CONTINUED...
Erica Rousseau, MA, Director of Intercultural Student Engagement
the Assistant Dean of Recruitment, Student and Alumni Services for UNE COM, and James Gaffney, the Assistant Director of Pre-Health Advising and Chair of Pre-Health Professions Advisory Committee, to incorporate key initiatives to the existing COM-Undergraduate mentoring program. In order to capture the data necessary to successfully pair mentors and mentees, the SNMA implemented identity-based questions where students could self-identify to help match them with their COM mentors. “Recognizing and celebrating differences is empowering for everyone and will help to create richer communities with people that are better able to support each other,” Student Doctor Elamparo says. The program has grown to include 90 undergraduate mentees and 90 COM mentors. Of the SNMA’s successful involvement, Student Doctor Elamparo states, “We are planning on doing more outreach within the community… especially in local underserved areas and with new immigrant and refugee populations, related to increasing health and food literacy and mental and women’s health.”
Over 100 people attended the mentoring dinner in November, a program where mentees and mentors can stay connected throughout the year. The event more than doubled last year’s participation numbers, and included freshmen, sophomore, juniors and some seniors interested in pursuing a career in medicine. COM students led their mentees in some role-playing, taking heart rate, respiratory rate, and other basic medical techniques. “Through mentorship and by helping students of color to realize that they do have a place,” Student Doctor Elamparo explains, “I hope it will motivate them to realize that they can do anything, no matter what it is they want to do or where they are.”
“We ought to embrace our differences not because we are required to do so, but because it enrichens our lives… As health care professionals, we have an obligation to care for our patients without bias and prejudice using the full breadth of our knowledge and skills to help people.”
-Cross Cultural Consultant Group
The SNMA isn’t the only student group vying for change on campus. The Equity Diversity Advancement Committee (EDAC) has been an unwavering advocate in implementing cultural humility training into the COM Curriculum. Karissa Rajagopal, COM ’22, the current EDAC chair, Fides Elamparo, COM ’22, and their advisor, Hwyda Arafat, MD, PhD, MSc MEdL, have been instrumental in developing, “Cultural Humility and Biases in Medicine,” a Clinical Practice Conference (CPC) held during one of the Small Group Sessions within the Osteopathic Clinical Skills (OCS-I) Course. The concept of the training emerged a year prior, when Student Doctor Rajagopal met panelist, Regina Phillips, MSW, adjunct professor of social work, at a UNE event. “We had multiple conversations throughout the year regarding Karissa’s desire to bring cultural competency into the academic curriculum,”Regina says. “I was very impressed with
Fides Elamparo, COM '22
Edifying Cultural Humility