Elizabeth Rambo, the 2024 PLT Summer Intern, shared reflections about her work and findings from the summer in a talk on September 26. Rambo interned part-time with D.C. nonprofits Bread for the City in the food and social services department, and with Catholic Charities of D.C. in the clinical services department. Through the PLT Summer Experience, she worked with mentor Dr. Susan Holman, professor of religion, global health and human rights at Valparaiso and Harvard Universities. Rambo’s recap talk covered both practical lessons as well as personal and theological reflections from the summer. Her experiences showed her how social determinants of health feed off of and amplify each other, how service work is vital but requires long-lasting policy to support it, and how important public health work isn’t always glamorous and exciting.
Rambo also reflected on some of the personal takeaways she has continued to think about after the conclusion of the summer. Connecting to the concept of public health as a gift exchange, from Dr. Holman’s book Beloved, she described how there is a bounty of resources available in global health – they just have to be given and received. Learning from one another is a way to share each other’s gifts. She concluded with a reflection on how our efforts, especially in such complex, broad arenas like global health, don’t always immediately bear fruit. But she reiterated the comfort that God is working all things together for good, and that seeds are being sown even if we don’t see them grow right away.
“We have so much to give, and there are lots of people who genuinely care, and all of that is really hopeful. It also reminds me of an idea that I talked about with Dr. Holman: the idea of public health initiatives as a gift exchange. Instead of viewing patients as solely opportunities for profit, and instead of patronizing to them as helpless creatures who have nothing to offer, we can think of global health initiatives – and really any service in any realm – as chances to both give a service without expectation of anything in return, and looking for opportunities to receive, to learn something yourself from those you’re serving. We model this after the idea of grace, that we can’t repay but we can be inspired and changed by. Public health gift-giving is a two-way exchange, different people and communities walking along together, on equal footing. And this is the approach that really healthy faith-inspired service should take.”
The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.