‘It’s Got to Come from Your Heart’

I attended college on a very significant scholarship, in the same part of New York State where I had grown up. I identified as a “townie.” 

One night during my senior year of college, I was in a pizzeria near campus. A fellow senior was angry with the shop’s owner about something that had happened. As the student stormed out, she yelled at the owner. 

Twenty-five years later, I still remember what she said to him: 

“Whatever—my car is worth more than your house.”

My peers were some of the brightest people I’d ever met, but I often saw them as unaware of how to be a member of a community. As someone who was both a student at an elite institution and a member of the local community, I saw my fellow student’s disrespect as a failure of our college to teach its students the simple act of how to treat others. 

That spoke to me as higher education falling short of its mission. Working to bridge that disconnect has become very important to me—a calling of sorts.

Here at Tufts, in community service learning (CSL) for the health sciences schools, we support partnerships between our students and local organizations. (This is a collaboration between Tisch College of Civic Life and our health sciences schools in Boston and Grafton.)

Our medical students, for example, complete 50 hours of service learning as a requirement for graduation. For the most part, they’re not at our community partner sites in any medical capacity. (Sometimes, first-year students hear about service learning, and they’re excited to dive into clinical work; I have to get them to pump the brakes on that.)

Instead, CSL focuses on the social determinants of health. Some of our students work with schoolchildren, whether as tutors or by designing workshops on health and science education to present to classes at local elementary or middle schools. Others volunteer in community health and wellness capacities, providing health education at the Greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center in Chinatown, for example. 

Others might get experience with patients in a clinical setting. For instance, students who volunteer with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless might provide foot baths for clients while serving in the foot care clinic. The objective is to create space for conversation, provide companionship, and maybe connect the clients to other resources. Again, the student's role is not clinical, and that's very intentional.

From the beginning of our students’ medical education, we center community voices and set students up to understand the importance of getting to know their community. During their first weeks, MD students take a tour of Chinatown with a community member who teaches them about the neighborhood’s history, its health concerns—the impact of traffic and pollution from the nearby highway—and issues like gentrification. They also learn about some of the ways the community itself is addressing these issues. 

Many students choose Tufts for its civic engagement, and I hope that these experiences strengthen that commitment by enriching their understanding and developing their skills. 

I believe that service learning makes our students better clinicians, researchers, dentists, veterinarians, policy experts, educators—professionals who really understand people as people and take time to hear their stories.

On a practical level, I hope it means that our future doctors do not, say, prescribe antibiotics that need to be refrigerated to somebody who is unstably housed. I hope that they understand the complexity of why people might face difficulties with their housing situation, taking that information in with open hearts and listening ears. 

In an ideal world, our students will also be empowered to effect change. But that starts with being people who understand the barriers—why somebody might be late for their appointments because they're having trouble with transportation, for example—and won't judge them for those sorts of things.

What’s the most important trait for someone to do this work? Is “love” too cheesy an answer? Love for humanity, love for students and wanting to support them. Belief that we can make this world a better place. I think it's just got to come from your heart.

Jen Greer-Morrissey is the program manager of civic life for health sciences at Tisch College of Civic Life. Based at the School of Medicine with responsibility for administering the school’s Community Service Learning program, she also works with the civic life coordinators for the university’s health sciences schools.

Our Tufts is a series of personal stories shared by members of the Tufts community and featured on both Tufts Now and Instagram.