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I want to welcome
you all to our panel.

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As Professor Townsley said,
Summarizing Medicine, Animals,

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Inmates, and HPV.

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Thank you all for coming, and
thank you to Professor Townsley

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for taking the time for
moderating our panel.

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I'm Maria Saraf, I'm a senior
at Mount Holyoke studying

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biology and politics.

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So first day I walked in feeling
intimidated and completely out

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of place.

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I told myself to stand
tall and look confident

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even if I didn't feel that way.

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I wasn't sure what to expect
when I walked into the men's

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medium security correctional
facility in Rhode Island,

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but confidence, even
faking it, can take you

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a long way when it comes to
new situations and new places.

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I'm doing it right now.

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I don't know if you
can tell or not.

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So over the summer, I
interned in a medical clinic

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at a correctional facility.

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I found this opportunity
through connections.

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The person I work with,
the physician Dr. Clark,

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is a researcher at the Memorial
Hospital of Rhode Island.

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And she's also a
primary care physician

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for incarcerated individuals
at the Rhode Island

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Department of Connections.

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She also happens to work at
the same hospital as my dad.

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So he gave me her
contact information.

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I contacted her, I
gave her my resume.

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And then we met up a few times,
we discussed my potential role

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working with her, and in the
smoking cessation project,

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Seal the Deal.

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So I want to emphasize,
never underestimate

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the power of an email,
because you never

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know how receptive a potential
employer or internship

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supervisor can be.

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So over the summer,
my responsibilities

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including developing
educational and training

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material on smoking
cessation for

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the incarcerated individuals.

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Tobacco use is three
times more common

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among incarcerated individuals
than the general population.

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Given this prevalence and the
increasing bans on tobacco use

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in correctional facilities,
focus on smoking cessation

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becomes relevant and
a worthwhile pursuit

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in this high-risk and
under-served population.

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Especially because
they've already

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gone through
nicotine withdrawals,

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so the starting
point is a lot easier

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than with people who
are still smoking.

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So I work with another student.

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We developed a 32-page booklet
with an accompanying video

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towards that end,
and our reports

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relied on positive
behavior modification

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and talked about skills to
avoid trigger situations

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to alter former routines and to
find alternative ways to cope.

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Our aim was to create an
effective smoking cessation

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intervention that was
easily accessible and could

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be easily disseminated to
the targeted population.

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The project is still ongoing.

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And unfortunately,
by the time I left,

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we didn't have enough data
to see how effective it was.

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But I imagine it to have
a sizable impact, which

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will hopefully be confirmed
once I go back in December.

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So besides the smoking
cessation project,

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I also shadow Dr.
Clark in the clinic.

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I took vital signs
of the inmates,

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from height, weight, blood
pressure, and a heart rate.

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And then I observe the
subsequent interaction.

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Subsequent interaction.

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So what I realize is that the
patient-doctor interaction,

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which leads to mutual
respect and trust,

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especially in the context of
such extreme power imbalance

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is truly an art.

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You have to have
the right balance

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of a professional,
knowledgeable, and empathetic

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demeanor for your patients
to be honest with you,

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and for them to
actually follow through

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with your recommendations.

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I wish I had more
pictures, but I wasn't

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allowed to take my phone in.

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So this is the only
picture of the prison

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you'll actually see today.

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So I was in the men's medium
security for most of the time.

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And once a week, I was
in the women's facility.

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So in Rhode Island,
the male inmates

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are housed in a minimum,
medium, and maximum facility.

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And then there's
intake, which is where

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the jail population resides.

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So for the men's medium
security, most of the inmates

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have been there for a
while, so you don't really

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see them struggling to adapt
to their new environment.

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But in contrast, because there
are so few women inmates,

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there's only one facility
that houses all of them,

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and they all go through
the same medical area.

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So while I was there, most of
the patients I was exposed to

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were recent residents.

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And a lot of them were
going through shock,

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and a lot of them were going
through alcohol and heroin

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withdrawal, which was
very sad to witness.

