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Angelina Sok, left, and Eva Thong show off their LCHC Student Fellowship certificates. (Spenser Hasak) Purchase this photo

Lynn Community Health Fellowship graduates 70

Olivia McKenna-Stevens

by

LYNN — Seventy Lynn-area high school students celebrated a major achievement Monday evening. This group of students will be the first-ever to have finished the newly launched Lynn Community Health Center Fellowship, where they spent the past year learning how to harbor a healthy community and improve their own wellness. 

A new initiative has grown in Lynn over the past decade to strengthen the city in more ways than one. The Lynn Community Health Center Fellowship is the newest addition to this city-wide initiative. 

Students from Lynn high schools worked alongside healthcare mentors, focusing on the high rates of poverty and general health risks in the Lynn community. While this fellowship program is only finishing its first year, it is already making a difference in the lives of Lynn youth. 

“Tonight is a celebration of what you have accomplished, but even more importantly, it is a celebration of who you are becoming,” Brenda Rodriquez, Chief Executive Officer of LCHC, said. “Our goal was to help you see yourselves differently, to recognize your own potential, to understand that your future is not defined by where you started…Your future is defined by what you choose to believe is possible.”

These fellowship graduates finished out a year of hard work and discipline with a celebration amongst family friends and the leaders who helped guide and grant them the most important gift of all, knowledge. 

The students who participated sang their praises for what they learned and why they felt so transformed, not only through the education, but also through the unexpected community they found.

 “Getting to know all of you, hearing your stories, and being able to connect with you personally has allowed for so much growth in this program,” Victor Nunez, a LCHC Fellowship student, said.

In a similar sentiment, another fellowship student, Agnes Osazuwa, spoke about how her time in the LCHC Fellowship program helped her see the beauty in the place that she had spent her whole life in. 

“Through these experiences, I saw firsthand how language, culture, and access shape someone’s health journey, and I gained a deeper appreciation for the beauty and diversity of Lynn,” Osazuwa said.

As Lynn enters this new era of community action, young people have been one of the major driving forces, telling a story of incredible community strength and a deep love for the city that has spent much of its life misunderstood. 

“Tonight is about celebration, and when I think about celebrations such as Pride Month and Juneteenth, I’m reminded that some of the most meaningful celebrations are born from struggle, resilience, courage, and hope.” Said Rodriquez. “They emerge from people who dared to believe that things could be better for themselves, their families, and for future generations.” 

The defining theme of the night was strengthening the community through knowledge and purpose. The LCHC believes to its core that no person should suffer the pain of not having access to healthcare. Whether that is due to language barriers or income, the LCHC has made it its goal to make healthcare accessible.

Through this fellowship program, the young people of Lynn get to take that power into their own hands. 

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned both as a mentor and in real life is that it’s important to believe in yourself even when it doesn’t come easily.” Molly Nhiv, an LCHC Fellowship mentor, said. “Sometimes all it takes is someone to encourage you to dig a little bit deeper. To take one small step forward and to face the very things that actually scare you.” 

As these students make their way into either the end of high school or taking off to college, what they learned from their time with the LCHC has clearly made a huge impact on the way they carry themselves. Once uncertain teenagers walk out the door as confident young adults, taking the world head-on, ready to change it for the better. 

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