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04/29/09
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Neda Farzan: A Medical Student With a Big Heart
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In the summer of 1999, a group of young
volunteers would wake before dawn, board a van loaded with coffee and egg
sandwiches, and drive to their "customers." The coffee and food was free, and
their "customers" were Washington's homeless community. Neda Farzan, a recent
Stanford University graduate, was on board the van - a converted ambulance - and
she credits those early morning outreach sessions as inspiring her to become a
doctor. "It was my time doing outreach, building relationships with people and
seeing how the streets were a catalogue of diseases - HIV, hepatitis, substance
abuse and addiction - that inspired me to become a doctor," Farzan says today,
while in her last year of medical school at the University of California, San
Francisco School of Medicine.
Many medical students seek volunteer opportunities as part of their required
studies. For Neda Farzan, community service is not just a requirement to
complete. It is a major part of her life, and a pivotal element in her drive to
help others. Farzan has traveled all over the world, which shaped her decision
to concentrate in Global Health as a medical student. While studying towards her
Bachelor's degree in Human Biology at Stanford University, Farzan traveled to
Senegal in 1998 as a volunteer for the Senegalese Association for Research and
Aid for Development. While there, she worked on environmental, youth and women's
issues with the local community.
The next year, Farzan interned for the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services and the U.S. Congress House Subcommittee on Africa. During her time in
Washington, D.C., Farzan was also the Assistant to the Director and Community
Kitchens Liaison for the DC Central Kitchen, a nationally-recognized nonprofit
organization dedicated to food recycling, meal distribution and job training for
the homeless. Farzan not only helped build a national network of similar
community kitchens, but she was also a part of a street outreach team, spending
her mornings on those coffee and egg sandwich runs that helped seal her decision
to become a physician.
This experience led Farzan in 2003 to become a case manager and volunteer for
the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, providing medical care, housing
services and substance abuse treatment to the homeless. Farzan soon returned to
working on issues affecting Africa and in 2005, Farzan traveled to Uganda and
Rwanda to assist with research on compliance with international laws during
civil war.
Farzan's medical volunteering experience has also taken her to Iran, where she
volunteered in 2006 at the Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS, studying HIV
among IV drug users in Tehran. Through this invaluable experience, she spoke at
UCSF's Global Health Diplomacy seminar series about her time in Tehran's public
hospitals.
In 2008, Farzan traveled to Nepal to conduct research for Acute Mountain
Sickness in the Everest Basecamp region. During her stay, she provided medical
care to foreigners and locals on trekking routes. Most recently, Farzan has
traveled to Kenya, where she worked with Family AIDS Care and Education
Services, an HIV clinic where she implemented research to identify barriers to
the initiation of anti-retroviral therapy amongst HIV-positive children.
Farzan's exceptional experience has earned her the Dean's Scholarship for
commitment to community work, and she has been as involved as a volunteer
on-campus as she has been outside of it. She has managed a student-run homeless
clinic, liaising with shelter staff and coordinating student volunteers. In
addition, she has been a recruitment coordinator for the American Medical
Student Association, and participated in Model SFGH, a clerkship program at the
San Francisco General Hospital for students with demonstrated commitment to
underserved populations.
Farzan is slated to earn her M.D. this year and plans to specialize in emergency
medicine with the hopes of continuing to advocate for urban underserved
populations in the U.S. as well as doing global health work in Africa and the
Middle East. If the past is any indication, Farzan is poised to make a
significant impact on public health in the years to come.
... Payvand News - 04/29/09 ... --
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