Making the World a Better Place - Touro College

Medicine house staff who were temporarily displaced from
their usual clinical sites.
Like Joseph, many Touro students volunteered to meet
the widespread needs in all the affected areas, including New
York City’s five boroughs, Long Island and New Jersey.
Matthew Stamm, a Physician Assistant (PA) student at the
School of Health Sciences, organized 32 volunteers—
including 10 fellow PA classmates from Touro—to go out to
Long Beach and clean debris from damaged houses, as well
“My experience as a volunteer EMT and
rescuer during Hurricane Sandy has
reaffirmed my desire to study medicine
at TouroCOM and pursue a career with
a focus in emergency medicine.”
– Joslyn Joseph
as deliver much-needed supplies to collection sites. Stamm
used Facebook to corral his volunteer contingent, even in the
midst of exams. His group raised more than $1,200 in
donations to pay for bus transportation and the purchase of
housecleaning equipment, including shovels, crowbars,
gloves and masks.
A two-time volunteer in the post-Katrina cleanup efforts,
Stamm plans on continuing to help in Long Beach. “It’s no
exaggeration to say that some of the sights I saw on Long
Island are similar to what I saw in the south. It's going to take
a very long time for these people to recover,” he said.
Another PA student, Chaim Adler, was also a post-Sandy
volunteer, working night patrol on Manhattan’s Lower East
Side, supplying elderly residents with water and other
assistance up as many as 19 flights of stairs.
Jill Horbacewicz, director of the Department of Physical
Therapy and chair of the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program
at the School of Health Sciences, took part in the relief effort
in Moonachie, New Jersey by cleaning out the Moonachie
Civic and Senior Center.
Two Russian-speaking students from the Touro College of
Pharmacy, Arkadiy Malakov and Nataliya Volkov, used their
language skills to assist the medical, nursing and social work
staff at the Parker Jewish Institute (where they are completing
rotations), as the Institute worked to accommodate evacuated
patients from four skilled nursing facilities in Long Beach and
the Rockaways. Not only were Malakov and Volkov able to
obtain medical histories and other pertinent information, but
they were also able to help the patients adjust on a
psychosocial level to their new environment.
These are just some of the ways that students, staff,
faculty and administrators came together to respond to the
devastation caused by Sandy. For Joseph, the experience
reinforced her chosen career path: “My experiences as a
volunteer EMT and rescuer during Hurricane Sandy have
reaffirmed my desire to study medicine at TouroCOM and
pursue a career with a focus in emergency medicine,” she
said. “I feel blessed to have been able to participate in the
rescue and recovery efforts during these times.” n
To learn more about how you can support Touro’s Hurricane
Sandy Scholarship or get involved in other ways, please
contact: Cheryl Bernath, Cheryl.bernath@touro.edu.
34 TOURO LINKS I SPRING 2013