Chinese Students Work to Improve Health Care Understanding at Fontbonne

Imagine being a student in a foreign country, where the native language is not your own, when you suddenly get injured. Aside from dealing with the pain and fear of the injury, you’re also forced to juggle questions about health care and medical bills.

This scenario played out last year for senior Xuan He, who is staying with the Fedewa family in Milton, when she broke her foot. He and fellow Chinese student Junhai Chen, shared her experience and the work they’ve done to alleviate confusion for future international students at last week’s Social Justice Fair.

During their presentation at the fair, He explained that after the injury she couldn’t get in contact with a representative from Cross Cultural Networks, the agency that serves as the international students’ legal guardian in the U.S. As her host family brought her to the Emergency Room, He said she was filled with questions.

“I really felt I was homeless,” said He.

Since then, He took the initiative to educate fellow international students about American health care and create a more open dialog between the school, the agency and students.

Chen and He helped organize two orientations that laid out the need for health insurance. This program will be offered in future years, He said.

The students worked with nurse Sue Katchpole at Fontbonne to forge a partnership with Neponset Health Center, which will now provide medical care to Fontbonne students.

Chen and He also stressed the importance of cultural care, which includes translators and other tools to make foreign students comfortable with procedures and medications. Neponset Health Center is providing those services and Katchpole is working to make sure all students are insured.

Though He’s situation was a difficult one, she turned it into a solution for many future students.