While pursuing her undergraduate education in Hawaii, Laura Shepherd was drawn to addressing the health needs of remote rural communities. While volunteering with various nonprofit organizations, she discovered the field of public health that intrigued her. “I had no idea what rural health care was, and when I got there, it was a huge shock to the system,” said the first-generation college student and current Master of Public Health (MPH) student. Shepard, a sophomore, admits. Online her program from the Department of Population and Public Health, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.
As a child, Shepherd dreamed of becoming a doctor. During her college years, she supervised eight physicians over her 400 hours to gain practice experience. “During my work experience in Hawaii, I watched doctors deal with the downstream effects of a poor public health system. “This is where I saw the value of a more upstream approach to addressing health outcomes based on improving community and public health,” she reveals. These discoveries led her to pursue her master's degree in public health at USC, which served as her stepping stone before earning her medical degree.
Ms. Shepherd worked with Project Vision Hawaii as a volunteer. The nonprofit organization regularly dispatched mobile clinics to remote areas to meet the needs of residents living with minimal medical infrastructure. “Doctors provided patients with reading glasses and free eye exams, and took photos of their retinas to test for disease. Many people in their 60s and 70s are having their eyes examined for the first time. It was amazing to see him visit that clinic for this purpose,” she says.
“When you look at state data on Medicare and Medicaid, it gives the impression that utilization is high and that everyone has access to health care,” she explains. “But in remote areas where community support is limited, residents remain unaware of the resources available to them.” To do this, Hiro volunteered with Prehealth Career Corps, a nonprofit organization founded by her medical center. “However, this work also revealed that resources can be strained in rural settings. In this case, there was a lack of human resources for community outreach efforts.”
At USC, Shepard was featured as a speaker on MPH Student Perspectives, where she presented on “The Struggles of Rural Health Care on the Island of Hawaii” in a student-led discussion. Here she discussed her volunteer work experience in various settings and the impact of social determinants of health in rural Hawaii. She also explained that Native Hawaiians prefer Eastern and traditional medicine and distrust Western medicine, saying, “Their medicine has been working for them for hundreds of years.” I affirm.
During her time at USC, she cites guest lectures as her most impactful teaching experience. “Learning from industry experts, especially those who have built their own public health efforts from the field, ties in with what I want to accomplish with my own education. “I got to meet people,” she says. After graduation, she plans to attend the Keck School of Medicine and become a doctor.
Finally, Shepherd advises volunteers to ensure that the organizations they work with are rooted in supporting the best interests of the people they serve. She also encourages students interested in rural health to actively listen to the voices of people in these communities. “They want to tell their stories and they want to be heard,” she advises.
