CCBH at JCU

At the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, we work in the family planning clinic at least once a week. This particular week, instead of participating at the board of health, we went to John Carroll University and performed STI and pregnancy tests for any students who requested it. This service was a free walk-in basis in the school's health services office.

Working with the health department was different for this type of endeavor. First, we were working with the same age range as we were, so approximately ages 18-22. To top it off, we knew that majority of the students that came into the office were educated, as JCU is a very well accredited school. I must say, this was much different than working with adolescents or young adults in the family planning clinic at CCBH. The people who come into CCBH know Case is a great school, but to a lot of JCU kids, I felt they just thought of us as students from the school down the street-- or rather that's what I feared they would think about us. Turns out, they didn't. Most of the students were happy to have a person his or her own age in the vicinity. I think we helped alleviate the stress of them going into a scary, and potentially life changing, situation.

After helping out at the health screens at JCU, I felt much more comfortable in my role in the family planning clinic. It was a nice change of pace and a very nice boost of confidence in myself and in my education.