The Student Health Initiative for Access (SHIFA) organization is a student-run screen and refer clinic model serving vulnerable populations in the King County area. It was created in 2006 as a community health outreach program to connect patients to existing services, provide health education, and expose health science students to the challenges and rewards of working in traditionally underserved communities.
Since its inception by a small group of committed students, SHIFA has blossomed into an organization that includes hundreds of volunteers, from professors emeritus to undergraduates, and has served hundreds of patients in the Seattle area. Today, SHIFA works in three locations, Casa Latina, Plymouth Housing, and Emerald City Commons, as well as numerous health fairs in Seattle and surrounding areas. They collaborate across various schools, including Dentistry and Pharmacy to provide interprofessional services and training opportunities.
Centering Community & Service
Hear from Ellen Tan on how SHIFA is advancing their mission by building partnerships rooted in community and centering the needs of the patients they serve
Assistant Director of Service Learning at the School of Medicine, Ellen Tan, provided background on SHIFA from her perspective supporting the students and volunteer programs.
Can you share how the partnerships with Casa Latina, Plymouth Housing, and Emerald City Commons formed and what do you believe is the value of partnering with local community organizations to deliver healthcare?
Some of our SHIFA partnerships are longstanding and were developed in conjunction with our community partners a number of years ago, including Casa Latina and Emerald City Commons. Several of our newer clinics were started when community partners reached out to us regarding a need they saw in the population they serve. We appreciate these connections as it is always our goal to provide the most appropriate services for the individuals that we work with.
More broadly, I believe the value of partnering with local community organizations lies in their deep, trusted relationships with the populations they serve. Organizations like Casa Latina, Plymouth Housing, and Emerald City Commons understand the specific needs, barriers, and cultural context of the communities they work with in ways that our program alone cannot replicate. Partnering with them allows us to meet people where they are, build trust, and deliver care and services in a way that’s genuinely responsive to community needs rather than assumed from the outside.
These partnerships also create meaningful learning opportunities for our students, who gain firsthand exposure to the social and structural factors that affect health, alongside guidance from organizations who have long-standing expertise in working with these communities. Ultimately, I see these collaborations as essential to making our commitment to health equity more than just a value we state. They’re what makes it actionable.
As the Assistant Director of Service Learning at the School of Medicine, how do you see the UW School of Medicine benefitting those in need through the commitment to increase access to healthcare?
I see our commitment to increasing access to healthcare playing out in a few key ways.
First, our Service Learning Program connects medical students directly with underserved communities throughout the region, including rural and urban populations, as well as immigrant communities, that often face significant barriers to care. Students engage in hands-on service projects, from free clinics to health education initiatives, that address real gaps in access while giving them early, meaningful exposure to the populations they’ll serve as future physicians.
Second, we help build long-term pipelines of care by training students to understand the systemic and social factors that drive health disparities, not just the clinical ones. This means students graduate with a deeper commitment to equity, and many go on to practice in underserved areas themselves.
Finally, our partnerships with community organizations allow us to be responsive to actual community needs, rather than imposing solutions from the outside. That collaborative approach ensures the work we do, and the future physicians we train, genuinely serve the people who need it most.
Their goal is to provide culturally competent, holistic healthcare to underserved communities of King County and to be leaders in creating an effective student-run health and social service model that partners with local organizations in providing community-based support. Check out volunteer opportunities with SHIFA and hear from SHIFA lead, Irem Onalan.
Student Spotlight – Irem Pinar Onalan
Name: Irem Pinar Onalan
Pronouns: She/Her
Year in Medical School & Desired Specialty: Third-year medical student interested in primary care, undecided between Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine
Q&A
Can you share what attracted you to the SHIFA program and how you hope to make an impact during your time in your program?
Before medical school, I was a clinical research coordinator spending time with hospitalized patients and families, communicating with them about research, and connecting with people during vulnerable moments. I have always found myself drawn to the relationships that make healthcare personal and meaningful.
When I started medical school, I returned to an environment that was primarily focused on classroom learning and studying. My first SHIFA health fair was a highlight of my first year because it brought me back to interacting with patients face-to-face and gave me a chance to contribute to my community in a tangible way. I found it empowering to give clients tangible information about their health, such as their blood pressure, blood glucose, and A1c measurements, and help them understand what those numbers meant. It was also a welcome break from studying and a great way to practice clinical skills! I really enjoyed working alongside other students, and I found myself looking up to the health fair managers. As a first-year student, I could see the difference between my own level of experience and skills that the second-, third-, and fourth-year students had developed. I was inspired to grow into that role as well.
