San José Clinic

Last week, I contacted SJC to schedule my orientation. They responded the next day, and my orientation was set up for Friday, February 13 at 1p. That day, I left school with plenty of time to spare in case I got lost. Of course, that shouldn't happen since I work right next door, and I should know that area pretty well by now. I had no trouble finding the clinic, but parking was a bit of an issue. I wasn't sure where to park, but there were $0.50 and $1 parking lots adjacent to the clinic. I was a little scared because I have a bit of a history with parking tickets, but luckily, I've never been towed. I chose the $0.50 parking, and since I was still a little early, I took a nap. Later, I found out that the clinic has a free parking lot behind the building.

When I finally went into the clinic, I was hit by a peculiar smell, somewhat of a mixture of alcohol and cigarette smoke. The receptionist was on the phone, so I stood there for about 5 minutes until she was finished. She spoke to me in Spanish (I get that a lot, me being half-Filipino and all), and I told her I was supposed to meet Samantha Sherman. Samantha came out right away and gave me a tour of the place. Some of the exam rooms were being used as offices, and the whole place looked a bit dreary (maybe it was the lighting), but all the equipment was fully functional, which is the most important thing. I didn't expect to see so many tiny rooms in that small building. I was also surprised that they offer dental services as well as optometry and a pharmacy. Even though all that information is on their website, it clearly didn't register when I read it the first time.

After the tour, Samantha and I discussed my volunteer times. I was hoping to do 1 hour on Wednesdays, but they prefer shifts of at least 2 hours at a time, so she scheduled me from 12.30-2.30p starting February 25. Since most of the patients there are Spanish-speaking and my Spanish is pretty limited, I wasn't going to get much patient interaction, understandably. I was a bit disappointed that there weren't going to be many opportunities to shadow doctors because most of the doctors don't come in on Wednesdays. Most likely, I was going to be filing paperwork and playing with kids in the waiting area. However, Samantha was very nice and understanding and said they would try their best to vary my volunteering duties and set up at least one shadowing day for me to make my 10 hours as fulfilling as possible.

I'm also happy to report that SJC got a shout-out on Sunday. We watched a video in church regarding the Diocesan Services Fund, and the first thing they mentioned was how they fund SJC with our donations. I was proud to be associated with such a worthy cause.