Students – and Communities – Flourish with Funding, Mentorship: Hayley Cunningham and CRSP

This article by Hayley Cunningham is part of our series on the CHER Research Summer Program (CRSP).

From 2016 to 2019, CRSP was an experiential opportunity for UNC School of Medicine students to be involved in a community-engaged research project. CHER aimed to foster development and implementation of student-led projects aimed at advancing health in our North Carolina communities. With support from our community, we’re committed to re-starting this community-engaged and student-focused grant program.

By the time I started medical school at UNC, I had recognized my privileged position and the stars that aligned to bring me to that point. I grew up on a horse farm in Kentucky where my father worked and have two loving parents who gave me the support I needed to apply for scholarships and attend a private liberal arts university followed by medical school at UNC.

I had worked hard, but so do many others just to keep a roof over their heads. At  22, I had much to learn, but I did know that I wanted to help others lead healthier, happier lives.

Starting Flourish

I hoped to empower others to make healthy behavioral changes to improve well-being and prevent or reverse chronic illness.

I thought I would do this by helping low-income community members make healthier choices at the grocery store, and by providing personalized guidance on diet and exercise. These ideas drove me to create Flourish, a UNC student-lead organization to help community members “find health where they are planted.”

In my journey to create Flourish, I gained valuable insights in community engagement, program development and team leadership. As I met with established community organizations, I learned the importance of collaboration and building from others’ progress rather than reinventing the wheel.

I partnered with the Interfaith Food Shuttle, which was already providing Cooking Matters programming. Through this collaboration, Flourish team members led healthy cooking classes and grocery store tours to teach participants how to shop and cook healthy meals on a budget.

Lessons learned

Flourish also taught me humility. The aspect of Flourish I was most excited about was one-on-one nutrition and wellness coaching. Flourish members were paired with community participants to provide personalized coaching. I was lucky enough to be paired with the only participant who could invest in a long-term coaching relationship.

In my meetings with her, I learned how difficult it can be to lose weight and realized the importance of meeting people where they are. The fact that only one community member continued with wellness coaching taught me that community members themselves should be at the helm of program development.

My grand ideas as an outsider failed to consider the many competing needs that low-income community members face. People doing their best to survive within inequitable social structures while also facing stigma and discrimination may not have the bandwidth to go out of their way to purchase and prepare healthy food. It may not be safe to walk or exercise outside and too expensive or time intensive to sign up for a gym membership.

Taking lessons beyond UNC

When I left Chapel Hill to continue my medical studies at the UNC School of Medicine Asheville campus, I learned the importance of sustainability, adaptability and letting go. Both Flourish and I turned out much differently than I had anticipated.

As Flourish came under new leadership, and has passed hands several times over the years, it has evolved into a less lofty and more sustainable presence within SHAC, the Student Health Action Coalition.

Today, medical and undergraduate students provide nutrition education in the free health clinic and volunteer delivering and preparing healthy food in the community.

Building on a strong foundation

My career trajectory also took a turn, in part because of lessons learned through Flourish. I had learned that to be successful in creating positive change, nothing should be done for communities unless it’s also done with and guided by them.

It’s also important to systematically measure outcomes to ensure time, effort and other resources are used most effectively. I have since learned about implementation science and community-based participatory research. I have decided to dedicate my career to improving health outcomes using these methods.

During my time as a UNC medical student, I cared for multiple young people who died needlessly of HIV because of stigmas about the diagnosis and LGBTQ+ identities. Fueled by this, I pursued an infectious diseases fellowship at Duke and am currently conducting research to improve HIV prevention and treatment among gender diverse populations.

Final thoughts

I am extremely grateful for the support I received through UNC to create Flourish and learn essential lessons that simply cannot be taught within the walls of a classroom.

Flourish and my own personal growth would not have been possible without support from SHAC, the Interfaith Food Shuttle and CRSP. I also received invaluable mentorship from UNC faculty like Tonia Poteat. In something of a full circle, I’m now working with Poteat again in RISE lab, now at Duke.

To medical students who want to dream big: you are capable of doing anything you set your mind to, but sustainable impact cannot be achieved without ongoing support from others and guidance from the community you seek to serve.

To potential donors: I cannot emphasize how impactful your gift can be to medical students like myself. Even a small amount of funding can make a tremendous difference in the realm of community engagement and research.

Support CRSP and other trainee research programs

Programs like CRSP offer medical students and other trainees funding and mentorship to explore research interests.

In addition to student development, programs like these support capacity for building and sustaining healthy communities.

Even modest grants can open new avenues of thought. Sometimes, like for Hayley, they can establish a foundation that leads to deep commitments.

With support from community members like you, we’re committed to re-starting CRSP and supporting students like Hayley.