When Krupa Patel was named a Most Valuable Student scholar in 2018, she was given the opportunity to go on the Summer Elks Scholar Service Trip in San Antonio. By working alongside other Elks scholars to pack hygiene bags for veterans in need, Patel gained a new sense of inspiration.

“We represented diverse backgrounds and career aspirations, yet we were unified in our passion for volunteering,” says Patel. “This trip and the generosity of the Elks National Foundation gave me the inspiration and confidence to make a difference in my local community.”

This desire to make a difference quickly turned to action in 2020, when Patel noticed a lack of reproductive grief care in her local hospital system. She started the Lunar Doula Collective (LDC), a nonprofit organization that provides free, compassionate support to individuals who experienced miscarriage, stillbirth or pregnancy termination.

Because LDC was the first loss doula program in Michigan, Patel worked with physicians, social workers, and patients to create her own curriculum—one that promoted diverse and inclusive support to any patient that walked in the door.

“LDC allowed me to envision how I can weave community outreach and social justice into my future medical practice,” says Patel. “As a physician, I would use my platform to advise nonprofits, companies, and policymakers on ways to improve the quality, safety and access of healthcare services. I am so incredibly grateful for LDC; being able to support individuals through this vulnerable time in their lives reminds me why I want to become an empathetic physician leader and patient advocate one day.”

Patel expanded LDC’s services to the internet in 2021, when she was unable to visit patients in person due to new COVID-19 variants. Though the task of turning everything digital was a challenge, Patel went a step further in October 2022 when she launched the virtual Bereavement Support Initiative, which virtually pairs clients in need with one of LDC’s trained loss doulas. Since then, Patel has taken even more steps to increase the accessibility of LDC, including translating her services into multiple new languages and training multilingual doulas.

While Patel now takes special care to see things from her patients’ points of view, she did not understand the nuances of treating patients until she volunteered with the Elks.

“Previous to volunteering, I thought medicine was limited to diagnosing and treating illnesses. I understand now that medicine is also about fostering trust with patients and lifting the voices of the disadvantaged,” says Patel. “Being an Elks scholar has prepared me to become a physician who practices integrity, listens with kindness, and treats patients as people, not diseases.”

With the Weigel Scholarship, Patel will specialize in orthopedic surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School.