Making a Difference: The Free Clinic Extraordinary Volunteers

• By Suzanna Cisneros
• November 1, 2019

I started volunteering at The Free Clinic as a sophomore at Texas Tech University after hearing about it through a premed society I was a member of. I really enjoyed getting to work with medical students, residents and attendings all while being able to give back to my community. After that I fell in love with the clinic and started actively searching for ways to serve at a greater capacity. I saw leadership as an opportunity to help expand and improve the clinic that had done so much to support the community and young learners like myself.

Every night at The Free Clinic presented new experiences and opportunities. One of my favorite experiences was traveling to the Student Run Free Clinic Conference with the rest of our leadership team.  Getting to discuss our clinic with like-minded individuals and bring back ideas to improve our clinic was really rewarding.

I have learned an infinite amount at clinic. Most recently I learned how to be a better educator for lower level medical students by providing a good example and giving them the opportunity and motivation to take a more active role in patient care.  

Dean Phillips is a fourth-year medical student from Happy, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Science in biochemistry at Texas Tech University (TTU). He also completed his Master of Business Administration degree at the TTU Rawls College of Business through the Rawls STEM MBA program. He was a part of The Free Clinic leadership team from 2017-2018 and continues to serve as a volunteer.