June 26, 2020 | Downers Grove, IL

Marissa Dupont (CCOM 2023)

A Midwestern University medical student has been selected for the nationally-recognized Schweitzer Fellowship, a program for graduate students who aspire to become lifelong leaders in community service. Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine student Marissa Dupont (CCOM 2023) will participate in the year-long service learning program that empowers Fellows to design and implement projects that help address the health needs of underserved Chicago communities.

For her service project, Ms. Dupont proposes to create and direct an organization of middle school students called Community Health Ambassadors Team, or CHAT, informing and empowering student leaders to better care for themselves and influence the care of their community. Ms. Dupont will work with the Burr Ridge Middle School on this project.

“I applied for the Schweitzer Fellowship because I felt immediately supported in my beliefs and ideas from the first information session. I believe that everyone deserves the same access to healthcare and know that begins with education,” shared Ms. Dupont. “The fellowship allows me to give back to the community that has given me so much and provides me with the opportunity to work with other passionate, talented people from the healthcare field.”

Named in honor of humanitarian and Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer, the Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows Program encourages students to “make their lives their argument” by helping address unmet health needs among vulnerable Chicago residents. In collaboration with existing clinics, schools, social service agencies, and other community organizations, each Schweitzer Fellow provides 200 hours of direct service, separate from and in addition to their already demanding academic and clinical requirements. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the program exposes Fellows to real-world interprofessional collaborative care and aims to develop lifelong leaders in service.

This year’s 31 Fellows include students from 11 schools, 13 disciplines, and 18 academic programs, ranging from nursing to law and public health. The class of Fellows was selected from a pool of many applicants through a competitive process. As a new Schweitzer Fellow, Ms. Dupont joins the more than 600 Chicago Schweitzer program alumni who have provided over 120,000 hours of community service to more than 150 community groups over the course of the program’s history.