After his family came to the U.S. from Argentina when he was four years old, Joaquin Peralta watched his parents – both teachers – use their talents to help the migrant farm workers who lived in the Oregon community that became the Peraltas’ home.
He saw his parents’ heart for service and he enjoyed connecting with his neighbors through the Spanish language. The experience from his youth filled Peralta with the desire to someday find a way to give back to migrant farm workers.
“I’ve always felt very connected to migrant farm workers and I’m humbled by the work they do,” Peralta, a fourth-year student at WMed, said recently. “I’ve always wanted to give back to that community that I’ve worked with all my life.”
As he navigates his final year of medical school in Kalamazoo, Peralta said his time at the medical school has been filled with opportunities to give back.
As a first-year student in 2017, Peralta joined the Latino Medical Student Association at WMed. He helped plan events for the student interest group, including dinners and dances at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus. But, more importantly, Peralta said his work with LMSA marked the beginning of a journey that opened doors to helping the student group grow substantially while also working with migrant farmers in Southwest Michigan and embracing opportunities for research, valuable clinical experience, and strong connections in the community.
“There’s a lot of room for growth at WMed,” said Peralta, who is an alumnus of the University of Oregon where he majored in general sciences. “Things aren’t written in stone here and there’s room for students to create things that can leave a legacy later on.”
Peralta said his decision to join LMSA during his first year at WMed led to the opportunity for him and other students to volunteer at Holy Family Healthcare, a pediatric clinic in downtown Hartford that serves as a holistic resource for medical care, food, and clothing for children and families of rural migrant workers in Van Buren County.
Their work at the clinic, Peralta said, gives him and other students hands-on experience with patient care and the chance to improve their clinical skills while learning the value of service and giving back to the community. Students typically volunteer at the clinic twice a month under the guidance of Dr. Don Bouchard and Dr. Cheryl Dickson, the medical school’s associate dean for Health Equity and Community Affairs. Each winter, the students also host a winter clothing drive to benefit patients at the clinic.
“In those first two years of medical school, we’re deep in the books and learning and going to lecture so to have the ability to practice medicine and get a shot at seeing patients and working with a preceptor helps serve as a reminder of why we’re doing this, why we’re studying for 12 hours a day and working so hard,” Peralta said. “Then, as a third- and fourth-year student, when you’re teaching the first- and second-year students you’re serving as a peer educator and it reinforces the things you’ve learned.”
More importantly, Peralta said the experience he and other students have gained at Holy Family Health has led to life lessons learned about the everyday challenges and “the realities of migrant farm workers.”
“We learn about their living situations, that they don’t have a medical home,” Peralta said. “They might be here for apple season and then they’re off to Florida for orange season or they’re getting bused back to Mexico for the winter.”
Peralta said the work in Hartford led to a research project and poster presentation at the LMSA National Conference in 2018 that examined how working in the clinic enhanced students’ cultural awareness and their preparation for third- and fourth-year clinical rotations. Peralta said the research project and WMed students’ involvement at Holy Family Healthcare caught the attention of students from longer-established medical schools at the national conference who were intrigued by the opportunity to gain that type of clinical experience.
“I think that speaks to WMed being a new school but also allowing students to pursue projects like this,” he said.
Peralta said his experience at the national conference was eye-opening and the connections he made prompted him to successfully push for WMed’s LMSA chapter to transition from a student interest group to a student organization when he served as LMSA president during his second year of medical school. The transition allowed for two students from the medical school’s LMSA chapter to attend the national conference each year with funding from WMed.
“I thought it was really important to cement our chapter as a student organization at WMed,” Peralta said. “We can continue to network and it ensures that we can connect and have a voice at the national level.”
In addition to his work to expand the LMSA chapter at WMed, Peralta said he has been able to foster his passion for improving his bilingual skills and encourage other students to do the same. During his first year at WMed, Peralta said he was given the opportunity to assist Dr. Dickson during a Professions of Medicine course for second-year medical students about working with – and the importance of – medical interpreters.
Peralta said he has continued to assist Dr. Dickson with the course, which has improved each year and led to a research project that students presented in March at this year’s LMSA National Conference.
“It’s a personal passion of mine and I always start the sessions with the story about my family and how my younger brother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the fourth grade and my parents had to navigate through all of that,” Peralta said. “I realized that even if you speak the language, those language barriers still exist and in those moments of stress and fear your ability to know to really understand what’s going on goes out the window.”
Since coming to WMed, Peralta used his talents to become part of the qualified bilingual staff at Bronson Methodist Hospital, which allows him to act as an interpreter for physicians and patients at the hospital.
Those skills have served him well in many patient encounters. He recalled how he was able to help Dr. Bouchard during one instance when a pediatric patient was transferred from Hartford to Kalamazoo for a surgical procedure. Dr. Bouchard provided Peralta with the details of the admission and Peralta acted as the interpreter, communicating with the child and their mother and sister about the surgery and consent for the surgery. The experience led to Peralta being asked to scrub in and assist on the surgery, he said.
“It’s been very rewarding and I feel very useful,” Peralta said of the chance to improve – and put to use – his bilingual skills while at WMed.
As he looks ahead to residency training, Match Day in March, and his aspirations of becoming an Emergency Medicine physician, Peralta is confident that the skills and experiences he has gained through his work with LMSA and the clinic in Hartford will serve him well. Wherever he lands for residency training, Peralta said he is hopeful that he will have the opportunity to continue to put his bilingual skills to use while also getting the chance to work with underserved populations like migrant farm workers.
In the time he has left at WMed, Peralta said he will also continue to promote LMSA at WMed so that students are aware of the work and possibilities they can be a part of by joining the student organization, as well as other student organizations and interest groups at the medical school.
“None of my activities here at WMed would be possible without the people who came before me,” Peralta said. “I stand upon the shoulders of giants and I wouldn’t be where I am without the groundwork they laid and I hope we can continue that work as we go to the national conference each year.”