Name: Sarani Pachalla

Year: Senior

Major: Spansh, Science in Human Culture (Pre-Med)

CFS Class: Field Studies in Public Health

Employer: Lurie Children’s Hospital (Critical Care Division) & Mothers and Babies

 

I never thought CFS would be for me, as most people I knew did it for internship experience in business-related fields. However, CFS provides incredible opportunities for pre-med students to get real world experience in Public Health AND the research, volunteering, and shadowing requirements for medical school applications. I wanted to get some more clinical research experience, and Lurie Children’s Critical Care Research Division has been perfect for that. I get to do chart reviews, literature reviews, and I get to interact with patients and their families as I recruit new participants for the various studies going on in the Pediatric ICU. A lot of them have to do with social determinants of health as well. Whenever I have free time, I am encouraged to shadow doctors and learn the ropes of the PICU, or attend Critical Care conferences where I am exposed to the latest research that has clinical relevance. I also work part time at the Mothers and Babies program at the Center for Community Health which is more of a public health internship, as it is a program that aims to help women at-risk for postpartum depression. There, I am learning qualitative research methods such as qualitative response coding and writing sections of the papers they might use in the future. In addition, I get to utilize my Spanish fluency to reach out to study participants.

Overall, CFS has been an amazing experience—one of the best decisions I have made in college. Real world experience is so valuable, so if you are pre-med and have a quarter to spare—DO CFS!