Reflections from a High School Lunchroom: Serving at the Intersection of Health and Education in Chicago High Schools

It’s BBQ chicken day, so the line is already forming by the time I walk down from the clinic and into the Amundsen lunchroom, lugging ten water bottles, eight bags of mandarin oranges, thirty condoms, and a purple tablecloth behind me. After waving hello to a few freshmen I had taught the day before, I set up my table and hang up my sign, a hand-lettered  “Say BOO to the flu!” emblazoned on the front.

As a health educator at the Erie School-Based Clinic at Amundsen High School, I have lots of responsibilities–coordinating dental care, providing one-on-one nutrition counseling, teaching sex and substance use education, and creating adolescent-centered health campaigns–but today’s activity is one of my favorites. Once a month, I get to spend a day tabling in the high-school lunchroom, promoting a (usually themed!) health message and answering students’ health questions. This month’s topic is all about what students can do to protect themselves from the flu, including how they can get their flu shot during the school day.

3rd period lunch passes slowly (it’s 9:30, and many students are still bleary-eyed), but I’m still able to circulate around the lunchroom and chat with some of my students about their week. Many mention that stress is high – it’s almost midterm time – but a conversation about stress management strategies (and a few free water bottles and oranges, of course) manage to elicit a few smiles. 

4th period picks up quickly, with several students coming by the table to play a game of “Flu Vaccine: Myth or Fact.” After a round or two, I end up walking a few students down to the clinic to get their flu and updated COVID-19 vaccine, making sure to stay in the clinic and chat in order to distract them as they get their shot.

In the first few minutes of 6th period, a group of students come up to ask about the types of reproductive services the clinic offers, and I enjoy answering their questions about the different types of STI and pregnancy prevention available to them. Because the school-based clinic is one of the primary ways students are able to access these resources “confidentially” (i.e., without parental knowledge/consent), I make sure to send the group off with a handful of condoms and step-by-step on how to make an appointment to chat with our nurse about their reproductive health options. 

The oranges are almost gone by the time the last lunch period rolls around, but several students still stop by to say hello, and we chat a little about how they can sign up for the upcoming dental van that’s coming to Amundsen next week. By the time the bell rings and I tear down my table, I’m only bringing back my purple Erie tablecloth – a sign of a day well done. 

School days (and school lunches) do not happen in a vacuum. The complexities of students’ lives spider far beyond the classroom, with cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic factors impacting their academic and overall well being. My service year has helped me acknowledge and address these contexts, using this understanding to tailor effective health promotion strategies that seek to nurture the holistic development of each student. With these skills, I hope to continue to craft a public health career dedicated to creating an inclusive academic environment that fosters not only educational success but also the overall health and wellbeing of underserved student populations.