Biology alumna makes an impact through Health Outreach Baltimore
Reflection from Loyola biology major Brunilda Neufeld, '21, Heath Outreach Baltimore community advocate and student leader
By Brunilda Neufeld, '21, Biology major, 2021 Choudhury Sarkar-Dey Medalist
From the moment I stepped onto Loyola’s beautiful evergreen campus, I felt right at
home. I was drawn to the charismatic student body, the devoted faculty, and the university’s
mission of creating well-rounded individuals with a passion for service and social
justice. And yet, what most solidified my desire to come to Loyola was visiting Baltimore
and immersing myself in the community. I vividly remember driving through downtown
Baltimore for the first time and noting the drastic differences in neighborhoods from
one block to the next. I remember driving past Mercy Medical Center and Healthcare
for the Homeless and thinking, “I can see myself volunteering there one day. I feel
like I can really make a difference here.”
My ultimate goal in life has always been to make an impact on the world, revolutionize
it, and make it a more equitable, loving, and inspiring place. As a member of both
the Loyola and Baltimore communities, I knew I could start making small steps to do
just that. Over the past four years, I have come to recognize that the true beauty
of being a student at Loyola University Maryland is having not only the privilege
of becoming a member of the Loyola community but also having the privilege of becoming
a part of the diverse Baltimore community. And what a privilege it has been these
past four years!
Over the past four years, I strived to become an active member of both communities
and gained many memorable experiences along the way as a result. As a first-year student,
I became an Outdoor Adventure Experience leader, guiding students and faculty on backpacking, paddle boarding, and caving
trips. As a leader, nothing made me smile as much as having students recognize me
on campus and express how much they enjoyed my trips. As a sophomore, I became the
Social Media Coordinator for the Loyola Maryland Student Chapter for Doctors Without Borders. As a board member, I facilitated discussions on medical ethics, humanitarian aid,
and healthcare. I was able to engage with club members through social media posts
and mentor younger club members.
Without a doubt, however, the most impactful experience of my undergraduate career
has been my work with Health Outreach Baltimore as both an advocate and, more recently, as the Resource Team Coordinator. As a first-year
student, I became an advocate and had the privilege of working with patients at Mercy
Medical Center, learning about their unique life circumstances, and connecting them
to community resources. Over the next three years, I worked in multiple units at Mercy,
including the Emergency Department, the Mother-Baby Unit, and the Family Care Physicians
Unit. I gained an understanding of the difficulties families faced in acquiring resources
such as employment, GED programs, SNAP, WIC, government subsidies, etc., and worked
with my clients to acquire these resources. I also realized that healthcare was becoming
much more fast-paced and, as a result, sometimes patients felt they weren’t heard.
By taking the time to listen to my clients, meeting them where they were, and accepting
them, I could begin to change that.
One of my first and most memorable clients was an elderly woman named Ester who lived
alone with only her dog as company. Over several weeks Ester and I developed a strong
friendship. We shared stories from our lives and cracked jokes. She never forgot to
impart a bit of her “aging wisdom,” as she called it, with me each week. I always
looked forward to our chats and will never forget one of the last conversations we
had. “You know young lady, I really do appreciate you calling. It is so lonely out
here, sometimes just talking to you brings such a big smile to my face that I instantly
feel better.”
The spring semester of my Junior year brought new challenges. We were sent home in
the middle of a pandemic, and life itself was seemingly turned upside down. I was
heartbroken that I was being forced to leave Loyola in such a rush. I wondered how
long I would be away. I worried about maintaining friendships, the rocky transition
to online classes, and leaving a community that I had grown to love so much. One week
turned into months, and months turned into an entire semester. Nonetheless, I was
determined to make the best out of a not-so-ideal situation.
In the fall of my senior year, I became the Resource Team coordinator and began working
remotely with a team of advocates to research new resources and keep our old resources
up to date. Over weekly zoom meetings, we discussed how we, as a team, could go one
step further and truly live out Health Outreach Baltimore’s mission of going “Beyond
the Scope.” A few weeks into the online semester, a group of physicians from Mercy
Medical Center and residents from the University of Maryland reached out to Health
Outreach Baltimore. The physicians saw an increase in patients without jobs, insurance,
or the ability to put food on the table for their families, all as a result of the
pandemic. The physicians desperately wanted to do more but were unfamiliar with social,
supportive resources in the Baltimore city area and were unaware of how to connect
their patients to these resources.
My team and I took on this new challenge, and, over several months, with help from
both our program faculty advisor Dr. Maiju Lehmijoki Wetzel and Ms. Jennifer Sullivan,
we created a provider-facing website that we modeled after our own Health Outreach
Baltimore resource website. Each team member was given a specific resource to research
and add to the website. Together we discussed what resources we used to most as advocates
and which resources we had had the most success with. When completed, the website
included quick links, phone numbers, addresses, and other pertinent information about
food, education, employment, and childcare resources. The website could be easily
accessed by the physicians via a computer, tablet, or smartphone. It was a great success
for both Health Outreach Baltimore and the physicians at Mercy Medical Center. The
feedback we received is that the website made physicians feel better informed and
more capable when approached by patients in need of resources.
My experiences at Loyola and, in particular, my experiences as a Health Outreach Baltimore
advocate have shaped my understanding of what strong communities look like and feel
like. These communities have shaped me into the strong-willed, passionate woman I
am today, and into the devoted and compassionate physician, I hope to one day become.
Baltimore will always be a home away from home for me, and I am thankful I have been
able to give back to a community that has given me so much.