People
Photo: Ben Rudick

Natalie Joffe ‘08

Major:
Psychology
Field site:
Bellevue Hospital
Email:
Natalie.M.Joffe@williams.edu

Spending the semester in New York City was a unique opportunity that exposed me to a completely different approach to life. Coming from Marin County in Northern California, the city contrasted the nature and suburbs where I grew up.

The Williams Club and its staff provided a home and a family for us, and the city became our classroom. I did my field study at Bellevue Hospital where I rotated each month to a new inpatient psychiatric unit. Dr. Castañeda, the head of psychiatry at Bellevue, guided me through my time there and was a wonderful resource and teacher. I even had the opportunity to spend some time in the emergency room and the operating room shadowing doctors and surgeons. Being a psychology major, my experience at Bellevue brought to life what I had studied at Williams. It also solidified my desire to enter the health care profession after I graduate.

Adjusting and learning to live in such a big and fast paced city was difficult at times. The challenges became learning experiences though, and looking back at my time there, I realize how much I grew, learned, and lived in those short three months.