by Ceasar Rodriguez

In the middle of my sophomore year, I decided to make the switch from the College of Engineering to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Making the switch is where I first met Mrs. Bobbi Knickerbocker, the senior Lecturer/Curriculum coordinator for Beyond120 CLAS Pre-health. She helped me with any questions I had and ensured that the transition in switching between colleges was smooth. I was also introduced to the Beyond120 program, specifically their pre-health opportunities. A new program was being started that same year which was the pre-health scholar service groups. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the starting group and served as an ambassador, overseeing my group as an undergraduate leader. Since then, each fall and spring semesters I have enjoyed serving as a leader of the service group, in which as a team our group works to brainstorm, plan, and implement service group projects for our community. We have done projects such as care packages for the homeless and hospice patients, local beautification projects, and animal shelter visitations to name a few. It is a great opportunity to have meaningful volunteer experience as we are all planning our activities from scratch and we get to choose how we want to help the community.

In the fall of my junior year an internship opportunity was brought to my attention through Beyond120. It was with CDS Family and Behavioral Health Services, specifically their interface youth program. I applied and was able to start that same semester, as the shelter has a location that is local in Gainesville. The program is for youth that are experiencing problems back home, such as skipping school, poor behaviors, poor influences, and problems with family. The completely voluntary program aids the youth in social skills developing programs and transport to school and back. As an intern I worked to contribute to a positive environment and helped the participants and counselors with whatever they needed. Activities included playing with them outside, with games such as basketball and HORSE, playing board games inside, and overall trying to make meaningful communication and experiences for them while they are at the shelter. Through a journal I wrote as part of the Beyond120 internship course I was able to reflect what I experienced each day there. I learned valuable communication skills not just with the counselors but with the participants who ranged from elementary to high school. I was also able to gain new perspectives of others that did not grow up the same way I did. Many were faced with adversary growing up, yet they still had positive attitudes and goals which in turned helped me to continue on with my own goals. I have interned there for two semesters now and I plan on continuing this upcoming year as it is a great experience which I luckily found due to Beyond120.

A couple months ago I got an invitation to be part of the 2022-2023 cohort for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Beyond120 Ambassadors. The ambassador program was established in 2009 but now it has merged with Beyond120 and has been being reimagined with a new vision for the benefit of those in the college. As part of the first group of the reinvented CLAS ambassadors I am looking forward to working with my fellow ambassadors to plan out a great year for all in the college and to hopefully make a positive impact to those around me.

by Isabella Garganese

During the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, it was nearly impossible for pre-health students like me to find opportunities to become involved with the community. Hospitals were not allowing students to volunteer or shadow physicians. Most university organizations held meetings through Zoom, and didn’t offer many in-person events or service activities. In the Fall of 2020, while searching for a way to not only connect with other pre-health students but also to serve the community, I discovered the Beyond 120 Pre-Health Scholars Program. Beyond 120 initially sparked my interest as a way to meet other pre-health students and foster my education in the humanities. I later learned, however, that by joining, I would be able to help shape a newly-launched program.

 Beyond 120 Pre-Health Scholars Program enabled me to become not only an ambassador for a growing program, but also a leader of a service group within Beyond 120 that I actually created. While living within the confines of the mandatory lockdown caused by Covid-19 and the correlating feelings of isolation, I came up with the idea of hand-writing letters to residents of assisted living facilities and care homes in the Gainesville area with the hope of spreading some joy to them. Many senior citizens were extremely lonely because they either simply had no visitors, or were prohibited from interacting with or chose not to interact with the wider world out of fear of getting sick. Senior loneliness is a well-documented concern and it has been shown to have an effect on seniors’ mental and physical health. My personal experiences with my own grandparents and stories that I heard from friends inspired me to start a letter-writing campaign to reach out to seniors and hopefully alleviate some of their loneliness. Over the course of the summer in 2021, three other students and I wrote over 200 letters to seniors within the Gainesville community.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing and decorating the letters with the other members of my service group. It was a great way to positively impact the seniors’ lives during a very challenging time. It also gave me the chance to give back to the community in an unconventional way. I believe that sometimes pre-health students focus too much on only volunteering in hospitals or getting involved in solely medical-related areas. Beyond 120 Pre-Health Scholars Program helped me realize that basic humanities are just as important as the sciences when it comes to a career in the medical field. Service groups such as Beyond 120 are an excellent way to explore different interests, meet new people, and develop compassion for others.