To her surprise, Swati found that one of the most important changes she witnessed was the change in her perception of poverty. "Originally I assumed that most low-income or homeless people brought their [situation] on themselves," she confesses. After struggling to help clients with great resumes find employment, she realized that a life in poverty was not always created by personal fault or mistakes. "We had a Harvard graduate who couldn’t fill out an application on her own. That could be any of us. It was shocking," Swati says.
Swati's LIFT experience led her to realize that poverty can be a result of economic depression, lack of public housing or other benefits, rigorous regulations and slow bureaucracy surrounding public assistance, or lack of family support. As the daughter of immigrant parents from India, Swati knows how crucial family support was to her parents' success upon arriving in the United States.
She also saw the role physical and mental disabilities played in clients' daily struggles, causing her to reevaluate the country's mental health care system and the adequacy to which it addresses the population's needs.
As she advocated for clients facing these obstacles, placing numerous telephone calls and writing letters to housing authorities, employers, and offices, Swati found that "the community was out there to help." The solution to a problem was often a matter of putting the right people in touch. This year, Swati will continue to put more people in touch with the right resources as she leads a partnership program with the Tufts Office of Sustainability and LiveCooler, an energy assistance provider that helps low-income residents exchange light bulbs for compact fluorescent lamps to save on energy costs.
Swati knows that the ability to lead will be something she looks for when choosing careers. With a growing interest in health policy, she plans to use her LIFT experience as a reminder to take all community members' views into account, saying, "In my future I see myself always looking at the other side of the coin."
