USU Students Volunteer Time for Service in the Community

By Christopher Austin

The email asked if there were any volunteers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) who would be interested in taking part in a community outreach program at the Washington School for Girls, a Catholic school in Anacostia, Maryland that provides a tuition-free education for girls in grades 3 through 8 in economically disadvantaged communities. Army 2nd Lt. Candace Flagg, a second-year medical student in USU’s F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine (SOM) was delighted to find that the event took place on one of the rare days she had free time, and quickly signed up.

Navy Lts. David Sternbaum and Julia Camp, both students in USU’s
Graduate School of Nursing, volunteered their time to help prepare
Thanksgiving meals for more than 13,000 people in need in the
Washington, DC, area.  (Courtesy photo)

“As soon as we walked into the room, they [the girls’ school students] were like, ‘Who are they? What are they wearing?’” Flagg said, smiling. “I think what they ended up gathering from me and the rest of my classmates is that science is cool, and being a physician, and training to be one is hard. They asked a lot of questions, about what it’s like to be in medical school, what it’s like to be in the military… I think we all volunteered because we enjoy volunteer work with children, but we also ended up giving the girls a little insight into what it means to be a military physician.”

It’s not easy learning to be a healthcare provider while also serving as a member of the Armed Forces. Not only do USU students have the same amount of intense studying as any other health sciences school, it has to fit alongside a schedule of military duties. That doesn’t leave much free time, but when it’s available, some USU students like to give back to the local community.

The visit to the Washington School for Girls is just one way that students try to lend their knowledge to the community and help enrich lives. This visit was organized by USU’s American Medical Association – Medical Student Section interest group, with help from retired Air Force Col. (Dr.) Arnyce Pock, the associate dean for Curriculum at USU, and retired Army Col. (Dr.) William Gilliland, the associate dean of Medical Education, both former USU students themselves. The fifth grade girls at the Washington School were learning how models can be used in science and medicine to learn more about subjects of study.

The girls were led through the different stations set up by the future doctors, each showcasing tools that they use to learn about the human body. Stations included skeletons used to teach anatomy, samples of food and the amounts of sugar they contain to demonstrate the importance of nutrition, and an ultrasound machine to show how doctors are able to look into a human body without causing harm to the patient. Flagg worked at the station where students looked through microscopes at blood and nerve tissue samples.

The visit to the Washington School for Girls is just one opportunity that USU students can use to give back to the community. Air Force 2nd Lt. Francesca Ursua, another second-year student at the SOM, pursued her own recent opportunity through USU’s Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG).

Students from the USU Family Medicine Interest Group join with other volunteers in the community as part of Bethesda Cares to perform a survey of the Montgomery County, Md. homeless population and provide them with clothes, blankets and food. (Photo Courtesy of the USU Family Medicine Interest Group)

At the Oakridge Elementary School annual Family Fitness Night, Ursua and Air Force 2nd Lt. Taylor O’Neil challenged the children with exercises in exchange for tickets for prizes. They were among several other booths at the event that each encouraged kids to take up physical activity and promote good health.

“I enjoy hanging out with little kids and seeing them get really excited about doing push-ups and sit-ups, I sometimes forget it’s the little things that make us the most happy,” she said.

When Flagg and Ursua first started at USU, they were eager to reach out to their new community, but found themselves needing to adjust to the curriculum in their first year.

“I didn’t do much outside of school for the first couple months, so I could get into the swing of things,” said Ursua, “But after understanding how much school work I needed to do, and how to better manage my time, I was able to do more things.”

The FMIG offers several opportunities for students to help the community.  They have a relationship with the local non-profit Bethesda Cares, which interacts with the homeless community of Montgomery County, Maryland, to keep them in good health and help find them safe places to live. Among other activities, students take to the streets before school around 4 a.m., often in freezing temperatures, to survey homeless and to ensure they know where to go to get clothing, food, and shelter.

Army 2nd Lt. Candace Flagg volunteers to teach dance to children at
Dance Expressions, the same studio she danced at as a child.
(Image credit: courtesy of Army 2nd Lt. Candace Flagg)

The benefit of volunteering isn’t just helping the community; it also allows for a break from the stresses of school life. Flagg usually volunteers her Saturdays teaching dance to kids at the same studio at which she grew up performing.

“I thought it would be challenging at first and wasn’t sure I’d be able to balance it with studying and other school things, but I don’t’ think I would have been so successful in school had I not continued to teach dance,” Flagg said. “It was my first passion. I was dancing since I was 3. I think I would have felt a lot more stress if I hadn’t, and would be seeking an outlet to get my mind off school had I not stuck with dance.”

Navy Lts. Julia Camp and David Sternbaum, students in USU’s Graduate School of Nursing nurse anesthesia program class of 2020, participated in the “Everything but the Turkey” charity event in November at the Washington, D.C., Jewish Community Center.  The pair helped prepare 13,000 servings of Thanksgiving Day meals for people in need in the metro area.  The food was then distributed by DC Central Kitchen to more than 88 local homeless shelters, transitional housing facilities, and community kitchens in the district.

Even before they came to USU, students like Ursua, Flagg, O’Neil, Camp, Sternbaum and many others, took part in their communities in any way they could. Now, as members of the United States military health system, they look forward to giving back to the global community.