About Aaryn David

My name is Aaryn David, I am a first generation student entering my third year of my undergraduate degree. My major is Molecular Biology, with minors in Spanish, chemistry, and medical physics. I have a strong interest in medicine and am working toward my goal of becoming a physician. A huge part of my want for going into medicine is to be an advocate for minority communities as well as working to close the gap of language barriers between patient and provider. One way I have worked toward accomplishing this is by volunteering at Denver Health and aiding Spanish speaking patients and families. Another way I have accomplished this is by utilizing my Spanish speaking abilities to help Spanish speaking patients during my 100 clinical hours of phlebotomy at Denver Health. I have also advocated for youth communities during my time on the Youth Advisory Committee at Denver Health. There I attended (Denver Health Community Health Services) board meetings quarterly, met monthly as a group to discuss youth focused health needs and priorities to bring to the board, performed other duties as designated by the board (i.e feedback on specific ideas), and prepared and presented board meeting presentations.

 

I am currently the Vice President of Community for the Pre-health club at the University of Denver for the 2023-2024 school year and plan to help guide students into the correct direction within their pursuit of medicine.

 

Health Outreach for Latin America, Summer Volunteer 

The primary goal of HOLA is to aid students in their journey to medicine with exposure to clinical, research, and leadership opportunities, while also contributing to the medical field in Nicaragua and providing resources and volunteers to help the clinics. Within this week long period in Nicaragua I,

  • Shadowed Nicaraguan physicians within both urban and rural Nicaraguan clinics
  • Conducted needs assessments for communities for HOLA to help in the future
  • Participated in spay and wellness clinics for animals in partnership with the non-profit, Nica Love

 

HOLA desires to making health care more accessible to the residents of Nicaragua. This is done by employing two licensed OB/GYNs to provide care at six different clinics in rural communities outside of Leon. The urban locations the students shadowed at were Perla Maria, Ante Nor, and La Villa. The rural locations being La Leona, Chacraseca, and La Ceiba. Volunteers also shadowed a private clinic, Amocsa, where we were able to observe many surgeries. These OBGYN clinics provide specialized services that would normally not be accessible. HOLA was able to donate over $300 worth of medical supplies to the Ministry of Health.

 

HOLA also desires to provide health care to the animals in Nicaragua. The volunteers make in impact by funding and assisting with veterinary work. HOLA works with the local veterinarians and non-profits to provide vitamin supplements, de-worming, and surgical care for many animals. These acts help decrease the amount of zoonotic diseases the community faces while also proving care to the animals of the community. When volunteers traveled to the coastal community of Villa Del Carmen to run a Spay Neuter Clinic for cats and dogs, we were able to help fund and assist on 49 Spay/Neuters. Volunteers also traveled to the rural community of Miramar to work alongside Nicaraguan veterinarians while they provided treatment to larger farm animals. Volunteers helped administer vitamin shots and parasite and deworming treatments to 133 animals (57 cows, 29, pigs, 15 horses, also 5 cats and 27 dogs).

 

By being an HOLA volunteer it provided insight on how health care is practiced similarly and differently in different parts of the world outside of the United States. I have been given first hand knowledge on the challenges that not only the patients face in Nicaragua, but also the healthcare providers. This new knowledge will allow for me to speak out more on medicine in less fortunate communities and provide insight on how we can better help.