Richard Jeong

UConn School of Nursing, Class of 2017

My parents raised me in Bayside, New York, before we moved to Glastonbury, Connecticut when I was 13. I’ve stayed in Glastonbury since then, and have volunteered at a local nursing home. I’m also involved in a program called Jumpstart, which aims to provide education to kids in Windham, a town near UConn, where a lot of people live below the poverty line.

Where I grew up in New York, many people began unhealthy habits like smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol at an early age. This early experience is an important factor in why I want to join the Urban Service Track today: I know healthcare professionals must not limit their interventions to the clinic, but must also work to positively affect their patients’ communities. I know that being a part of UST will train me to make a difference in the health of members of underserved populations, via traditional healthcare as well as health education and community engagement. I hope that, with help from UST, my passion for providing healthcare will inspire members of the community I serve to seek my advice as a practitioner and to make healthy changes in their own lives.