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So understanding
these situations

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is a very important skill
to have in medicine.

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Doctors have to be able
to empathize and deal

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with the personal issues that
patients are going through,

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because that is the only
way that they can actually

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provide adequate health care.

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Life, and especially medicine,
is not one dimensional.

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It is just as much about forming
a connection with your patient

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as it is about
excelling in academics.

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And that goes with
anything in life.

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Academics can only
take you so far.

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You have to learn
how to navigate

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this social environment
of whatever field

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you are in to excel in life.

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For me, I struggled
with knowing where

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to set appropriate professional
boundaries with the people I

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interacted with, because
those interactions differ

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significantly from the nurses,
to the guards, to the inmates.

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And it's important to
recognize your place

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in the social hierarchy of
whatever field you're in,

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and then behave
accordingly to excel.

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So a lot of the
inmates I encountered

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had very tragic life
stories, and I'll just

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give two examples.

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There was one inmate, he had a
dent on the side of his head,

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so I asked him what happened.

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And he showed me
his palms, and there

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were two scars going
across his palms,

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and he said that he
tried to commit suicide

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by electrocution.

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And it was, obviously,
as you can imagine,

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I was very taken aback and
didn't know how to react.

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But one of the
saddest cases I saw

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was an inmate who was
suffering from delusions.

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So her thoughts were incoherent.

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She kept calling me
the doc in charge

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even after the doctor told
her I was just a student.

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And she was talking about
being a master sergeant,

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and talking about
giving recommendations

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to her officers.

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And it was very hard
to keep up with her.

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And it was even harder to
see if there was anything

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medically bothering her.

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So the point of
that is that doctors

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have to learn how to listen
to their patients' stories

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and pick out the important
details while at the same time

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providing them with the
comfort that they need.

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The inmate, the
one with delusions,

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she actually teared
up at a point

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and talked about how the doctor
reminded her of her mother,

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and the way the
doctor approached

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her was very empathetic
towards her situation

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while still trying to ask for
what was actually bothering her

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was a very informative
experience for me.

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So I noticed the inmates'
attitudes towards Dr. Clark.

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It was one of trust and mutual
respect in a place where

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most of them don't get any.

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And she had taken the time
to build it up that way.

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So observing the doctor deal
with the unique circumstances

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of each inmate was very
influential for me,

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and gave me a new
perspective and respect

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for the humility that is
demonstrated by doctors.

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It's important to know all
the nitty-gritty details

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of the professions that
you're interested in,

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because besides the glamorous
part of what you tell people

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you're doing, it's really the
nitty-gritty details that's

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where you're going to
spend most of your time.

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So being at Mount Holyoke
has been a huge help.

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This is going to be my
MHC plug for the day.

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So take advantage of all
the resources provided

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to you, especially
the Lynk funding,

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because a lot of the
internships will take you

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if they know that you
already come with funding.

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The academic rigor
of this institution

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also helped me with my
research and writing,

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especially when I applied
to present our research

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at the Annual Academic
and Health Policy

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Conference on Correctional
Health in March,

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which, fingers crossed, we
find out within a few months

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if our proposals gets accepted.

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So my summer working
at prison has

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made me realize that I
want a hands-on experience

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and work with
under-served populations.

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I'm particularly
interested in Doctors

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Without Borders, which is an
international humanitarian NGO

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that provides medical
aid in over 70

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countries around the world.

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It is extremely
unfortunate to see

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how many people in the world
lack even the most basic access

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to health care.

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And I want to be a
part of a team that

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addresses that, because it is
only after the basic needs are

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met, can people's
ambitions soar.

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So I want to end my presentation
with just a few thank yous.

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Thank you to Dr. Clark for
taking me under her wing

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and teaching me a lot
of valuable lessons

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over the summer.

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Thank you to the
Lynk internship funds

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for being the financial
backbone of my summer.

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Thank you to our lovely
moderator, Professor Townsley,

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for being here and moderating.

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And thank you to the
audience for showing up.

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