The Fuld Leadership Program
Fuld Fellowships
Karen Hansen
Biographical Sketch
Reflections on the Fuld Fellowship
Biographical Sketch
Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, Karen Hansen was exposed to the field of medicine by her parents, who were both doctors. Thinking that she, too, might pursue a medical degree she graduated from Emory University in 2001 with a major in Biology and a minor in Dance. Throughout high school and her college career, Karen participated in a number of volunteer activities, working with programs through Alpha Phi Omega, which fueled her desire to help people. However, upon graduation she found herself driven more to pursue other dreams rather than jump into medical school.
This desire took Karen to Denver, Colorado where she joined AmeriCorps and spent the next year working on an environmental project at Bluff Lake Nature Center. The land dedicated as the nature preserve was essentially uninhabitable due to previous pollution and misuse, but it found a new purpose as a place where children could come to learn about the environment and conservation. The nature center also provided an ideal situation for low-income schools to conduct field trips, bringing in many underprivileged children from the community. For Karen, this was her first experience teaching and working with children, especially those from less fortunate backgrounds, in such a meaningful and hands-on way and she again found herself interested in serving others.
Inspired by her work in Denver, Karen joined the Peace Corps and spent the next two and a half years serving in a small village on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. There she worked with the local community on a sustainable development program while gaining a greater understanding for their culture and some of the challenges that they face, especially regarding health care. Karen worked on a number of community projects including organizing a women’s group to improve the economic status of the rural women by creating alternative livelihoods and facilitating multiple camps for educating youth about their precious environment and the problems they could help prevent.
Her primary project was establishing a youth conservation corps for out-of-school youth. Starting with an idea, Karen organized a Board of Directors, wrote several grants, and hosted a community-wide benefit concert to raise funds and increase community awareness. The resulting organization became the non-profit organization of Leyte Youth Conservation Corps. Although satisfied with the success of the program, Karen felt that her work was not yet complete. Karen’s experiences in the Philippines opened her eyes to the need for improved access to health care and fueled her desire for more knowledge and tools to respond to these needs.
Upon returning to the U.S., she quickly realized that combining nursing and public health would give her the tools she needed to improve the health care of underserved communities in the U.S. and abroad. She sees an incredible opportunity to serve people through nursing and plans to pursue the Global Health Nursing and Public Health Masters degrees.
Reflections on the Fellowship
Being honored with the Fuld Fellowship has been one of my greatest accomplishments as well as one of my greatest opportunities. As a Fuld Fellow I have been able to develop my sense of awareness surrounding social responsibility and leadership. Within the past year, I have represented myself, the Fuld Fellowship and the Nell Hodgson School of Nursing by serving as junior representative and treasurer for the Emory International Nursing Students Association (EISNA), becoming an active participant in the organization Health Students Taking Action Together (HealthSTAT), working as a student intern at the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing, and with the Missionaries of the Poor in Kingston, Jamaica, Wellness on Wheels - a mobile health clinic in metro Atlanta that serves refugee and immigrant families who have no other access to healthcare, migrant farm workers in Moultrie, Georgia, and the Atlanta Children’s Shelter in downtown Atlanta. Additionally, I have worked alongside my fellow students to raise funds and awareness for Heifer International, AID Atlanta, and Invisible Children (through the” Night of 1,000 Dinners” program) as well as collaborating with fellow nursing students to organize a doula cooperative to provide birth support for those women who could not otherwise afford the service. It has been through my affiliation with the Fuld Fellowship and the commitment we fellows share to strive toward social justice that I have been inspired to pursue the many opportunities that I have been granted.
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