First Week (6/8-6/9)

  • The SHECP internship (Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty) is a 9 week internship sponsored by Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. I was very privileged to be given a chance to participate in this very insightful and mentally rigorous program. I was going to be placed with the West Virginia Covenant House in Charleston, West Virginia. The internship runs from 6/2-7/27, with in-person placement beginning on 6/6. I personally was unable to begin my internship until 6/9 after I had finished a retreat for the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. I felt that my time at WVSOM, while still taking away from my contributions to the Covenant House, acclimated me to the culture of West Virginia and its differences from my hometown in Central Pennsylvania. It also showed me the unique, celebratory aspects of West Virginia and how proud people are to be West Virginians. I found that there are a lot of similarities, but also key differences to the way that these communities operate. I found that people in West Virginia have different accents, fashion, food, and roadways in comparison to those who live farther up in more classically northern areas. It was a fast change in culture, but something I took in pace and rather enjoyed.

  • As a Public Health Advocacy POE, I envision many things in the context of communities and how those community experiences have an impact on the mental, emotional, social, and physical health of an individual. In West Virginia, I’ve noticed many aspects of their community that are both interesting and polarizing compared to the previously held beliefs I’ve had in regard to their state. Like most people, I don’t have much thoughts or opinions about West Virginia besides the publicly held stereotypes of poor farmers roughing it through the mountainous terrain. The only thing I was able to pinpoint correctly in that stereotype was poverty. West Virginia is a highly impoverished state in terms of finances, healthcare, and functional public health policy. Although, these deficits pale in comparison to the assets that make West Virginia an inspiring state. West Virginians have an immense culture; people from West Virginia are extremely proud to be West Virginians. In fact, WV has an entire state holiday to oversee the establishment of WV aside from Virginia state. While it is a celebration of independence, it also has a lot to do with the fact that WV joined the Union and deliberately separated from the Confederacy. Another aspect to their culture is undoubtedly pepperoni rolls and apple butter- two foods they are most known for. In addition, the fashion feels much different in comparison to the northern east coast. Clothing in the north is much more androgynous with the likelihood of darker colors, androgynous cuts of clothing, and very little feminine embellishments. Athleisure is more popular in the north in addition to men wearing more plain, basic clothes without much jewelry or additives beyond expensive sneakers that speak for the outfits themselves. In the south, feminine clothing is extremely bright, colorful, floral, and embellished much of the time. Casual men’s clothing is also typically brighter, more business casual, and more styling pieces such as golf jackets over the shoulders or around the waist.

  • The hardest transition for me was having to forego my work in EMS for two months. I’ve been working as an EMT at Huntingdon Ambulance Authority for about three and a half years, so it was difficult for me to reconcile not working in the medical field in lieu of working in social services. I had joined the SHECP program too late to be placed in a medical clinic and it made me increasingly reluctant to engage in the program. To be frank, I wasn’t too excited for the internship and was very nervous to enter a field that I knew nothing about. I hadn’t received much contact about what the Covenant house did, how it operated, what its values were, and the only tasks I was informed about were with the food pantry. Despite all of my reservations, frustrations of not being able to obtain a position in an urban clinic, and the nervousness I held about the food pantry, I preserved in keeping a open mind and was pleasantly surprised at the community engagement, family, advocacy, and celebration found in the West Virginia Covenant House.





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