Paul Isaac

UConn School of Medicine

I grew up in Tolland, Connecticut and received a dual degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and Diagnostic Genetic Sciences from the University of Connecticut.

In high school, I worked with UConn AHEC’s Migrant Farm Workers program to provide clinics to migrant farm workers at various farms across Connecticut. Being part of the program allowed me to learn how to collect health information, take basic vitals, and work as part of a larger team to provide effective care. As I talked to the workers, I learned about the families they had to leave behind to work in the states. I witnessed their fierce optimism in the face of grueling labor and how proud they were to fund their children’s education. Seeing and sharing in their happiness as they found relief in the treatment plans and medication we were able to provide them with showed me how lifechanging providing clinics and extending healthcare access was to people that just needed that support.

I see the UST/AS program as a chance to better understand societal health problems and work with other health professions students to manage them. Moreover, through UST/AS I hope to build strong clinical communication skills that will allow me to establish trust and rapport with patients regardless of their background and the presence of language barriers. In the future, through my experiences with UST/AS I hope to organize clinics and infrastructure to improve healthcare access to underserved populations across Connecticut.