JOURNEY TO THE HILL
One weekend in early April, Anne Hall’s mom comes to town. This is a big weekend for Anne, who is presenting her thesis research at a conference on Friday and receiving a Tufts Senior Award on Saturday. On Friday evening, a handful of Anne’s close friends, myself included, gather to meet her mother, Vien, and laugh over chocolate cake. We all share some of our best embarrassing Anne stories, Vien taking the cake, figuratively. We are able to unabashedly bash Anne and know she will laugh with us; her joy deflects our gentle jabs. The next month, I sit down to interview Anne for this profile. Having known Anne throughout our four years at Tufts, I’m aware of the plethora of honors and awards she has earned—including the prestigious Truman Scholarship, for which Anne represents South Dakota—and the impact she’s had on the Tufts community, but this interview gives me a chance to delve deeper. Anne’s journey to the Hill began on the flat plains of suburban Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she was born and raised. “Growing up in a white, homogeneous, conservative community, I only learned one thing, heard one side of the story,” Anne explains. “And that point of view isn’t bad; I just think it’s important to see more than one perspective. Coming to Tufts let me look through different lenses.” For the first time, she gave the kaleidoscope through which she had been looking a spin. “I think to truly learn, you have to put your guard down and admit what you don’t know,” she explains. Anne knew she had a passion for medicine and was drawn to Tufts because of its commitment to engagement and activism, but it was not until a
community health class she took during her first year that she honed in on a specific focus. She describes learning about Black maternal health and the inequities that exist in the health world. “I found that really jarring,” she says, “and because of what I grew up learning, I was skeptical. I thought, ‘No, that can’t be.’” But Anne listened, read, and reflected and since then has devoted a lot of her intellectual energy to critically examining the inequities in the field of women’s health. For her policy proposal as a Truman Scholar applicant, Anne put forward policy to increase reproductive health services and sexual violence awareness for Native women. “And [during the interview] I talked a little bit about my time as a rape crisis counselor and leadership on the First Gen Council,” Anne throws in casually, referencing some of the remarkable ways she has served as a resource to others, including her vital role in forming and leading Tufts’ council for first-generation college students like herself. When I ask Anne about her thesis, she responds, “You were at my defense; you cried,” sending a playful jab my way for how moved I was by her work. For Anne’s senior honors thesis, she recognized that a prime example of the inequities in health, about which she is so passionate, existed in her own backyard. Growing up, she did not know, hear, or talk much about the Native people in South Dakota, but after coming to Tufts and looking through new lenses, Anne found herself spending two summers of her Tufts career living on the reservation with the Lakota people in South Dakota. She made friends, heard stories, and confronted
ANNE HALL BIOLOGY AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES MAJOR FROM SIOUX FALLS, SD
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the unpleasant realities of the inequitable health care they face. “Initially I thought I wanted to plan a mental health workshop for Native youth on the rez, because of the disparities in mental health. But once I got there, I realized there was a lot I didn’t know… I thought it would be better to listen to their stories and try to figure out how [the Lakota women] navigate their identities and experiences that most shape them. That project allowed me to understand the sacredness and power of narratives and use that to decolonize social science research.” The project that came out of her time there left many in the room of her defense teary-eyed, and earned her Highest Honors. In many ways, Anne’s time at Tufts was about unlearning what her upbringing had taught her. But the place where her kaleidoscope has rested feels close to home for Anne. As the child of an immigrant, a first-generation college student, and a woman of color from Middle America, so much of what Anne has devoted her time to—both personally and academically—is being a light and mentor for others, while highlighting inequities and fighting for change. Having declined a position at the Harvard Divinity School, Anne will head to D.C. as an employee at the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, where she will work to find the cracks in our system and repair them with her grace, joy, and fierce commitment. —SHAAN MERCHANT ’19