I started as a volunteer, then became a health fair manager, and eventually a lead. Along the way, one of the parts of SHIFA I have valued most has been building relationships with community partners. Getting to know the people and organizations we work with has made the work feel much more personal. It has been meaningful to listen to what communities need, think together about how we can be helpful, and see how those relationships can create opportunities for people to access care and better understand their health.
As a lead, I have also really enjoyed helping other medical students develop those same relationships. I hope to continue making SHIFA a space where students can connect with communities across Seattle, learn from the people they serve, and see the impact that they can have. The combination of relationship-building and tangible impact is what makes SHIFA so special to me.
What do you most enjoy about contributing to SHIFA and how has your connection with community members and organizations in need of healthcare influenced your perspective as a future healthcare provider?
What I enjoy most about SHIFA is the opportunity to build genuine relationships with community organizations and the people they serve. Those experiences have taught me that being a good healthcare provider is about much more than knowing the science. You can have a tremendous amount of medical knowledge, but I’ve learned that making a meaningful impact also depends on being able to communicate that knowledge in a way that is understandable, compassionate, and meaningful to the person sitting in front of you.
For example, we often work with communities where people are less likely to seek healthcare and conditions like diabetes are more common. In these situations, when we get a test result that indicates the client is either at risk for diabetes or may already have it, we have to think about how we explain what diabetes is, why it matters, and why seeing a doctor could be helpful, all without making people feel judged or talked down to. We also have to understand what the client’s needs are and what barriers they may be facing, whether it be insurance status, language barriers, lack of familiarity with the healthcare system, or something else. SHIFA has taught me to approach those conversations with curiosity, compassion, and respect for the experiences that shape someone’s relationship with healthcare. As a future physician, I hope to carry that same mindset with me: to listen first, communicate clearly, and think about how I can help make healthcare more accessible to the people and communities I serve.
I am also proud of the ways SHIFA has grown beyond a single-day health fair. This year, our health fair managers established a relationship with Harborview Medical Center in which primary care appointments have been set aside for SHIFA health fair clients. Creating that kind of connection can help bridge the gap between identifying a health concern and addressing it.
What is one piece of advice that you would give to aspiring doctors?
Be curious about people and take a genuine interest in them! Medical school can make it easy to focus on exams and learning as much as possible – which is important too! But some of the most valuable lessons come from getting to know other people and learning more about the communities around you.
You do not need to wait until you are an experienced medical student or physician to contribute to your community. Look for opportunities to serve, ask questions, and learn from people whose experiences are different from your own. The skills you develop through those experiences – communication, humility, collaboration, empathy – will stay with you.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your journey to medical school?
My most formative experience leading me to medicine was volunteering as a medical clown at LAC+USC as an undergraduate student. Connection, whimsy, spontaneity, and embracing the full spectrum of human emotion are at the heart of medical clowning. I learned how to make room for laughter, play, vulnerability, sadness, anger, and simply being present with another person. It’s been many years since I’ve clowned, but that experience has stayed with me and grounded me throughout my journey to and through medical school.
To me, medicine is ultimately a service-oriented field, and I love that communication and human connection are important parts of what we do. After college, I worked for four years before starting medical school. Coming back to school was an adjustment. Medical school can sometimes feel removed from the communities we hope to serve, especially during the preclinical years when so much of our time is spent in the classroom. SHIFA helped bridge that gap for me. It reminded me why I wanted to become a physician in the first place and gave me a way to stay connected to my community while learning medicine. Now that I’m in my clinical rotations, I’ve continued to use the skills I’ve developed through SHIFA. Even in unfamiliar clinical settings, I apply what I’ve learned about meeting people where they are, asking questions with curiosity, and explaining health information in a way that is understandable.
I have also been fortunate to learn from mentors and fellow students along the way. When I first joined SHIFA, I looked up to students like Melody Gao who were leading the health fairs with confidence, experience, and commitment to the community. Now as a third-year medical student, being able to support and mentor newer students has been especially meaningful. It has made me appreciate how much of medical education is about learning from others and then finding ways to pass that knowledge and encouragement forward. Ultimately, I will carry the spirit of SHIFA with me into my career: to approach people with curiosity and compassion, to lean on the tools and networks available to me to increase access to healthcare, and to remember that being a good physician is not only about what you know but how you connect with the people you serve.
Interested in volunteering with SHIFA? If you’re a healthcare provider interested in getting involved with SHIFA’s service learning opportunities, we’d love to connect with you! Please fill out our Service Learning Provider Onboarding Form to let us know you’re interested. If you have any questions, please email somserve@uw.edu and a member of their team will be happy to help.
