention, teaching hip hop dancing to at-risk and high-risk, overweight, and obese adolescents and young adults (ages 17-22).
Erika Lindholm from the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Medicine will continue to develop CORE, a student organization designed to offer medical students opportunities to be involved in projects that would improve community health, as well as dedicate 100 hours to participate in new direct service activities with CORE.
Adenike Onagoruwa, a student at Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine will work with the Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Womens Health (TUXCOE) and the New Orleans Womens Health Clinic to develop an inter-generational health education program for young mothers and their own mothers with a focus on nutrition, reproductive health and maternal, infant, and child health.
Kemi Olaide Orekoya, a student at Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine will start an after school program for female adolescents to learn about their bodies through a Health and Reproductive Female Initiative Project at a charter school in New Orleans.
Kaari Riley, a student at Tulane University Law School, will provide a mentoring and job readiness program that includes tutoring for middle school and high school students who actively attend school or are in a GED program.
Holly Scheib from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine will work with the Latino Health Access Network to coordinate bilingual training opportunities in parenting and early childhood development for Hispanic parents and childcare providers.
Rohini Singh from the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Medicine will work to improve the emotional, behavioral and physical health of children with special health care needs through Creative Outlets Promoting Empowerment, Project COPE.
Deshawn Stevenson, a student at Xavier University School of Pharmacy, will work with the pharmacy at the new Daughters of Charity Clinic to counsel patients on their medications, organize a health fair, and distribute flyers promoting the clinic and health information around the neighborhood.
About The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship:
The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, a national nonprofit organization, provides community service fellowships for medical and graduate students who are dedicated to addressing unmet health needs in their local areas. Since 1991, over 1,585 medical and other graduate students from more than 70 health-related professional schools have served as Schweitzer Fellows providing over 311,000 hours of service. To date, Schweitzer Fellows have worked with over 400 community-based agencies to address the needs of underserved populations on such issues as: HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, illiteracy, homelessness, teen pregnancy prevention, poor nutrition and health, and access to hospice care in poor communities.