Give.  Do.  Love.  Serve.

At Life West, we take our institutional values seriously. You’ll find examples of students, staff and faculty embracing the idea of give, do, love and serve — from one’s own abundance — all over the world.

Service trips

When you attend Life West, you will be attending a college dedicated to service and sharing the benefits of chiropractic. You will have the opportunity to provide natural health care to those most in need through the chiropractic adjustment. You’ll have the chance to travel through our service trips, and witness the power of chiropractic yourself as you work in some of the most under-served communities in the world. Let’s make a lasting imprint that will be transformational, not only to the lives you serve, but to your own.

DC Ambassadors

DC Ambassadors support chiropractic recruitment by identifying people who would make great chiropractors and ensuring they get connected to the admissions team at Life West. DC Ambassadors work closely with Life West’s Enrollment department to collaborate and support future chiropractors as they go through the enrollment process.

Ways to participate

  • Refer students to Life West
  • Host a Career Night in your office
  • Offer shadowing experiences or a preceptorship in your office
  • Speak with an interested student
  • Speak at Champions Discovery Weekend
  • Call a recently accepted student with a congratulatory message
  • Give a career talk or presentation at a local college/university

 

DC Ambassador

Student Ambassadors

Student leaders at Life West share their talents and advocate for the school during Champions Discovery Weekend and other events on campus. Check with the Life West Admissions department to see how you can be a part of sharing chiropractic with prospective and new students!

 

How Life West shares chiropractic with the world

Did you know there are less than 15 chiropractors to serve 1.3 billion people in India? Around the world, millions of people don’t have access to chiropractic care. Watch our short feature on how Life West is making a real difference in under-served populations as we organize regular service trips that help bring chiropractic to the world.

Students recount service trip experiences and lessons learned

Life West is preparing for its latest service trip to Tonga, which is coming up later this month. Ahead of the venture to the South Pacific, several students shared some of their most memorable experiences on service trips at a recent Friday seminar and in online videos. In recalling their experiences, several students remember how they dealt with seeing large crowds of people who were without consistent access to chiropractic care. “It was a very fast-paced trip,” Alex Lee said. “The line was out the door. You had to keep moving, but even though it was a lot faster than here in the clinic, everything kind of slowed down. I think everyone kind of hit a rhythm after two or three hours.” “It’s kind of amazing,” Hayden Klein said. “You just get to be lost in service. It was quite the experience.” In addition to the hands-on experience on these trips, students learn valuable lessons about their own capabilities. “I think the biggest lesson I learned was to trust myself and what I’m doing,” said Allison Land about her recent trip to India. “We spend so much time learning from classroom lectures and textbooks. Once we’re actually able to apply this clinically with real people, it’s pretty life-changing.” Service trips provide opportunities for students to deal with different cases and different groups of people. Many said that patients without consistent access to chiropractic care approached their appointments quite differently than those with assumptions about how the process worked. “They didn’t come in with any preconceived notions,” Danielle Jordan said. “They were there to heal. We made the adjustment, wished them the best, and saw how far they came. It was incredible.” Read more about service trips on the Life West website. If you’re a student and want to participate in a future service trip, contact Sharon Seto in the Life West President’s Office.

Experience on India service trip transforms student’s approach

I just returned from a service trip to India with Life West. The following are pieces of my experience as related to friends and family about my journey to India and my time of service. We served at a huge spiritual gathering, the 72nd Annual Nirankari Sant Samagam, which was held on 600 acres that the Nirankari foundation owns. They set up tents and facilities to house and feed at least one and a half million people. This foundation’s message is the oneness of all people, and bringing people together regardless of religion or caste. There was a deep sense of service within the thousands of volunteers who make this gathering possible. These volunteers and attendees were all really sweet and reverent, and those who came to the chiropractic tent were very, very grateful to have care. I had the most growth in the shortest amount of time I think I have ever experienced. When we began serving, I had a really hard time because it was a very different method of taking care of people than what I was accustomed to. I’m used to seeing skin, feeling flesh, seeing structure move, and having a scope and X-rays.  Without all of those things, I initially felt like I couldn’t help people at all. It was really, really disheartening and hard. I had to sit with myself, and I had to remember that my intention was pure. My intention was to care for these people; I needed to serve them from that place. I had to trust that that would be conveyed to them, that they would feel the love and the care that I felt. I had to believe that I could help them, so I worked to learn new ways of engaging with their systems. Because we didn’t have a common language, apart from the translators, I had this experience where I began to feel like they were all my children, and I began caring for them as if they were my own. [quote align=”center” color=”#999999″] That experience will forever inform the way that I care for people, because I’ve now learned that language in my hands and in my tone of voice and in my eye contact.[/quote] When I would set them up on the tables, I was communicating to them in the way I looked at them in the eyes, the way I touched them and the way I positioned them on the table. They didn’t know what to expect, and I wanted them to feel comfortable. I wanted them to feel trusting, and I wanted them to be relaxed and able to receive. I wanted them to feel safe under my hands. I was looking at them and touching them like they were my babies, and I was very tender with them. It was beautiful to experience the shift within me and find that language to communicate my care to them. That experience will forever inform the way that I care for people, because I’ve now learned that language in my hands and in my tone of voice and in my eye contact. Even though I can talk to all of my patients here without a translator, I now engage with them in a different kind of way than I did before. On that first day, I had a woman come to my table who had a baby two months prior, and she had been in a lot of pain since the birth. She was in pain when she was walking and standing. I adjusted her, and I gave her a prescription so she could come back the next day to see me. When she came back she brought her husband, her older child and her mother with her. She was beaming, because she felt completely different. They were all very, very grateful. Now her mother wanted to get adjusted, so I took care of her as well. The mother had questions about her diabetes, and so I gave her some advice around managing that. Then she asked me to bless her. And I had this … you know, people don’t often ask you to do something like that, and initially I was thinking, “Well, who am I to bless you? You know, I’m not a priest. I’m not a guru. I’m not anyone like that.” But then I realized that, for her, being able to be cared for by me was really special, and for whatever reason, she felt like I could help her.  And so I was present, and I took her head in my hands and I brought my face really close to hers and I looked deeply into her eyes, and I prayed for her life. I said some things about what I hoped for her. Again, it had that tone, even though she is probably 70 years old or more. It felt like she was my child in that moment. When I was finished speaking, I brought my head all the way to hers and I touched my forehead to her forehead, and I just held her head like that to me. When I came away, she had tears rolling down her face, and we both bowed to one another and touched each other’s feet. And off they went. It was an incredibly touching moment. It was beautiful. It’s good that I’m able to do a pull move every now and then, because really, that woman and that mother made my whole trip. I feel like, I don’t know, maybe I helped other people, but those people I really helped. I know I helped her. I know I helped those two people. Maybe they’re the only people that I helped the whole time. Though, I know that’s not true. You know, my adjusting is not consistent at this stage. So when it works, I’m like, “Oh! It actually worked! It actually worked.” And what I’m expecting is that, over time, the percentage of times that it works will get more and more, and it will become consistent. So that I can know that when someone comes to me, there will be a high level of likelihood that what I do will actually help. But right now I’m not in that place.  Right now I’m in the “praying” phase. “Please let me be able to help these people.” “First, please let it move, and if it moves, please let it be what they’ve needed.” “Please let it help them.” It was work. It wasn’t a vacation. It was deep, personal transformation. It was beautiful. There was a lot of smiling, there was crying. There was exhaustion. It was everything. And I would totally recommend it. I will be back. ABOUT Seraphina Seraphina Freund is a single mom and a senior at Life Chiropractic College West.  She is in her second quarter in the health clinic, seeing outpatients, and just participated in the service trip to India in November 2019.  

