People, Places, and Events Reflection

During my visit to my EDHE 105 teacher’s office, she encouraged me to attend two meetings for two organizations on campus. One was Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED), a health profession based honors society, and the other was the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), a student lead, pre-medical organization aimed towards helping better prepare students for medical school. I was unfortunately busy during the time of the AED meeting and could not attend, but I was free during the AMSA meeting and decided to see what it was like. At first, I was skeptical about going to the meeting, because I knew that I would not know anyone else there. I was even more nervous about it when I saw how many people actually showed up, knowing that I still did not know anyone.

This opportunity welcomed me into a community fondly referred to as “Black NCSU.” At the African American Cultural Center, I was surrounded by love and support from both students and staff who wanted to see me succeed on campus. Having a community of intelligent and successful black staff members was an escape from the daily exhaustion of being black in a predominately white institution. Each microaggression was fuel for my intense fire to see a change on campus, which was representation. Representation is important because it gives those who come after us the motivation to strive for more: “I am because you are, you are therefore I am.” With this new motto in mind, I applied to be an Orientation Leader with New Student Programs. Fortunately, I was granted a position as one of six other African American students. Knowing how fortunate I was to have this opportunity I used my position as an Orientation Leader to welcome the class of 2020 to the university. However, I will acknowledge my own bias. I paid special attention to students and families of color as I wanted to be a familiar face to inform them of spaces for black students. I was further able to reinforce this familiarity as a Multicultural Symposium Counselor through Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA). MSA gave me a platform, a voice, to reach younger students of color and pass on the message of

Before I had come into high school, there was no way for people who wanted to pursue health to get involved with any other students with that same desire. When this club, called the Health Organization for the Students of America (HOSA), was finally created, I wanted to join and maintain a leadership position immediately. I was elected as chairman and was ready to make a mark on New Albany High School. As a chairman, I was responsible for making the school become involved in interscholastic competitions with clubs similar to ours. By performing in these interscholastic competitions, the students of our school would gain an application to the breadth of knowledge learned in classes to the practical field of medicine. In our first year, we were

With that been said, through the semester my experience and my views of people who are different form me has changed. I am not saying that I’ve changed, but, my learning about other people gave me different look of who they think of me. Personally I’ve always treated everyone the same, and this course is about fairness and justice for everyone. As the course progressed I engaged more eager to learn about those issues more from different prospective, especially from the white students that don’t have the same experience as the others like black or Hispanic. Furthermore, there were things that were ambiguous to me that I learned mostly, were social and economic issues, for example the divide that exist between the poor and rich, also racism and its roots and the connection between capitalism and racism was unknown to me.

My understanding of the lifestyles and contributions of ethnic and diverse groups has increased significantly by participating in this experience. In this clinical the main ethnic diverse group in the classroom were African Americans students. I learned that a students’ diversity influences their lifestyles (i.e. obesity in African Americans is prevalent because food is an important part of their

Before school started this year, I participated in the Common Ground program as a ground crew member. During the weeklong event, I had the opportunity to not only introduce the incoming freshmen to Fremont, but to each other as well. Each day consisted of various activities, led by myself, the other ground crew members, and the adult facilitators of the program. The activities included multiple small group discussions that were focused on breaking down stereotypes in order to make the Fremont community more tolerant, as well as games meant to allow for the freshmen to discuss issues such as gender, friendship, and ethnicity. My tasks varied from introducing students with common interests to each other to make sure everyone had someone to sit

Ms. Dixon shares the vision of ODA and believes BSOM should “strive to be a global leader in diversity research, data driven outcomes, education and programming, to serve and inspire positive change in academic medicine and beyond” (ECU, 2017c, para. 2). One way Ms. Dixon intends to accomplish this is through outreach initiatives. Specifically, one program ODA currently employs is connecting with Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students (MAPS) programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. These programs are subdivisions of the Student National Medical Association (mentioned previously). The goal of connecting with MAPS is to assist in recruiting minority students to BSOM who have an interest in pursuing a medical degree.

Coming from a mid-size predominately white institution in a small town in Indiana, I have been fortunate to gain some great experience working with students of all kinds. During my second year at Indiana State University, I found my passion to work heavily with college students; so I immediately got involved with the Office of Residential Life at ISU. It challenged, created room for growth as a professional, and the ability to work students that are different from myself. One thing that challenged me the most is the different perspectives that my first year students brought to my floor community, although it may have not been pleasant one-hundred percent of the time, but it open of doors to build healthy, long-lasting relationship, not only

show that the level of attention to academics for those who are members as opposed to those who

I believe that the perspective I have to offer this medical school is unique. From my Black uncles to my Arab aunts, I feel lucky to be able to call so many cultures my own. Furthermore, my experiences during college have been vital to my understanding of diversity. Veterans, the LGBTQ community, the disabled, and variation across the spectrum of political opinion or in body shape are but a sample of the diversity that I have witnessed. Diversity goes beyond race or religion and this has been made evident to me during my undergraduate career. Thus, I wish to bring my culturally competent outlook to the student body and look forward to gaining from the viewpoints of my peers as well. Exposure to a wide breadth of the human experience has helped

I applied for medical school during the last application cycle, and was fortunate to receive an interview invite from Meharry on March, 23rd, 2016. Everything about the interview day was phenomenal. Throughout the day, I learned a lot about Meharry and witnessed how passionate and sincere it is concerning its mission and vision. Both of my interviews felt more like a conversation which spoke volumes about how friendly Meharry and its staff are. I enjoyed how enthusiastically interested Dr. Holt was in my research project, and interview with Dr. Austin was so pleasant that that I felt like I made a new friend by interview’s end. In addition, my fellow interviewees were awesome and very welcoming as if we were already classmates. This reflects the type of personalities and characteristics that Meharry values in its student physicians. A student physician body that thrives on supporting each other, thus creating an environment that promotes and merits success. I became ardent about Meharry when I learned of the plethora of service opportunities that Meharry offers to the underserved. For example, the 12 South Clinic is a testament to Meharry staying true to its mission. In fact, I contacted the 12 South Clinic to see if I can volunteer, but I learned that volunteers are strictly Meharry students. The Treatment Access Project II program is also another program that I learned about

I attended the National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF): Careers in Medicine: Washington, DC July 25-August 2nd 2014 the University of Maryland. I was fourteen years old attending the program. I did not know anyone at the program and had no friends that attended from Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville North Carolina. I was in a completely different environment. Therefore, I started communicating with the other students and started exchanging ideas. Immediately, I felt relaxed and engaged in the activities. I was proud of how the situation was handled, made a lot of friends, in the United States, and in the world.

Recently I did the volunteer service in the homeless shelters that Located in St. Francis House. I met many people there from both genders. From my conversation with them, I understood that they don't have any place to live just those shelters. No food or bed just the street. They are suffering from Hot weather in the summer and cold during the winter because those shelters are not enough for all of them, so some nights they sleep in the street.

What concepts, principles, or ideas that you have learned, do you think you will remember the most after you leave this class?

Reflection is considered as a vital element of professional practice as it precedes to insight and then subsequent change in practice. The hypothesis of reflection is not new as it can be tracked as far back in the 5th century by the influential Greek philosopher, Socrates and to the 1930s primarily focusing on John Dewey’s work. Dewey is one of the founders of learning from experience. He theorised reflection as ‘active, persistent and careful consideration’ (Dewey, 1933) initiated by a specific situation which was opposing, perplexing or uncertain. One of its most common use today is coming up with a thought, an idea, or opinion made or an observation made as a result of concentration, suggesting in essence a way of thinking in which one looks back and meditate upon (Agnes, 2004).