Health Leadership Apprentice Program coordinator Landon A. Hackley authored the following post.
Kristen Helmsdoerfer is a unique Longhorn. After graduating from Ohio University’s honors college with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish, along with a certificate in linguistics, she came to Austin to join The University of Texas at Austin as a non-degree-seeking postbaccalaureate student. It was then that she discovered Dell Medical School’s Health Leadership Apprentice Program and joined HLA as a member of the summer 2018 cohort. HLA inspired her to create Nourishment and Narratives With Neighbors, or Tri-N, a student-run organization designed to reduce stigma in health care, provide a home-cooked meal for members of the Community First! Village and connect them with various health professionals and students on a personal level.
The idea for Tri-N came from a culmination of inspiration from Helmsdoerfer’s volunteer work at her church in downtown Austin, Life in the City, where she serves people experiencing homelessness and an idea to reduce stigma in health care that fellow HLA student Kaylan Fric brought to her. They took their idea to the HLA program director Steve Steffensen, M.D., who helped develop it into the program it is today.
Many residents at Community First! Village are formerly homeless individuals who now live in the micro-home neighborhood. Helmsdoerfer and Fric wanted to bring members of the neighborhood together to talk about health care with Dell Med students, residents and faculty, and, they said, “the best way to do that is over a home-cooked meal!”
Tri-N hosts a delicious, healthy dinner once a month and invites as many members of Community First! Village as they can. “Every month we serve chicken parmesan, spaghetti and salad because it’s a meal I’ve learned to cook really well over the course of my life,” Helmsdoerfer said. “I used to cook it when I invited important guests over to talk about various things back in high school.” Helmsdoerfer said members of Community First! Village are now a huge part of the success of the meal. She said one neighbor, Sam, has consistently helped with cooking the chicken, which has been especially helpful.
Every dinner is accompanied by narratives from two people: one Community First! Village member and one Dell Med student, resident or faculty member. “The conversation is always free-flowing and informal, and we like speakers to talk about their journey through life and how they overcame adversity to get to where they are today,” Helmsdoerfer said. The hope is that through casual conversation, attendees can learn something and be inspired to push through whatever obstacles they are facing and that the stereotype of health care professionals only coming from affluent, privileged backgrounds will be erased.
Helmsdoerfer said the organization’s sustainability is of utmost importance to the Tri-N team: “Kaylan helped set up an official student organization through UT and is currently doing a tremendous job serving as president by recruiting students to spread awareness and get as much help as possible to ensure the success of the program.”
She also said Nick Christian, a second-year internal medicine resident at Dell Med, has been a huge part of the success: “Nick suggested that we host the dinners at the end of the month when residents are running low on food and funds before their next paycheck comes in, so hosting the meal at this time would be great for them personally while also potentially providing more great speakers for the dinners.”
In the future, Helmsdoerfer and Fric hope to firmly plant the program in the ground with lots of students and volunteers to follow them so the program can continue for years to come. They hope to secure funding through their HornRaiser campaign and donations from their community partners so the program’s future is financially secure, as well.
Outside of Tri-N, Helmsdoerfer works as a full-time medical scribe at People’s Community Clinic and is planning on going to medical school next year. When she isn’t working, Helmsdoerfer likes to golf, salsa dance, watch movies and play the ukulele. She isn’t quite sure what area of medicine she would like to pursue in the future, but if she had to choose, she said she would pick OB-GYN, primary care or neurology.
Fric also plans to go to medical school after graduation. In her free time, she likes writing poetry and whittling wood.
If you are interested in learning more about Helmsdoerfer and Fric’s program, reach out to an HLA program coordinator.