The lights inside the apartment were turned off to save money. But the sole resident, a woman with AIDS in her late 20s, lit up the room, performing three spoken word poems for Austin Youngsoo Ha '12 and an AIDS advocacy worker. Youngsoo Ha had come to the apartment as a volunteer with AIDS Care Ocean State, but also as part of a class assignment.
For close to 20 years, students in Professor of Family Medicine Stephen Smith's class, PHP 0070: "Cost Versus Care: The Dilemma for American Medicine" have been volunteering in the Providence community as part of their weekly assignments. The service-learning component of the class challenges students' beliefs and forces them to question their value systems, Smith said.
"The class itself focuses on intellectual aspects of health care policy," Smith said. Health care "is more than that - it's working with real human beings."
Many students in Smith's class choose to work in traditional health care settings like the emergency room at Rhode Island Hospital, but some volunteer at hospices, old age homes and advocacy organizations like AIDS Care Ocean State. The placements allow students to "compare the theories we talk about in class to real-world experiences," Smith said. A wide range of projects are acceptable, as long as they put students "outside of their comfort zones amongst people with different cultures, different languages, different class situations," he said.
Jillian Robbins '11 chose to work at the Martin Luther King Elementary School for her volunteer project. Tuesday mornings, she teaches kindergartners the alphabet and plans activities around the letter of the day. "The themes that we discuss in class are still present," Robbins said. "You can tell the students' socio-economic backgrounds superficially from just what they're wearing."
Most students choose from a list of about 15 organizations contacted over the summer by Sheela Krishnan '10, the class's teaching assistant. Students are required to volunteer with their organization for four to five hours a week and to keep a journal of their experiences. The journal and their weekly discussion sections count for 20 percent of the course grade.
"I wanted to take a course on AIDS," said Youngsoo Ha, who participated in a service learning project in Kenya his junior year of high school. "There's no better way to learn about AIDS than by being close to patients."
A Program in Liberal Medical Education student, Youngsoo Ha said the class and working with AIDS patients affirmed his decision to become a physician. "What's the good in learning about American medicine if you're not going to do something about it?" he asked. "I'm increasingly realizing the American health care system needs repairs."
Smith, who is retiring next year, said community service works well for every subject, not just health care. A couple of years ago, he attended a conference at Bentley College where he met a professor of English who used service learning in his literature classes. While studying King Lear, students also volunteered at an elderly care home. "They understood what it was to become old," Smith said.
Smith has been teaching "Cost Versus Care" since 1985 and said he consistently receives e-mails from former students describing the class as a "transformative experience" and one that produced "revelations." Health care is about people, he said, and studying it should be too.
"You have to look beyond the line at the heart and soul as well," Smith said.
