Shermont Bradwell, Perelman Master in Public Health ’25. Syracuse, NY
Over the summer, I had the amazing opportunity of working at Prevention Point. My honest reaction is that I was shocked by the conditions in which I saw in Kensington that included homelessness, drug use, death, poverty, crime, and unsanitary conditions but, I understood what I was getting into and was going into this experience with an eagerness to help. I would see some of these things every time I would ride the L and walk to Somerset & Kensington. It was exciting though, as I was amid of what was going on and with the people I was serving. Exciting but also, uncertain as I would be working with the Syringe Service Program at Prevention Point which has been politically, socially, and financially impacted under the current mayoral administration.
For several years, I have been interested in STIs and HIV/AIDS and have done much research on the populations affected and root causes of the epidemic and its continuity. I had not had much in person experience working with those who or are Intravenous Drug Users, so it was interesting to see how public health played out at Prevention Point. I really enjoyed working with Prevention Point participants and was able to introduce myself to actual public health work while also getting hands-on experience working with the Philadelphia community. Prevention Point was a great organization to get my feet wet in as it offers several services that address a number of issues being face that include harm reduction services (needle exchange program), wound care, food insecurity, services for the homeless, clothing, case management, HIV/HCV testing and prevention, drug use treatment programs, and more. The staff at prevention point were supportive and welcoming and many had tremendous insight on how to help as they had previously been impacted in the same ways as the population they are serving. The participants were also a joy to work and talk with and it was interesting and informative to hear some of their stories. Their stories were crucial to understanding this population and how best to help and intervene using public health approaches.
Some of these approaches included the creation of educational resource documents that discussed HIV & HCV testing/prevention and services. Other work included the day to day of my role, in which I conducted outreach to increase HIV/HCV testing and PrEP medication uptake & utilization. I documented interactions I had with participants, educated them on causes and preventive measures regarding HIV & HCV, and guided them into the testing center. At the end of the internship, I conducted a quantitative analysis to determine the impact of my role as It related to testing services utilization and positive HIV/HCV cases. It was an amazing experience, I got to network with Philadelphia community leaders and got to explore organizations outside of the Penn bubble. I am thankful for my preceptor Liba Judd and the Career Services Office at Penn for affording me this opportunity and guiding me towards my first hands-on experience doing public health work in the community. This has been a delightful and informative experience that I am grateful for and that I will take with me as I continue to dive into public health in my career.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2024 GAPSA Summer Internship Funding Program that is coordinated by Penn Career Services. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here.
