Khaoula Ben Haj Frej

UConn School of Medicine

I was born in New Haven, Connecticut and was raised in both Tunisia and Waterbury, Connecticut. I received my bachelor’s degree in neuroscience with a double minor in biology and English literature in 2018 from Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut.

After college, I joined the Community Advocacy Board at the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston, where I advocated for more inclusive marketing and implementation of HIV research. I also joined the Young Professionals Board at Bay Cove Human Services, where I provided housing, mental health services, substance abuse rehabilitation, and more. Internationally, I spoke against state and secular violence towards Muslim and Indigenous women at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. I then volunteered through the United Nations to write grant proposals to provide financial autonomy to women in Buikwe, Uganda.

I sought out the Urban Scholars Track/AHEC Scholars (UST/AS) Program because I see community service as a personal duty. Understanding and challenging systemic and social inequities should be fundamental to health care, and thus to my medical education. Therefore, I believe the program’s interprofessional development, direct patient experiences, and focus on health care from a socioeconomic perspective will equip me not only to serve vulnerable patients but also to advocate for them. As a minority, I will be vocal about eliminating healthcare disparities and improving quality of care for patients suffering from them, and I believe the UST/AS Program will provide me with the tools and insight necessary to do so.