Four UNH Law students were among 33 graduate students selected by The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) as part of its 2016-2017 class of New Hampshire/Vermont Fellows. Devon Ayer, Ryan Masters, Audriana Mekula-Hanson, and Charles Wallace received the recogntion in an announcement in early May.
The Fellows will "spend the next year learning to effectively address the social factors that impact health, and developing lifelong leadership skills," according to a news release by Susan Ryan-Vollmar at The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship website. The Fellows work in close collaboration with community and academic mentors throughout the year.
"Schweitzer Fellows develop and implement service projects that address the root causes of health disparities in under-resourced communities, while also fulfilling their academic responsibilities. Each project is implemented in collaboration with a community-based health and/or social service organization," Ryan-Vollmar's release says.
Masters and Wallace will perform their Fellowship with New Futures, and will be developing "a curriculum for training providers and consumers of substance use disorder services on how to navigate insurance claims issues and the appeals process." Taking advantage of a mental health parity toolkit at New Futures, the pair will create a presentation, complete with an online video training element, to "educate and empower family support groups to be consumer advocates for themselves."
Ayer and Mekula-Hanson will be working with The New American Africans Community Group in Concord, assisting adults as they prepare to take the Citizenship test and working with school-aged students as they navigate and learn more about American civics. Ayer and Mekula-Hanson will also "advocate for community members as they navigate various governmental services and agencies."
The Fellows in Vermont and New Hampshire are part of a network of approximately 240 Fellows working at program sites around the country, and one fulfilling the fellowship in Lambaréné, Gabon at the site of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, founded in 1913 by Dr. Schweitzer.
The 2016-2017 Fellows becoem Schweitzer Fellows for Life upon completion of the year, joining more than 3,200 others who have earned that status.
Devon Ayer, Ryan Masters, Audriana Mekula-Hanson, and Charles Wallace.
