January 10, 2018

Anyone who's phoned the Community Wellness HUB at the Dornsife Center has likely spoken with Maeve Malloy, the unfailingly cheerful Americorps VISTA who runs the front office. Malloy manages the resident interface at the HUB, setting the tone for this supportive and warm place, and she manages the team of talented and caring students who power the HUB's outreach and programming functions and who make sure that participants, patients, and clients feel welcome.

Malloy recently graduated from Bryn Mawr College and says of her VISTA posting, "I really wanted a post-graduation experience in a nonprofit setting that would give me experience in multiple healthcare realms like research, community engagement, and program development." Her undergraduate degree is in psych ology with a minor in health studies, and she is currently applying to graduate schools for clinical social work. "I’d like to be an LCSW and work in Philadelphia. I’m really interested in maternal health, and mood disorders in pregnant and parenting women. The intersections of maternal health and wellbeing are interesting to me."

Christma Guilloux is a senior at Temple University studying public health. His role at the HUB is in outreach, "talking to neighbors, hearing them out, and letting them know about the HUB and the services we provide." Guilloux supports programming too, noting that he's managed the senior bingo events, using the opportunity to connect with participants and listening to their ideas about community health services. His career aspirations after the HUB? "My goal is to go back home to Haiti and design a program for people who don't have homes, or money for food, to create supports for people who don't have much. I want to first work with nonprofits to learn as much as I can, and then develop my own organization."

Ryan Kirker is a Drexel student in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, studying to become a physician's assistant in the dual bachelors-masters degree program. "Initially I was a volunteer with We're Here Because We Care and then I worked on getting some of the data we needed to build the HUB, made flyers, and helped create programming. Now I'm working the front desk - making calls and confirming appointments, checking people in, and also starting to re-engage with our other We're Here Because We Care volunteers to check back in with what residents want in terms of health supports and to better plan strategies." Kirker is part of the Lindy Center for Civic Engagement's team of Drexel Community Scholars, student leaders who specialize in mobilizing participants in service settings.

A Drexel freshman in biomedical engineering, Sidney Ortiz comes to the HUB as a work-study student. "I want to get into biomechanics: prosthetics and pacemakers and tools like that. Some of the people closest to me have had them. My mom got a pacemaker when I was in middle school, and my grandma got a hip replacement. I thought it was really cool.” She's in school to learn how to design these life-saving tools herself. Sidney supports the HUB's general operations, helping the front office hum along smoothly.

Tom Ferrier is another Temple University public health student, now a senior and getting his 200-hour internship requirement done at the HUB. "I help with outreach and work with Christma to distribute flyers in the neighborhood. We talk to community members about the resources we have, letting people know that we’re providing the services they asked for during the We're Here Because We Care process." Ferrier's goal is to become a nurse, and his next step in the healthcare field is, after he graduates, to work in public health long enough to put money away for nursing school. 

Also a work-study student, Lindsay Martinez is a third-year nursing student at Drexel. Considering the work-study positions available, she chose the HUB because she wanted something more engaging than the average work-study job. She's worked at medical offices, in a hospital, and now in a public health setting. "Here at the HUB I help out with events and phone calls, reaching out to neighbors to make sure they're aware of what we're doing. West Philadelphia feels like it's been taken over by college students and I want to make sure people know there are still resources here for them, and that we haven't forgotten about them."

Written by Jennifer Britton
Associate Director, Communications & Special Projects
Office of University & Community Partnerships