Friday, May 10 was the annual Steinmetz Symposium at Union. Students had the opportunity to present their research and ongoing projects to their professors, faculty and peers.

Carly Burns ’20 is a biology major, but wanted to create her project with a more political science-focused angle.

“I want to go into the healthcare industry when I get older and I wanted to look at the structures and policies of the healthcare system so I knew what was going on…I want to hopefully make a difference in the way people can access healthcare.

Being a major in biology, Burns says that “I want to be able to contribute to the delivery of care, but I also think it’s important to know about all the problems that are intertwined with access to healthcare and how to help fix that.”

Burns wants to use her experience in biology classes, coupled with her knowledge of the healthcare system, to really make an impact on people’s lives. She aspires to use her resources to get educated on the topic of healthcare and help ignite change.

“The U.S. healthcare system is really complicated. If you want to know it you really have to sit down and learn it. I feel like a lot of people don’t do that and don’t take the time to educate themselves on things like that, so I hope that with my research people can learn about the healthcare system. Even though we live here, there are a lot of things that people don’t know.”

When asked to give an example of a way you could get involved and get your voice out there in the healthcare world, Burns stated, “You really have to pay attention to politics, the administration and who you’re voting for.”

Burns mentioned the fact that external factors may be part of the reason people are not getting equal access to healthcare. She feels like she could use her education and her platform to give a voice to those that do not have one.

She finished her statement on why she did her project on the healthcare system by saying, “I want to even the playing field.”