Lipscomb students learn medical Spanish through service to community
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By: Katera Bolander
Lipscomb University Spanish students are taking time out of the classroom to learn medical Spanish while helping the underprivileged in Nashville.
The students are participating in this out-of-classroom experience as part of Ted Parks' upper-level medical Spanish class. During the semester, students are expected to volunteer in the non-profit health clinics, Interfaith Dental Clinic and Siloam Family Health Center. The students assist medical professionals at the clinics by translating for the Spanish-speaking patients.
"This class ties the academic side of college together with service for the community," said Parks, associate professor of Spanish at Lipscomb. "If I can help the students refine their knowledge and use of their medical Spanish terminology while providing an experience that will foster the development of a sensitivity in the students to people left on the margins of society, I don't think I could do anything better for them. Through their service in these clinics, they get to see the purpose of what they are learning."
Cari Lewis, a junior Spanish major, is thankful for the educational and life experience volunteering in the clinics has provided.
"My Spanish has improved tons during this semester," she said. "After working with medical interpreting, I now want to go into that field because I see how much need exists for that line of work.
"Volunteering in the clinics has offered me a great chance to see how I can put into practice the knowledge I'm gaining in school while working in organizations that truly focus on God. This is what we've been learning at Lipscomb and now we get to experience it."
Karen Stevens, director of volunteers at Siloam Family Health Center observes that volunteering is more than just a class assignment for the students at Lipscomb. It is a chance to give back to their community.
"Because Siloam is a volunteer clinic, we are dependent on people and their desire to make a difference in the community," she said. "Lipscomb students have not only been valuable as translators at Siloam, but they have also helped us carry out our mission, which is 'to share the love of Christ by serving those in need through health care.'
"Volunteering, for these students, means heeding Jesus' call to serve. Volunteering is becoming Jesus' hands, feet and, in this case, voice to help others. As St. Francis is reported to have said, 'preach the gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words.'"
Lipscomb's student involvement in the clinics has helped both clinics accomplish their professional goals.
"The people we are seeing are seeking help because they don't have dental insurance," said Terri Rollins, office manager and volunteer coordinator at Interfaith Dental Clinic. "It is great to have the students come in and help those who have the added difficulty of a communication barrier. The students help the Spanish-speaking patients have a more relaxed office visit because they no longer have to worry about the additional struggle of not being able to communicate."
The mission of the Interfaith Dental Clinic is to restore, protect, and improve the oral health of uninsured, low-income, working people and their children in the greater Nashville area, according to the Interfaith Dental Clinic's website.
The mission of Siloam Family Health Center is to provide an interdenominational ministry in the Edgehill neighborhood that lives out the Biblical and historical commitment of the Church to care for the poor and the sick, according to the Siloam Family Health Center's website.
Both clinics are 501(c)(3) non-profit corporations.
For more information about Lipscomb University's volunteer work with these clinics or about the Spanish course offerings at Lipscomb, contact Parks at 615.279.6616 or through email at ted.parks [at] lipscomb.edu.
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