Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio

Jessica Smith, Summer 2017

This summer I had the opportunity to work at Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio. One of the main reasons I wanted to work at Catholic Charities this summer was to immerse myself in a world that I would otherwise never experience. I was not disappointed and found the world of refugee resettlement to be drastically different from my own. Hearing about the terrible experiences many refugees have lived through and the challenges they have faced has given me a new sense of the many blessings I have in my life and to not take for granted the opportunities that I have been given.

This site was not as medical heavy as some of the other sites and my responsibilities this summer very rarely had clinical applications in the medical sense, but I built the foundation for an imperative skill needed in the medical field that is often challenging for many. This skill was the ability to connect with individuals whom you have very little in common with and create a relationship based on trust in a short period of time. To add on another layer to this already complicated task was the fact that more often than not I was unable to communicate with these individuals through a common language. This summer has taught me that there is a lot more to communication than just spoken language. Your body language, facial expressions, and simple gestures can go a long way. I know that I will continue to cultivate this skill as I continue on my path to becoming a physician and throughout my career and I am grateful for the base that this internship has helped me establish.

I could not think of a better way to spend my last “free summer” than working at Catholic Charities. It was a true honor to spend my days with all of the remarkable and incredibly selfless individuals that work there. They give everything they have to a population that is often overlooked but deserves so very much to feel seen. Their examples have helped to deepen my medical education in a way I had not expected and I ’m so glad I had the opportunity to discover this.