Member Profile: Teen Health Educator

This year we have 15 Community Healthcorps members serving at the Institute. They each have their own unique project and role at IFH. In order to get to know the members a little better we'll be profiling one each month here on the blog!

This month, meet Tyler, the Teen Health Educator at Ellenville Family Health Center!



A brief biography:
I was born and raised in Minnesota, but spent the past year in Montana serving in a different AmeriCorps program. I’ve been in the “why not?” phase of my life, which is what led me to upstate New York. I’m hoping to go to medical school in the future and continue to work with the medically underserved. I’m a sucker for a good recipe (especially if it’s on the grill), a good hike, and curvy roads on a motorcycle.

What is your hometown?
I have a couple, I guess. If I had to pick one, it would be Stillwater, Minnesota. I also spent a big chunk of time in Rushford, Minnesota where my dad lives. But really, I wish I could call myself a hybrid of Minnesotan and Montanan. How does “Montesotan” sound?

For those in the Mid-Hudson: What is the best part about living upstate? What is the best place you’ve been?
Living upstate is great. The Mid-Hudson region is a great place to escape and immerse yourself in nature. After living in Montana for a year, I really grew accustomed to open space and the serenity of being outdoors.
My favorite place upstate is the Shawgunk Mountains. I get to drive over them everyday going between New Paltz and Ellenville, and the views are just breathtaking. You really get everything you would want up there: rocky crags, lakes, foliage, waterfalls, and great trails. What more can you ask for? And in the winter, when everything is covered in snow and shimmering ice: stunning.

Where do you work and what kind of tasks do you do each day?
I work at the Ellenville Family Health Center as the Teen Health Educator. My job is to reach out to adolescents in Ellenville and surrounding communities and bring them into the clinic. The main focus is on reproductive health, specifically teen pregnancy, because the rates here are uber high. There really isn’t any education about repro health and there hasn’t been a place for teens to get that information in the community. I’m working to make the clinic more teen-friendly and figuring out how to get more teens in for the services they want.
My daily work is never the same. I work on doing outreach to schools and local community organizations, developing materials about the clinic and our services, as well as seeing teen patients when they come in.

What is your favorite part of the job?
The best part about this job is seeing patients. Unfortunately, that’s the least common thing I do here. Sigh. Teens in the area still don’t know about the services we have here, despite airing TV shows on the local channels about my work, and the kids that do know I’m here are still weary of coming in. But when they do come in, it’s a great time. We are able to have pretty relaxed conversations about different issues going on in their lives; issues that they maybe wouldn’t talk to their physician about.

What is the most difficult part of what you do?
Hands down, the most difficult part of the job is getting kids into the clinic. The small-town life is both a blessing and a horrible curse at the same time. It’s great to have a tight community because you can always have someone to rely on, but it also makes it very hard to do things without people knowing. Sometimes teens don’t want their parents to know about the services they are trying to get, but they are fearful of the clinic because someone might recognize them at bring it up to parents. Not a great situation for providing health services. We are trying to figure out more ways to ease the mind of teens and assure them that everything here is confidential, and it won’t get back to parents unless the patient wants it to.

Why do you enjoy being a healthcorps member?
Everything. Doing meaningful work, getting to new parts of the country, working with a population that’s often overlooked, and meeting some great people along the way. As someone that wants to get into medicine, this is a great opportunity to see the inner workings of clinic life and the relationship dynamics that take place.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys-R-Us kid. Honestly, I want to stay a kid at heart for my entire life. That’s just one of the many reasons that Finding Nemo is one of my favorite movies. But to actually answer the question, I want to be a doctor. Pretty plain and simple, but it’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I want to work with populations that are too often getting overlooked by everyone else. I would also like to be a teacher, professional chef, wildlife photographer, and Car & Driver reviewer. Sounds reasonable, right?