Models and Mentors
In Conversation with Shari Chevez
Medical student Shari Chevez has been deeply involved in community service for many years. While at the medical school she has been a leader and collaborator on numerous projects and initiatives. Stanford is very fortunate to be holding on to her for a few more years; when she graduates in June 2005 she will enter the Residency Training Program in Pediatrics, where she will further cultivate her passion for children’s health and her commitment to caring for underserved populations.
Tell me about your life in public service as a medical student.
While I’ve been a medical student, it has been important to me to continue to do community service work. It served as a constant reminder of why I choose medicine as a career and gave focus to my studies and efforts. I needed to be involved in work with underserved communities, learning not only how to be a healer but also an advocate and a teacher. I first got involved as a course assistant for a course on the “Human Side of Medicine” with Dr. Gabriel Garcia. I have also volunteered at Arbor Free Clinic.
Volunteering at Ravenswood Family Health Center was one of the pivotal points of my career. I applied for funds to work there through the National Medical Fellowship’s California Community Service Scholarship Program, which encourages medical students to serve in community clinics with the hope that they will choose a career working in that kind of setting.
While I was there I helped to build a project to bring medical students or undergraduates to work at Ravenswood. I thought this would give the volunteers a whole different idea about medicine and also provide the volunteer support that would be beneficial to the clinic and patients. There is also always a need among students for substantive clinical experiences with patient contact. Together with others I helped to develop a course in Patient Advocacy that provides students with a strong background in the context of community-based health care and gives them critical skills for working in a clinic. Each student is required to complete weekly clinic shifts at one of two clinic sites. The program has gotten off to a strong start!
I have also been involved as a mentor for Stanford Medical Youth Science Program, and the Stanford Upward Bound Program as an algebra and science instructor, both Stanford summer program for disadvantaged high school students. During the school year, I work with The Green Team, which is a group of medical students who develop science curriculum. We go to a school in East Palo Alto and teach science to a third grade class every week. That’s a longtime Stanford tradition as well.
How have you found the time to do all of this as a medical student?
The pass-fail system at Stanford has allowed me to adjust my priorities a little bit. I think it would be more difficult if I were competing for honors because then I would have to spend more time studying. We’re fortunate to have that flexibility that we do at Stanford, but I also think it’s a choice. If you want to community service no matter your profession, you schedule the time and you serve others. I always choose to serve because I have been blessed with so much it is my responsibility and my passion to give to others.
What are your long term goals in ten, twenty years? Do you want to continue community work?
I was told that I probably shouldn’t have career goals other than becoming a doctor, but that I should have a career “mission.” So my mission is to work with underserved, primarily Latino communities. No matter what, that will be underlying what I do.
Have you always been passionate about the underserved?
Yes. I care that there are disparities. I care that there’s not equal access and that treatment options sometimes depend on socioeconomic and racial classifications. I just think those kinds of things are really wrong, so I want use my education to help in whatever way I can.
I also saw that you helped to establish the first Fall Forum in Community Health and Public Service at Stanford? Can you tell me about it?
Stanford has always been a strong research institution and has always supported lab-based research. However, there are also many people doing community projects and more public health directed research, yet there was no venue to highlight that or to celebrate that. My classmate Nicole Marsico and I worked to develop the Fall Forum and we just had our third Forum in October 2004. The event brings together undergraduate, medical, and physician assistant students doing public service and public health work. I think community service can get lost in a place like this, so it’s nice to see that celebrating this type of service and research has become a tradition.
How has your perspective changed due to your involvement with community work as a student?
I’ve always cared about those things but my involvement now as a medical student and as a doctor is totally different because I see how I can affect change. My activities have helped me to explore various roles in medicine I may serve as a physician. Even as a medical student people look at you differently and they are interested in what you think. As a doctor I realize that I’m going to have an important voice that I have a responsibility to make heard.
How do you think your public service experience will influence your practice as a physician?
It starts with the mindset that health is much more than what’s physically going on inside one’s body. My experiences taught me to avoid assumptions about factors influencing a person’s health. For example, when prescribing antibiotics I can’t assume my patient has transportation to a pharmacy, insurance, or even the money for the medication. I must consider factors outside of my history taking and physical exam that may be influencing each individual person’s health.
Do you have any role models?
I never personally knew a doctor before I went to medical school. At Stanford I am surrounded by doctor role models like Dean Pizzo, Gabriel Garcia, Neil Gesundheit, Ted Sectish and Elizabeth Stuart, to single out just a few. In my chosen field of Pediatrics there has been a particular role model that has helped me become the physician I will become, Dr. Fernando Mendoza. I would love to be like him because he has so much passion for what he does and he accepts so much responsibility and affects change, particularly in the Latino community, not because he wants recognition just because it’s the right thing to do. If you live your life like that, I don’t see how you could go wrong.
How do you sustain your passion for working with the underserved?
The answer is that I don’t expect to see drastic changes but instead revel in the small victories as I serve my patients like a hand-made thank-you note from a child or a new program that inspires children to eat more fruit and vegetables. I try to be conscious of small things that I can do with each interaction I have with my patients. I know that it can all add up to make a big difference. The other important piece is surrounding yourself with people who share your goals and ideals to further inspire and motivate you. That has been one of the best parts of being at Stanford. Those people were easy to find and some of the most wonderful people I know!
-- Interview by Anna Chen
Posted: 6/9/05
