by Lindsey F.I have wanted to be a doctor for a long time. The past three weeks in North Philly have only fueled my desire. One of the most important reasons that have influenced my desire to be a physician is the opportunity for patient relationships and the chance...

A Report of the Philadelphia Summer Medical Institute, June 26-July 17, 2021 By Holly Favino, Summer Program Director   Who would imagine that a vaccination effort to combat a 1991 North Philadelphia measles outbreak would adapt and continue today as the...

by Trevor S.      We come into this place with good intentions, energy, excitement, and passion for positive change and spiritual development. We enter with various levels of experience, understanding, and history. We represent a mix of diverse faith...

By Tolulope I   The Summer Medical Institute (SMI Philly 2020) is over and here I am reminiscing on the experiences I gained throughout the course of the program. The image of paintings on the wall of the conference room where I worked still lingers in my memory....

By Katie V   The COVID-19 pandemic caused the Philadelphia Summer Medical Institute (SMI) to be different this year. Instead of going door-to-door to provide health screenings, we worked with Esperanza Health Center (EHC) to complete some clerical and...

Top row, left to right: Elizabeth Centurión, Larissa Dean, Tiffany Wang, Jessica Bedele; Bottom row, left to right: Abby Weems, Juliana Bonilla, Nadine Kamel, Sosela Rrusho   I have no words for describing how grateful I am for being part of this huge...

Hi everyone! My name is Kai Inguito, and I’m a rising second year medical student at Jefferson. I would like to share about my time SHADOWing at SMI. One of my career interests in medicine is to become a primary care physician who works and lives in the community....

In the two weeks that I have spent living and serving in North Philly, I have been so deeply blessed and yet deeply challenged as well.   Our medical team has already spent many hours in Kensington and the surrounding area knocking on doors and meeting people on...

From left to right: Brian Schonewald, Nadeen Kamel, Jessica Bedele     How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God...

The stories, testimonies, struggles, challenges, and lessons that were birthed from this week are a pure testament of how good the Lord is, especially to those who are overlooked. One of the characteristics of God that has been so evident in my life is His ability to...

One of the key parts (if not the most important) of my testimony is when I accepted Jesus into my heart at seven years old.  Since then I have had many trials and areas of growth in my walk with Christ, and one of those lessons that I have learned along the way is...

From left to right: Nadeen Kamel, Stephanie Ko, Brian Schonewald   My name is Brian Schonewald, I am a second year medical student at Cooper Medical School and I am utterly unqualified for ministry. Since high school, I have known that God is calling me into...

Glass Shattered Streets By Larissa Dean . Look around and you can see the pain. Where the greedy take and what’s left remains. On these glass shattered streets. . But on these glass shattered streets, there is beauty beneath. Life still rises from the cracks in...

From the beginning, I thought SMI would be about me changing other people’s lives. Coming into Kensington, I’d imagined myself having the answers to the people’s spiritual questions, to teach the Scripture, and to share my testimony to convert the lost. In my own...

What a day and what a God we serve. Admittedly, today did not start the way that I wanted. I doubt anybody’s version of a great morning is walking out to their car with a busted window and stolen items. Praise God that nothing valuable was stolen, but at the very...