I’m really looking forward to the book and the book club. Our nearly 250 new U.S. Schweitzer Fellows each year come from ~100 of the nation’s leading health-related professional schools, each taking on the daunting challenge of doing ambitious service projects they themselves have to create, plus extensive leadership development activities, all on top of their already-demanding medical, nursing, or other professional school requirements. And yet becoming a Schweitzer Fellow has become so competitive that it is now statistically easier to get into medical school in the United States than to be selected as a Schweitzer Fellow. Schweitzer was right that the world’s most important untapped resource is the idealism of youth — it’s right there in front of us, waiting for us to take it seriously.

And it should be obvious (but seems not to be) that no solution to the problems of unmet health needs in the US can possibly succeed without a pipeline of dedicated health professionals with a deep commitment and superb skills in working with underserved and marginalized communities, so that’s what we’re trying to provide. After the first year (97% successfully complete it), “graduates” become members of the rapidly-growing network of “Schweitzer Fellows for Life”, already >2,000 strong. We’re still “just starting” (well, coming up on 20 years), and at our current planned growth, by 2025 there will be ~10,000 doctors, nurses, social workers, public health specialists, etc. etc. who as Schweitzer Fellows will have helped restore the moral compass of the health professions, and helped our nation on its path to eliminating today’s unconscionable health disparities.

Maybe most importantly, when you meet Schweitzer Fellows their joy in what they do is infectious, unmistakeable proof that a life of effective service can be the most satisfying life of all. That gives me hope that today’s revival of interest in “service” may not be just another passing fad.

–Lachlan

Lachlan Forrow, MD
President, The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship

Director, Ethics Programs
Director, Palliative Care Programs
Associate Professor of Medicine

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard Medical School

PS: We have no specific political agenda — we seem to appeal to both single-payer leftists and free-market Republicans or even libertarians — anyone who thinks that helping our neighbors in need is a good thing, which means almost everyone.