Nine UCSF Students Selected for Prestigious Schweitzer Fellowship
Albert Schweitzer
UCSF students representing all four professional schools were selected as Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows and will spend the next year addressing health disparities in San Francisco while developing lifelong leadership skills.
Each year, the US Schweitzer Fellows Program competitively selects about 250 exceptional students from the nation’s top health and human service schools to follow in Albert Schweitzer’s footsteps. Twelve graduate students in the Bay Area have been selected for the Schweitzer Fellows Program.
“UCSF educates the next generation of leaders in the health sciences," said Joseph Castro, PhD, vice chancellor of Student Academic Affairs. "The newest group of Schweitzer Fellows representing each of the professional schools at UCSF exemplifies the academic excellence, leadership skills, and passionate commitment to serving others that make us very proud of them and their extraordinary efforts.”
These Schweitzer Fellows – mostly university graduate students – partner with community-based organizations to identify an unmet health need, design a yearlong service project with a demonstrable impact on that need, and bring that project from idea to implementation and impact – all on top of their usual graduate school responsibilities.
The fellows program is named after doctor and surgeon Albert Schweitzer, who was born in a small village in Alsace, France, which was then part of Germany. By age 29, he had already authored three books and made landmark scholarly contributions in the fields of music, religion and philosophy. At the age of 30, Schweitzer decided to become a doctor and devote the rest of his life to direct service in Africa. In 1952, at the age of 78, Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.
UCSF’s Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows
Atoosa Firouzian, School of Medicine: Firouzian will lead a group class for underserved women in the third trimester of their pregnancy about labor and delivery, infant development and baby care at the Young Women’s Program, UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion in San Francisco.
Monica Grova and Brittany Grovey, School of Medicine: They will implement a health education program for women experiencing drug addiction and/or homelessness aimed at providing health information and resources for them and their children. They will work at the Jelani House in San Francisco.
Sherry Kwon, School of Pharmacy: She will launch a pharmacy clinic providing drug consultation and referral for free or low cost prescription drugs at Glide Health Services at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.
Erin Lutes and Shawna Mitchell-Sisler
Erin Lutes and Shawna Mitchell-Sisler, School of Nursing: They will develop and implement a focused, interactive intervention program for psychiatric patients with diabetes-related health issues. They plan to integrate the 5-2-1-0 Healthy Kids Countdown, a health promotion initiative based on evidence-based messaging emphasizing healthy nutritional choices and behaviors at Glide Health Services at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.
Shibani Rajadhyksha, School of Dentistry: Rajadhyksha will carry out a health and science education program for underserved fifth graders. She plans to integrate the 5-2-1-0 Healthy Kids Countdown, a health promotion initiative based on evidence-based messaging emphasizing healthy nutritional choices and behaviors working at E.R. Taylor Elementary School in San Francisco.
Kanizeh Fatema Visram
Wendy Tseng, School of Medicine: Tseng will administer multidisciplinary workshops on intimate partner violence and mental health for women and families living in San Francisco's Chinatown Community Development Center and Donaldina Cameron House in San Francisco.
Kanizeh Fatema Visram, School of Pharmacy: Visram will work to identify and provide education about potentially serious/fatal medication errors and interactions among seniors and other vulnerable members of the community at the San Francisco Senior Center, Lifelong Medical Care Clinic and Mission Creek Mercy Housing in San Francisco.