Between graduating from Haverford and beginning medical school Abigail Moeller ’15 will spend a year working at the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers through Americorps as a health coach for people who, for a variety of reasons, take frequent trips to the emergency room. Through one-on-one meetings, Moeller will speak to individuals about how to improve their healthcare, possibly by making it easier to travel to a doctor or pharmacist or by attending appointments with her patients and advocating for them if they feel unheard or intimidated.
While at Haverford, Moeller was pre-med but majored in English. She wrote her senior thesis on Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, analyzing the main character, Charlotte, and her mental decline. “I read a lot of old medical textbooks, a lot of historical work on mid-19th century society,” says Moeller. “[My thesis] definitely had a healthcare focus. It is very patient-focused, very focused on her—what support she does and does not have.”
Moeller wants to address similar issues in today’s world, and hopes that her job with Americorps will allow her to do that immediately. Then she would like to attend an osteopathic medical school, which, while similar to traditional medical school, she feels utilizes a more holistic approach to treating illness and engages in more preventative measures. (Both nationally and internationally, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree has the same practicing qualifications as an M.D.)
At Haverford Moeller worked for the Women’s Center and answered the Hotline for Rape and Sexual Assault. She was also a Peer Awareness Facilitator (PAF) her sophomore and senior years for groups of firstyear students in the Customs Program and was on the committee in charge of the PAF program her junior year. She was funded the summer before her senior year by the Jaharis Fellowship to work for the DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children in Middlefield, Ohio. The clinic mainly serves individuals in the Amish community with special needs and includes state of-the-art facilities and hosts conferences, one of which Moeller helped plan.
“I was able to see the differences in primary care for special needs children and also the differences in treating plain populations,” says Moeller. These differences included things like not using telephones, choosing which vaccines to accept, and how to navigate new laws requiring Medicare for individuals.
—Jack Hasler ’15
“Where They’re Headed” is a blog series reporting on the post-collegiate plans of recent Haverford graduates.