High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2025

Healing with Hope: Expanding Access to All

Healing with Hope: Expanding Access to All

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Course Code

LDR

Course Number

3215

Faculty/Instructor

Dr. Virginia Koch

Faculty/Instructor Email

Virginia.Koch@ucf.edu

About the Author

Aashna Shah is a student currently pursuing her undergraduate studies at the University of Central Florida in Psychology, with a minor in Biology on the Pre-Medical track. She is highly interested in combining leadership, community service, and healthcare to inspire long-term change.

With her service-learning project, Healing with Hope: Expanding Access to All, Aashna partnered with Shepherd's Hope, a nonprofit organization that provides free medical care to uninsured and underinsured adults throughout Central Florida.

She is deeply grateful for the mentorship and caring by Lindsay Schramm and the entire staff at the Dr. Diebel Jr. Memorial Health Center, as well as for Dr. Virginia Koch and the LEAD Scholars Academy.

This experience deepened her commitment to medicine and reaffirmed that the most meaningful leadership begins with service and empathy.

Abstract, Summary, or Creative Statement

Healing with Hope: Expanding Access to All is a service-learning project completed with Shepherd's Hope, a nonprofit organization that provides free medical care to uninsured and underinsured adults in Central Florida. My work took place at the Dr. Diebel Jr. Memorial Health Center, where I volunteered during evening clinics to greet patients, prepare charts, organize supplies, and assist the volunteer doctors and nurses. The goal of this project was to help improve access to compassionate, high-quality healthcare for individuals who might otherwise go without care.

This experience taught me the power of empathy, teamwork, and leadership. I learned how small acts, such as listening to a patient's concerns or helping to streamline clinic flow, can lastingly affect a person's dignity and trust. Most importantly, this project reiterated my commitment to pursuing medicine as a way to serve others and promote health equity in my community.

Keywords

Shepherd’s Hope; free healthcare; health equity; service-learning; community service; access to care; civic responsibility; compassionate medicine; volunteerism; healthcare inequality; leadership and service; UCF LEAD Scholars; pre-med student project; Central Florida nonprofit; patient-centered care

Healing with Hope: Expanding Access to All


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