In 2009, when Ashanti Littlejohn was in high school, she began investing in her college career. She started volunteering at St. Luke’s University Health Network’s main campus with the goal to one day work there, and she has been volunteering with them ever since. “I originally started volunteering at St. Luke’s because it is a hospital I hope to work for when I am older,” says Littlejohn. “Volunteering with St. Luke’s was a way for me to be directly involved with the community and to give back.” St. Luke’s also holds a special place in Littlejohn’s heart because it is the hospital that her mom passed away at. “I hope that I can be an addition to the hospital network that could help save lives.”
Littlejohn has held many different volunteer positions at St. Luke’s. Some responsibilities she has had include transporting patients, putting together discharge packets, changing and cleaning emergency beds and servicing patients’ families in the gift shop. She has also been able to have many conversations with patients and serve as a patient advocate. “From my time volunteering, I learned that the key to gaining someone’s trust is consistency and commitment,” she says. In addition, Littlejohn says her experiences volunteering in the emergency room have resonated with her the most because she has been in the patients’ shoes and has been in the emergency room when she was very sick. “Seeing familiar faces made me more trusting in the treatment that doctors would suggest,” says Littlejohn. “I know, specifically in the emergency room, there are some patients who come every week because they believe that’s the only place that can help them with their specific problems, especially since the nurses and staff are usually familiar faces.”
This past May, Littlejohn graduated with a bachelor of science in biology from Temple University, and this upcoming May, she will graduate with her master’s in biomedical sciences from The Commonwealth Medical College. She plans to attend medical school, which will bring her one step closer to her goal of working at St. Luke’s.
