By Haley Tenore

Nonso Akunwafor applied to colleges intending to become an architect, but his academic blueprint changed at Virginia Commonwealth University. This summer, the senior connected his major – urban and regional studies – to one of society’s pressing issues: health care accessibility.

Akunwafor had a summer internship in Chicago with Chartis Group, a management consulting firm that focuses on the health care industry. He pursued the opportunity through Management Leaders for Tomorrow, which supports college students and recent graduates of color by connecting them with employers dedicated to building inclusive workforces.

“What specifically made me want to apply to Chartis was the fact that they had a focus on health care,” said Akunwafor, who is minoring in statistics at VCU. “I used to think the only way you could have an impact on health care was by being a nurse, doctor or scientist. I didn’t realize that we could do higher-level, strategic work in health care that could impact populations.”

In his case, rural populations were the focus, which offered a tie-in to his studies at VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Chartis helped a health system develop its growth strategy, and many of its target counties are rural. That can be a complicating factor in delivering health care, he said.

“In rural regions, providers may not see that many patients coming through their doors, making it hard to sustain the organization,” Akunwafor said. “One way I supported my team was by bringing my background in urban planning to build drive-time maps to certain clinics to better understand the geographical populations they served.”

Those maps are crucial in health care planning, he noted. “If you’re looking to build a primary care clinic in a certain area, you want to make sure it is accessible to people within a 20-minute radius,” because most people won’t drive much farther for primary care.

Akunwafor joined Chartis this summer with limited knowledge of access disparities in rural communities, but he said he now appreciates the prominence of the issue, including in Virginia. He noted that rural populations tend to be older, with greater needs and with greater risk of emergencies, and health outcomes for pregnant and postpartum women can be compromised by lengthy distances from medical care.

“Health care consulting isn’t directly related to my major, but I do feel like my major has been helpful in some respects” for his internship, Akunwafor said of urban and regional studies. “I was able to bring in my background in building maps, and my knowledge in urban planning, to … get an understanding of which clinics this health system should partner with as it grew.”

He created slides for the firm to present to clients, and he built rosters of physicians in target counties for expansion. “The main goal of these deliverables was to get an understanding of the provider landscape in the county markets,” Akunwafor said.

The Chartis internship wasn’t the first significant summer for Akunwafor at VCU. In summer 2023, he studied abroad in Bristol, England, through the Fulbright U.K. Summer Institutes program. More recently, he spent a semester studying in Spain in spring 2024.

Back on campus this fall, Akunwafor will serve as president of the Urban Studies Student Association – with a renewed appreciation for how the discipline intersects with diverse needs.

Akunwafor received financial support from VCU’s Internship Funding Program, which is funded by the Student Life and Learning Fund, the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP) and Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success. Supporters can donate to the Student Life and Learning Fund online.