with my brother when I was a lot younger
and he was much taller than I was around
six or seven years older and well he’s
still six or seven years older than me
and every time we’d play basketball in
our backyard the hoop would stay exactly
at the highest height possible and he
wouldn’t move in an inch and as much as
I would struggle being short back then
trying to get the ball in the hoop he
always tell me no we’re not changing the
height just push a little harder and
it’s torturous as that was I remember
looking back and thinking no matter how
far out of reach that hoop was
eventually the ball went in eventually I
was at least able to take a shot and it
paid off so with this in mind I remember
prior to my first year at UGA I had the
chance to work at a small clinic down in
Duluth Georgia known as Shifa clinic
Shifa meaning cure in arabic and it’s
also one of the many humanitarian
projects of ignorant muslim charity
organization and during my time there I
had the chance to gain a lot of clinical
experience what it was like to triage
patients to shadow physicians conduct
health fairs and more importantly I
learned the value of service to give
back to one’s community the same
community that gave me everything to
have an intimate relationship with the
patients that we see every day but even
so after years of working there and
gaining experience I felt like my role
to an extent was replaceable that it was
something I could grow out of something
that another student could come by and
do the same job maybe even better and I
thought you know I’m a few months away
from moving to Athens – my first year at
UGA why not have a service there that
can do the same thing around the same
time the former director of the Duluth
branch was speaking to some local
physicians out in Athens
well talking about how we can start a
project the same way and in my head I
thought we have the resources we have
the need there and there are also many
UGA students that I’m sure would be
willing to volunteer nonetheless two
years went by completed my freshman year
my sophomore year continued to drive
back to Duluth to gain more experience
and learn more and then eventually the
summer of 2016 right at the end of my
sophomore year I receive a phone call
from the same former director of the
Duluth branch and he mentions to me that
if I can put together a PowerPoint with
a list of properties where we can get
started
put together some team of students that
can make this get off the ground and
have something to start with then maybe
he can get me in a room with physicians
that would be willing to help guide this
project and I remember vividly sitting
in my apartment with my roommate at the
time too and he was with me making this
PowerPoint we’re thinking you know this
is easy enough right all we have to do
is wake up early morning and we were
fasting by the way for Ramadan at the
time so we were hungry we all we have to
do is wake up early morning walking in
this room full of physicians who are
busy as is and they’re taking out extra
time for us and just walk in and give
the best damn presentation we can think
of I was 19 I hadn’t even done my dishes
yet thankfully with the help of
ignorance that we were working with and
namely the students that joined our team
that summer of 2016
Schiphol clinic Athens was born there
after we were in subsequent meetings
with a lot of these professionals and we
stepped out of our comfort zone we were
no longer thinking the way that thinking
within the confines of just a student
role we were more concerned with how do
we learn to speak with landlords about
new properties how do we find the best
location how do we choose the correct
electronic medical record system for our
clinic and over time as the
professionals we were working with
entrusted us with more responsibility we
became the only clinic of seven other
nationwide active Shifa clinics that is
run fully
on a voluntary basis and primarily by
undergraduates even the physicians that
come on a weekly basis do so voluntarily
although I like to think that the
doughnuts we get on Saturdays kind of
makes up for it I don’t know that’s just
me I don’t know how many of you want to
be paid in doughnuts exactly two years
ago from today’s TED event we began with
the idea on paper to now thankfully
having over 15 providers of care over 50
student volunteers we’ve served over 80
different patients and together students
working with professionals we’ve put out
over 1,700 hours of services to service
into our community and over 64 thousand
and the hands that have been part of
this project have come from diverse
backgrounds we have students from the
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
that staff our clinic every week we have
students from pre PA backgrounds that
are in the triage room with our nurse
every single week students from the
Terry College of Business that have put
in countless hours helping with
marketing and finance and on top of that
even the physicians are from all over
athens from landmark Hospital st. Mary’s
Piedmont Athens Rheumatology and
neurology practices now this is all
great for the Athens community this is
all great for our city but what does
this mean for us volunteers I want to
rewind just a second and talk about this
for those first couple meetings before
the start of the clinic and how
successively in each of those meetings
the physicians entrusted us with a
greater responsibility we felt capable
that we could do something that we
weren’t just clocking in and out of a
shift but we were concerned with how do
we build a patient base how do we
incorporate more volunteers into our
staff to make this system run smoothly
how do we partner with other
organizations we felt empowered early in
our careers and as students and the
physicians that we were working with no
longer saw us as students either we were
with them in rooms making decisions
helping our community side-by-side
together and over time our relationship
with these professionals sort of became
a formula we had motivated mentees that
had a vision had initiative working with
mentors that were investing their time
in us willing to guide us together
making ideas come to life right off
paper so what if schifflet clinic Athens
wasn’t the exception what if students
didn’t have to wait to pursue their
visions and what if professionals
stopped looking for paper and numerical
qualifications and invested in the
competence the ability of the younger
generation and what if asked those
students we expected more of ourselves
that we stopped limiting ourselves to
our label
it’s this combination of professional
investment and fresh ideas in younger
people and these young people moving
forward with their visions and their
ideas for the future that can really
elevate our smaller communities to the
next level with new businesses new
technology and new products you name it
in fact we have some of UGA very own
students working in amazing research
labs working side by side with faculty
and staff so even if we are students
even if we are early in the stages of a
career or an idea or were younger and
even if your older brother is hanging
that hoop right outside of your reach
you can still take a shot thank you [Applause]