NLVS runs community service efforts across Chicago and beyond including national and global trips. Most recently, NLVS students participated in a global health trip to Belize.
NLVS embarked on a Chicago student-developed service trip to Belize! Students from all over Chicago with a passion for global health and rural medicine traveled this July to engage with Indigenous communities in Belize to promote medical knowledge in the hopes of improving self-sustainability and health outcomes.
Medical students at the UIC College of Medicine chapter volunteer at South Loop Community Table (SLCT), a weekly event for unhoused folks in Chicago’s South Loop and surrounding neighborhoods. While offering a meal and coffee, SLCT’s main goal is to create a space where people can build community — to be known and respected for who they are. There are board games and karaoke, as well as holiday parties and birthday celebrations. NLVS volunteers serve food or coffee, help with set up or tear down, greet and play games with community members, and other tasks that are needed.
The UIC College of Medicine chapter of NLVS works with Project Cure on their mission to deliver medical equipment and supplies to clinics throughout the under-resourced world. NLVS volunteers help sort and pack medical supplies to be sent globally. Students have also worked with UI Health organizations like the Community Outreach Intervention Project (COIP) to host health education sessions on topics such as opioid overdose; during one event, students were engaged in learning more about what opioid overdose looks like and how medical students can help combat the issues while still in training. Students were also trained on what Narcan is and its role in reversing acute overdose.
One of our longest-standing community service partnerships is between UICOM and the Pilsen Food Pantry. NLVS officially started volunteering with the Pilsen Food Pantry back in 2018. At the time, the pantry was a small room inside the Pilsen University of Illinois Clinic.
Since then, the pantry in the meantime has moved to a new larger location in the Pilsen community on 2124 S Ashland. NLVS currently covers weekly Saturday food rescues, where volunteers pick up donations from stores like Trader Joe’s, deliver it to the pantry, and prepare it for distribution. At the same time, volunteers help at the Sunday pantry preparation shifts and the Clothes Closet, which organizes clothing donations.
Through this program, NLVS helps the Pilsen Food Pantry supply donations to the hundreds of families that rely on them.
Students from all chapters of NLVS volunteer together at Chicago races such as the Chicago Marathon or Half-Marathon. NLVS volunteers worked at the hydration stations at First Aid tents, providing assistance to runners.
In partnership with the National Kidney Foundation, NLVS volunteers have hosted mobile kidney screening events, and volunteered at events providing kidney disease and transplant educational sessions. Our volunteers help set up events and work with nephrologists to answer questions brought in by community members.
The Feinberg Medical School chapter of NLVS organizes events in collaboration with the I Am Abel Foundation, a group which helps Chicago kids reach their dreams by sponsoring medical and scholarship programs and events to pursue their education and careers. At an event hosted in collaboration with Feinberg’s Student National Medical Association, local students from groups traditionally underrepresented in medicine discussed clinical and ethical cases with current Feinberg students.
NLVS volunteers also participate in health education efforts, such as this partnership between the Feinberg chapter volunteers and the Women’s Dermatologic Society, where they provided free skin cancer screenings to athletes at the Chicago Triathlon.
The Northwestern Undergraduate board piloted MED PALS (Medical Education and Discovery with Peer-Assisted Leadership Skills) in 2023. This is a program that seeks to pair up Chicago high school students, undergraduate students, and medical students to serve as mentorship for those interested in pursuing careers in healthcare. The older students are able to provide advice on the college application process, and the steps to pursuing a career in the health sciences or medicine. This program consists of both 1-on-1 mentor sessions as well as group workshops on skills like college application preparation, medical techniques, or health career panels. As of 2024, MED PALS is being expanded to encompass all other NLVS chapters.
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, NLVS members volunteered in Port Arthur, TX and Biloxi, MS. NLVS raised funds for global disasters as well, including those in Haiti, India, and Uganda. Finally, NLVS has provided health relief in areas such as Honduras and Uganda.