Schweitzer Fellowship

Written by Jessie Evangelista ’15
When I was in Kindergarten, my school bus used to drop me off at the hospital where my mother worked. My older sister and I would sit quietly in my mom’s office and do our homework while she finished up her work. Most of my friends would get stickers or McDonald’s for their good behavior, but if my sister and I were on our best behavior, my mom would reward us by taking us to see the babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) – where a multidisciplinary team cares for premature and critically ill newborns.

Written by Jessica Huang ’17
While eating your breakfast this morning – maybe pouring milk into your cereal or coffee – did you stop to think about how it got to your table? Did you know that there is a hidden community of 1,500-3,000 Latino migrant farmworkers within Vermont working 50-80 hours a week, contributing more than 50 percent of the dairy production to support the state’s economy? Given the rural environment they live in, the sparse Spanish-speaking providers available, and their limited understanding of the U.S. healthcare system, these farmworkers face many structural, cultural, and linguistic barriers when accessing health services in Vermont.