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At Emory Hillel, New Initiative Teaches Public Health and Jewish Values
December 12, 2006Comments (0) | Add | E-mail this to a friend
 Ricki Carroll (left) volunteered with Magen David Adom in Israel before participating in the Emory Hillel program, JHealth.
For pre-med student, Ricki Carroll, spending her summer volunteering with the Magen David Adom ambulance service in Israel was a dream come true.
Working nearly 50 hours a week, she responded to daily medical crises like heart attacks and suicide attempts. She even arrived on the scene where a child had fallen from a window.
“It was such a hands-on experience and I had such responsibility. I was really helping people in need medically but I was also doing it in Israel,” says the Emory University junior.
Yet when she returned to campus in the fall, something was missing.
“I was homesick for Israel. I needed to get more connected ‘Jewishly,’ so I met the Hillel director and he told me about JHealth,” says Carroll.
JHealth, a new program launched this semester by Emory Hillel as part of the Everett Family Tzedek Initiative, is bringing 15 students together to participate in a professional development fellowship. While at its core, JHealth teaches a Jewish ethics curriculum, it also provides mentors and service-oriented internship opportunities.
The Everett Family Tzedek Initiative, spearheaded by Hillel’s Schusterman International Center, promotes Jewish ethics and student leadership development. Participating campuses receive professional development, curricular resources and programmatic funding to support their efforts to infuse Tzedek initiatives with substantive Jewish content.
At Emory Hillel, the Everett Initiative focuses on public health largely due to the strength of Emory’s academic programs in public health and its proximity to the Centers for Disease Control. In addition to their public health placement, the JHealth fellows meet eight times throughout the year to learn how Jewish values can inform their work in public health.
During their first two seminar sessions, the JHealth fellows explored the Jewish value of refuah or “healing” and “How Judaism Relates to Public Health.” They also met with distinguished speakers like Dr. Ira Schwartz, assistant dean and director of admissions for Emory School of Medicine.
Carroll is currently finishing her proposal for her spring placement. She is developing a plan to launch a Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Advocacy campaign with sororities on campus and plans on shadowing a physician at a local women’s health clinic.
“Learning how Judaism relates to my interest in public health has been great,” says Carroll. “I couldn’t have asked for a program more perfect for me.”
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