Cheryl Bilinski

UConn School of Medicine

The excitement, enrichment and challenges associated with working in a diverse environment first surfaced for me when I worked as an elementary school teacher in France’s Franche-Comte region for two years after college. Unlike my own childhood experience, my African, Western and Eastern European students had been exposed to unimaginable traumas: war, violence, starvation, and disease. I began to research their native countries and discovered that a large percentage of children under age five die from such curable afflictions as malnutrition, diarrhea, and tuberculosis. Teaching English was empowering, but it was not enough. Medicine, I decided, would be the route toward helping people such as my students and their families attain and maintain health. That goal was solidified upon returning to the United States, where I have taught in urban areas and volunteered at the Burgdorf and Migrant Farm Workers clinics. It is deplorable to me that a country as wealthy as our own does not provide equal access to healthcare. Medical care is a human right, not a privilege to be allotted to an elite few. Through my medical practice and through policy changes, I will endeavor to change that. The UST, I believe, will round out my medical and public health education, and give me the tools necessary to educate and raise awareness of these inequities. I am uncertain whether I will work in this country or abroad, but know I will take steps toward making a difference.