Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study
Semester: Spring 2026
Faculty Advisor/Professor: Kalala Ngalamulume
Community Partner: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Praxis Site Supervisor: Rene Najera
Praxis Poster:
PIS Quin_Gerber_Praxis Poster (2)
Further Context:
The opportunity to intern with The College of Physicians of Philadelphia was incredible for me as a History and Public Health double major. Throughout the semester, I worked on helping to update the History of Vaccines project. Before this semester, the project was solely managed by my supervisor, Dr. Najera, who also manages several other projects at the College, so many pages had not received attention for several years. I went
through the website and created a priority list for which pages had the most pressing issues. These issues ranged from dead links to outdated statistics to a few complete overhauls, in the case of Ebola and Malaria, for which vaccines have been approved in the last couple of years. From there, I conducted research to make any necessary updates. The updates I have noted will be rolled out beginning this summer.
I was able to learn a lot from this experience. I have never worked for a nonprofit organization before, so it was valuable for me to learn how to balance maintaining nonprofit status with the highly contentious issue of vaccination. I also learned how to critically read and interpret a wide variety of sources, and to consider the agenda any source may have. Finally, I developed informed hope for the future of public health. Countless breakthroughs have been made since these pages were last updated only a few years ago, and the future of vaccine advancement is bright. I am so grateful to the Praxis program, The College of Physicians, and my advisor, Kalala Ngalamulume, for this opportunity.