Life West dean talks about life-changing trips, working with A’s

Life West’s Bruce Chester has had a long, distinguished career in chiropractic. In addition to serving as the Dean of Clinical Competency at the college, Dr. Chester is also the official team chiropractor of the Oakland Athletics. Just as important to him, however, is his travel overseas to share the value of chiropractic. Dr. Chester has made several journeys, including Life West’s most recent service trip to Tonga this past September. A graduate of Life West from the early 1990s, he said he is incredibly appreciative of the chance to embody the college’s mission of Lasting Purpose: Give, do, love and serve out of one’s own abundance. “I always say, ‘I wish we had that opportunity when I was in school,’” he said. “I think there’s a lot of excitement within the student body because of opportunities like that.” Dr. Chester’s first service trip was to India several years ago. He recalls being hit by significant culture shock, as well as being floored by the demand for chiropractic care in that country. “It was life-changing for me,” he said of the experience. “It really changed my perspective and worldview of chiropractic. I’d been out of the country, but I wasn’t there assessing in the field” of health care. Such an atmosphere can be quite intimidating, even to experienced chiropractors who have worked with professional athletes. Dr. Chester conceded that there were times he felt a bit overwhelmed. “It was hundreds of people waiting to get in and see our group,” he said. “It didn’t stop all day. It was a constant flow of people. I’d be working on a patient, and there would be two people waiting. As soon as the patient got up, another would sit down or lay down on the table.” However, Dr. Chester credited the team of Life West students and faculty, who banded together and helped give the patients care. “As a group, we did a great job,” he said. “It was amazing how many people we saw. You do what you can to change people’s lives in some small way, whether it’s being there for them, performing the adjustment or whatever else it’s going to be.” In addition to dealing with cases one may not see in other parts of the world, Dr. Chester said the trips spearheaded by Life West’s administration offer chances to show how chiropractic can change lives. “On the last India trip, I was with Dr. Oberstein,” he recalled, referring to Life West President Ron Oberstein, DC. “We went to an area with severely ill and handicapped people. There was one person who could not walk. After being under care with our group, he was standing. We saw the ‘miracle’ kind of stuff, which doesn’t happen all the time. But when it happens, it’s a fantastic thing.” Balancing jobs and looking forward Dr. Chester also balances his work with Life West with time at the ballpark, where he has served as the team chiropractor for the Oakland Athletics since 2013. He works 28 home games each season, and thanks to his job at Life West, he often has plenty to do while waiting for pre-game patients. “I’ve been there grading papers and clinic exams,” he said with a smile. “I do that on a regular basis because I have time when they’re at batting practice or in the clubhouse.” This past season, Dr. Chester traveled with the A’s to spring training, where he took in the action from the clubhouse. He says providing care to world-class athletes has been an eye-opening experience. “This is my sixth season with them, and it’s worked great,” he said. “The reason a chiropractor is with a professional team is because the players want them. It’s a lot of fun, because they know the value of chiropractic.” Now 63 years old, Dr. Chester says he gets asked about retirement plans. But he’s in no hurry to call it a career just yet. “I don’t see retirement anywhere in the near future,” he said. “I love what I do. I love being here at the college, and I love working with the athletes.” Dr. Chester has two pieces of advice for future chiropractors, drilled into him by one of his mentors, who also works for Life West. “One of the things Dan Murphy taught me is to keep a low overhead,” Dr. Chester said. “Secondly, live in the town you’re going to work in. That’s really important, to be in that area and be part of the community.”