2017 CIIP Program Book 2017 CIIP Program Book

Community Partner: Esperanza Center Health Services Intern: Eillen Martinez Site Supervisor: Bibi Hackshaw What is Esperanza Center? Our bilingual staff works with Hispanic and other immigrants to provide health care, social services, referrals, employment counseling, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, and Immigration Legal Service (ILS). "A paragraph will not do the value of this center or this CIIP experience any justice. Neither will the entirety of this booklet. So for the sake of irony, I’ll keep it short with a list. What follows are pieces of my experience here at Esperanza. Days spent at the front desk discussing matters of the utmost importance, such as the nuances between a Colombian and Venezuelan arepa. And even more crucial, who makes them better (psh, Venezuelans of course). Proposing an independent project to our staff and given the trust and the support to carry it out. Hearing my co-workers call me by my middle name, Daniela---a liberty usually only reserved for family members. Early Tuesday morning huddles with our 8 person team, planning how we can better serve our patients and better operate in the clinic. Tending after the plants that our nurse practitioner has infested the clinic with. The loyal 9AM line of people standing expectantly outside the center in the mornings, waiting for the doors they know will open after so many others have been closed. Interviewing a patient to write a story for a grant application. Watching, amused, as staff members snicker and circulate the blog I wrote about each of them. Us looking way too happy in this picture because it was a Friday and we were slightly delirious after a crammed day voting in the unofficial referendum to support the opposition in Venezuela. A patient recognizing me there, a staff member from another floor voting with me. Feeling proud to be Venezuelan and a recognized member of this community in Baltimore. Walking the halls after a day’s end, reflecting on a full experience after 8 weeks gone, and feeling home. Sometimes it can feel easy to deny or at least hush one’s background, especially as a minority. It may seem pressing to blend in. This is one of the dangers that faces our immigrant community: feeling excluded as the other, subjecting oneself to discrimination, accepting fear and anxiety, internalizing sentiments of inferiority. Esperanza Center combats this by embracing the differences that make us who we are. Here, we cultivate an environment where people can be proud of their storied heritage and can be cared after as the calloused and strong people they are. One of the questions I got asked most here was where I was from--an automatic conversation starter when you spot a person who looks and talks like you. It's a complicated question. I come from many places because many places have shaped me. I am shaped by the people I love, the tasks that challenge me, and the places I call home. As I finish this internship, I can say I’ve abundantly found all three, here at Esperanza Center." -Eillen • Work at front desk: intaking patients, preparing patient files, discharging, referring people to other resources, making flyers TAP program: connecting eligible patients to receive specialty care at Johns Hopkins • Assisting with grant applications by interviewing and writing a story on a patient • Updating resources and uploading them online • Helping around the clinic wherever needed 20

2017 CIIP Program Book 2017 CIIP Program Book | Page 20