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Meeting with the NIU Psychology Department

Recently, the student attorneys of our clinic had the opportunity to meet with graduate students studying Psychology at Northern Illinois University. We all met in a classroom in the psychology building on campus and watched Professor Boraca give an informative presentation on medical-legal partnerships. This was an exciting experience because our team is looking to collaborate with psychology students to evaluate our clients suffering from mental health issues for Social Security cases.

I was very unsure about what to expect going in to this meeting. The idea of collaborating with the psychology students seems like an incredible opportunity. I was hoping that the students would show interest in working with us and sure enough they did! As I looked around the room during Professor Boraca’s presentation, I could see that the students were attentive and engaged in the presentation. Furthermore, the students and their professors asked plenty of questions which reflected their interest in working with us and our clients. This semester is the first time I have had the experience working at the Health Advocacy Clinic. I was genuinely happy to see that others expressed interest in teaming up with us and enjoyed the presentation.

Professor Boraca gave a very convincing presentation as to why a collaboration between the health advocacy clinic and the psychology department would work hand in hand. She provided stories from her legal career and interesting statistics about the mentally ill homeless population. I was extremely happy with the presentation and the way that Professor Boraca highlighted our success thus far. It is truly rewarding to know that we are making a difference in our clients’ lives.

There is a lot of time and effort that goes into making a medical legal partnership prosperous. The combination of our Health Advocacy Clinic working closely with Aunt Martha’s and Hesed House is a great blend of groups working together to get the best possible results for our clients. The fact that the psychology students met with us and showed interest in our clinic makes me feel like all out hard work is paying off.

I am glad that our Health Advocacy Clinic students took the time to meet with the psychology students. I know that their evaluations of our clients will be beneficial for our clients’ cases. I will apply what I learned from this experience by trying encourage other law students to work at the Health Advocacy Clinic next semester. This has been an incredible educational experience for me to take on the role of a student attorney and take responsibility for my own clients. I would recommend that other law students take a clinic so that they are well prepared to represent clients when they graduate.

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