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By Denton Ketels Her involvement with UNI’s Global Health Corps included trips across Iowa to promote preventative models of health care among high-risk populations. “We try to raise awareness of the availability of things like free aid and Title 19 services,” she said. “We’re finding out that minority populations and the elderly are at higher risk because they don’t like going to the doctor. They don’t use the facilities very often, either out of fear, distrust or just not knowing.” On this particular trip, the Corps was headed out to a community clinic in Cedar Rapids. It would also stop in Marshalltown to talk to children about bullying, harassment and self-esteem. “We try to educate people about environmental health concerns, such as housing projects near landfills, kids with asthma caused by poor air quality and disease caused by rodents or other infestations in housing. A lot of social problems follow children who are chronically sick and absent from school,” Kimberly said.
“Eventually, I would love to work in a prison with at-risk people, especially women with children, to help make their lives work outside the system so they are able to build something. They need a support system. I think health has a lot to do with it, because if you have healthy children and you have healthy women who feel good about themselves, then eventually they won’t need to return to crime.” Kimberly’s transition from student to citizen included several years working and two years at Kirkwood Community College. “When I had my second child, it was my motivation to go back to school. I didn’t even tell anybody. I just decided I had to do it.” In her first year at UNI, Kimberly commuted from Cedar Rapids while keeping her 35-hour a week job at Mid America Housing Partnership, a non-profit agency. “It was very hectic.”
“The greatest thing out of this experience, besides just being here, was that my children got to see exactly what I was doing. Until then, for them not to know what I was struggling for was kind of pointless, I thought. Once we moved here they actually understood. They became very mature and independent all of a sudden. They loved being on campus. They would always say, ‘Hey, Mom, we’re in college, too!” Following graduation Kimberly moved back to Cedar Rapids and closed on her first house. She has applied to graduate school at UNI. She is not so worried about that commute because the schedule would require only two trips a week. “I had more fear the last few months before graduation than I’ve had ever in my life. Usually I’m not that type of person, but going back out there and actually being qualified actually puts me in a bigger pool of qualified people,” she said. “Before, I didn’t have much to fight about, because there weren’t that many jobs I was qualified for. There are so many bigger fish in the pool than me, but I’ve been applying for jobs like crazy.” |
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Kimberly Abram is a Cedar Rapids native and a 1995 graduate of Jefferson High School. On May 7, she graduated from UNI with a degree in criminology and a certificate in global health and health promotions.
Last January, she moved to family housing at UNI with sons Sire (6) and Aden (3). “I’ve been a lot more grounded. It was a sacrifice for me because I had to give up working. I’ve had a job since I was 14. At first I thought, ‘oh my goodness, I’m so broke!’ And I was, but it was worth it.