Lutheran Settlement House
Title: Promoting Health, Connection, and Wellness Through Community Engagement
Student Interns:
Surleen Kaur
Temple University, School of Pharmacy
Divya Kulkarni
Temple University, School of Pharmacy
Academic Preceptor:
Jerome Wright, MSW, LSW
Temple University, Lewis Katz School of Medicine
Community Preceptor:
Brooke Glickman
Lutheran Settlement House
Liam McAnderson
Lutheran Settlement House
Community Site:
Lutheran Settlement House (LSH) is a nonprofit organization committed to serving children, adults, and families living in Philadelphia. It provides food access, services for unhoused people, domestic violence services, older adult programming, and education. LSH Fishtown offers a weekly food pantry, social services, health and fitness classes, and wellness events for seniors. The core mission of Lutheran Settlement House is to empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency through an integrated program of social, educational, and advocacy services.
Team’s Experience:
The Bridging the Gaps interns helped distribute food vouchers and set up and distribute food at the food pantry every Thursday. They also interviewed seniors and completed the Needs Assessment Tool-Express (NAT-E) forms. NAT-E’s are used to account for the senior population served and to determine what services need to be added or reformed to meet community needs. As part of their experiential education, the interns used their pharmacy knowledge to create resources for the center’s Aging in Place program. This included presentations on smoking cessation and cardiovascular health, as well as proper medication practices in over-the-counter medication education. The interns created dental health and hygiene flyers and handed them out with dental and denture kits.
Reflections
My experience at Lutheran Settlement House transformed the way I view community health and aging. Before beginning this internship, I expected my role to focus primarily on providing health education, but I quickly realized that the greatest impact often came from simply listening, building relationships, and meeting people where they were. Whether I was leading presentations on medication safety, participating in creative activities, or sharing conversations with the seniors, I saw how compassion, patience, and genuine human connection can be just as therapeutic as any medication. Witnessing the resilience, wisdom, and positivity of the older adults challenged many of my assumptions about aging and reminded me that every individual has a unique story that deserves to be heard. As a future pharmacist, I will carry these lessons with me by striving to treat every patient with empathy, respect, and cultural humility, recognizing that effective healthcare extends far beyond dispensing medications. It begins with understanding the person behind the prescription.
Surleen Kaur
I was excited to bring my pharmaceutical knowledge to the senior population at Lutheran Settlement House. While presenting on smoking cessation and cardiovascular health as well as productive medication practices in over-the-counter medication education, my fellow intern, Surleen, and I were met with curiosity and thoughtful questions. While interviewing the seniors for the center records, I learned about their relationship to their health and their personal, financial, and health goals. Our most meaningful conversations came over weekly craft and social activities, celebrating Pride Month with rainbow handprint art, or filling in for a Zumba instructor by finding a video on YouTube. We conversed about their families, their careers, and struggles they encounter as they get older. While we distributed food vouchers and helped at the pantry, I got to encounter people from all walks of life and backgrounds. I was able to strengthen my connection to the senior community, learning to set aside my assumptions about older generations and finding ways to connect and communicate, skills I will apply in my career as a healthcare professional.
Divya Kulkarni
