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Naseem Ansari, James Graham Brown Fellows Class of 2013

Biography, Experiences, Past Projects Currently, I’m a senior at the University of Louisville, pursuing degrees in

both Biology and Political Science and minors in Spanish and Latin American Studies. Along with my involvement in the Brown Fellows Program, I serve on the Executive Board for the University of Louisville’s Dance Marathon, have been elected to offices in the Student Government Association including Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences and Senior Council Representative, and work as a Cardinal Host for the President’s Office.

Over the past few summers, I have improved my Spanish conversational abilities and cultural knowledge while studying in Spain and most recently, interned at a non-governmental organization called Hope for Future Generations focused in the field of Public Health. My work with Hope for Future Generations was specifically targeted toward successful implementation of two grant projects, the Behavior Change Support Program, funded by Johns Hopkins University and the Small Child Survival Initiative, established by SIMAVI, in Sweden.

Project Proposal & Goals: Wanting to bring my knowledge gained abroad in language and health literacy

to communities in the United States, I sought to immerse myself in three organizations that would all contribute to my greater aspiration of learning how to successfully educate others, whether that be in issues relating to health care, politics, human rights, or leadership.

Already having volunteered and completed an internship at the Kentucky Racing Health Services Clinic, I decided that I wanted to pursue a research project that would ultimately provide better dual-language health literacy literature to aid patients and present a guidebook for future translators. Translators at the Kentucky Racing Health Services Clinic allow daily operations to be completed, and their cultural, linguistic knowledge is essential to the clinic’s success.

I sought to influence future leaders in Kentucky by applying to serve as a Resident Advisor and Seminar Instructor for the Governor’s Scholars Program. This position demanded a permanent role model, a teacher, and well-educated citizen.

Lastly, through work in the community and abroad, I had also encountered many cases of domestic abuse and been ill-prepared for the challenges that faced me with patients or students suffering from physical or verbal mistreatment. Therefore, I decided to begin investing time into an organization that would teach me how to engage and handle such situations. Thus, began my volunteer work with the Exploited Children’s Help Organization.

Left: Segovia, Spain and Right: Ajumako, Ghana

Teaching the Importance of Personal Safety, ECHO

Kentucky Racing Health Services Clinic: Health Literacy Research

Objectives: Gain a better understanding of the obstacles challenging future leaders, help them become politically and socially well-informed citizens, and develop my ability to educate others constructively, yet impartially.

Purpose: The Governor’s Scholars Program tests your ability to think critically, overcome stereotypes, embrace individuality, communicate effectively, and rise above fear of the unknown.

Synopsis: My experience at the Governor’s Scholars program can be explained in several words: six weeks, friendships, growth, and community. In a whirlwind, you are forced into several demanding roles, each difficult to fill: a teacher, an authority figure, friend, and above all, a role model.

Through this program, I taught classes on leadership, teamwork, service, and stereotypes, lead discussions on many controversial political, social, and legal issues, performed in a live comedy skit that I co-scripted, and sponsored a knitting club and swing dancing club. Most importantly, I learned how to command a room, understand misperceptions, and teach others to embrace differences and lead passion filled lives.

Governor’s Scholars Program: Resident Advisor & Seminar Instructor

Exploited Children’s Help Organization

Intended Vision, Future Ambitions

Objectives: Identify needs in health literacy literature and establish a better system of instruction for the University of Louisville students that provide translation services.

Purposes: Bilingual or only Spanish-speaking patients at the clinic fail to understand the current health literature due to its sophisticated text and lack of visual aids. These patients do not always completely understand basic health instruction and sometimes feel less than comfortable asking translators or nurse practitioners for explanations.

Translators did not have the background knowledge to be able to ask appropriate questions for diagnostic analysis. In many cases, translators were also unfamiliar both with the lifestyle and work environment of a backside employee and the medically-based Spanish terminology necessary to effectively communicate with patients.

Background: The Kentucky Racing Health Services Clinic, funded by the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund, is a non-profit facility that is a result of the working collaboration between the University of Louisville and the fund to provide health care services to the backside workers of the Kentucky racing industry.

Specifically, the clinic offers its services and benefits to backside workers and their families for off-the-job injuries and illnesses that are not otherwise covered by worker’s compensation, welfare plans, social security, military benefits or any other type of health insurance.

The clinic, in 2011 alone, managed to provide free treatment and medical services to 1,318 patients. Since the clinic opened in 1978, backside workers and their families have received over $34.5 million in benefits,

Life and Work at Churchill Downs

Synopsis: Applying the past year’s worth of volunteer experience to my research and interviews with patients regarding needs for more in depth and accessible literature, I’ve begun developing brochures on simple nutrition with the help of a mentor in the Health Promotions Department at the University of Louisville.

I have also been able to locate better language translation texts for translators and nurse practitioners and have pieced together a preliminary instruction manual for all future translators citing useful slang terminology, Hispanic cultural tendencies that bear weight on their clinical treatment and general well-being, and a thorough background on the racing industry.

To my surprise, much of my research has led me to the understanding that the most simple tutorials are the most needed, such as those that explain the differences between complex and simple sugars.

Objectives: Understand the world of domestic and child abuse and its overarching violence, learn to communicate with victims of abuse and violence, and address their needs appropriately.

Purpose: Encountering victims of domestic and child abuse both abroad and in service efforts in my own community, I felt it necessary to address my inability to help, understand, advocate, or educate this population, related to the context of health care and beyond.

Synopsis: I have undergone training and begun volunteering weekly for this organization. My efforts are spent with the “Kids Safe Booth” initiative, the “Teaching the Importance of Personal Safety Program” and inside the Family Court Playroom, which are all programs either dedicated to the prevention of abuse or education and nurturing to those children that have already suffered.

Beginning my fourth year as a student in the Brown Fellows Program, I easily admit that who I am, my career aspirations, and lifelong ambitions are different from those I had in the summer of 2009. I went from thinking I might wanted to practice medicine to entertaining dreams of becoming multi-lingual, a diplomat, a NGO founder, to finally, a path that has encompassed all of these ideas, although modestly.

Unless my path changes its course again, I will pursue a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in either Nepal of Indonesia in the following year, investigating health and human rights oriented community projects during my spare time. Ultimately, I hope to return to pursue a dual-degree in Masters of Public Health and Doctor of Medicine.

This summer taught me a new skill, research, and given me invaluable experience in education and advocacy work. After all, in the field of healthcare, a doctor is a teacher and an advocate for students and patients, and more so for her community.