Jacqueline Steele

UConn School of Medicine

I was born in Bronxville, New York and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. I attended Emory University for my undergraduate education, and graduated with highest honors. I majored in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and minored in Spanish.

While living in the New York Metro Area, I volunteered as a Spanish-English interpreter at the HAVEN Free Clinic and at the Horizon Unit at New York Presbyterian’s Westchester Division, a psychiatric hospital specializing in inpatient care for Orthodox Jewish patients. In Atlanta, I volunteered at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in the emergency department and NICU, and the International Community School, an International Baccalaureate elementary school with a large percentage of refugee students. From all of my volunteer experiences, I’ve learned that demonstrating an understanding of patients’ backgrounds plays a crucial role in providing them with better care.

I applied to join the Urban Service Track because of how much I’ve enjoyed helping underserved communities in the past; I want to better understand what I can do to help these communities in my career as a physician. As a UConn student, I am particularly interested in learning more about the lives, interests, and challenges of Connecticut’s underserved communities. I want to learn how to educate members of this community on their health and how to inculcate in them healthy habits for their home lives.