Advocacy and Community Outreach

Dementia Understanding Opportunity (DUO) is one of the many ways that WashU Med encourages its students to be engaged with the community in such a way that will improve your ability to be a genuinely empathetic physician. The DUO program pairs medical students with a mentor in the community who has been diagnosed with a memory-degenerating condition. Over the course of a year, the medical student and mentor meet monthly (i.e., getting coffee, going for walks, visiting the zoo, etc.), fostering a longitudinal relationship that enables the student to understand the patient perspective of what life looks like living with dementia. It’s a really wonderful program that I very much enjoy and highly recommend!

As an English major in college, I spent a lot of time writing and editing. Coming to WashU Med, I knew I wanted an outlet to use these skills. Serving as an editor-in-chief of the Dis-O Guide has been a perfect opportunity for more writing, reading, and copy-editing. Other perks include getting the scoop on the interesting perspectives and activities of your classmates and giving back to the same resource that hopefully helped you in making your medical school decision. Making that decision is huge, and by helping with the Dis-O Guide, you really are helping future students like yourself. Join us next year as a section editor or an editor-in-chief!

Giving a Boost (GAB) is a volunteer organization established to support Eastern Missouri pre-medical students, especially those from identities that are underrepresented in medicine and may lack access to mentors in medicine. By offering longitudinal guidance on medical school applications free of cost, we aim to alleviate some of the financial burden, reduce disparities in the application process, increase diversity in the workforce of future physicians, and foster a supportive community for pre-meds. While we cannot assure that our services will guarantee acceptance into medical school, we aim to reduce the stress of applications for our mentees, and we volunteer our time to provide the guidance that we, ourselves, wished for during this journey. We provide primary application, secondary application, and interview mentorship. GAB started at the University of Pittsburgh and has over 30 chapters at medical schools across the country.

The Health Care Collaborative (HCC) fosters health science education and career exploration for underrepresented high school students. Once a month, HCC members visit a local high school to facilitate activities like working through case studies and teaching surgical knot tying. Most recently, HCC members taught students about the cardiovascular system and guided them through a pig heart dissection. As someone who enjoys mentoring and interacting with students, this group is a great way to immerse yourself in the St. Louis community while exploring the field of medicine.

LGBTQmed is an affinity group dedicated to fostering community for LGBTQIA+ identifying students, promoting education on queer health and history, and engaging in meaningful mentorship and community opportunities within and outside of WashU Med. We also work closely with OUTmed, an umbrella organization unifying queer faculty, health professionals, and staff across WashU Med/Barnes-Jewish Hospital/St. Louis Children’s Hospital, to connect students with further social, educational, and mentorship opportunities. Some of our initiatives include participating in Tower Grove Pride, mentoring queer pre-health students, hosting lunch talks about queer health topics, and connecting with queer applicants in the admissions process. Being involved is a great way to shape how LGBTQIA+ health and community fit into your medical school journey, and we look forward to welcoming you soon!

LouHealth is an interprofessional student-run health advocacy coalition formed in response to COVID-19. LouHealth’s model is to partner with local community organizations that are already doing important and impactful health advocacy work in the region. We then serve as liaisons who connect our student advocate base with opportunities to advocate for and aid the organizations and cooperatively bring the organizations to teach students about their niches in medicine. Our advocacy ranges from straightforward activities like letter writing and petitions to complex and creative projects like designing and implementing training for providers treating survivors of intimate partner violence. We are comprised of Saint Louis University and WashU Med students (including MD, OT, Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences, PT, etc.) and are divided into three teams: Health Access & Equity, Incarceration Justice Reform, and IPV Survivor Advocacy.

I’ve enjoyed getting involved with Medical Students for Choice (MSFC) because it provides a space to understand complex issues in reproductive healthcare, especially in a conservative state like Missouri. MSFC has connected me with amazing, advocative OB/GYNs at WashU Medicine and has informed me about pressing reproductive health issues in St. Louis. For instance, after connecting with MSFC professors, I co-wrote an op-ed advocating to make abortion legal in Missouri (an amendment which passed!). MSFC also has opportunities to help in other areas in women’s health, such as an annual menstrual product drive. I’m excited to keep working with MSFC and establish a strong commitment to women’s health at WashU Med.

NICU Cuddlers go into St. Louis Children’s Hospital once a week to hold and soothe newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I just started cuddling, and it’s already one of my favorite volunteer opportunities I have taken part in. For one, the patients, families, and nurses really appreciate our work. Soothing newborns helps build a sense of security in a stressful environment, which is especially important for babies whose families are unable to visit frequently due to distance or other circumstances. In the busyness of medical school, cuddling also offers me a space for quiet, gratitude, and reflection that centers why I am here doing what I am doing. One thing to note: cuddling is super popular, so get in your application as soon as it opens.

Pediatric Life Savers is a student-run service group that collaborates with St. Louis Children’s Hospital to teach infant CPR classes to caregivers with babies in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We have the unique privilege of providing families with a space to meet others navigating similar situations and equip them with skills to feel more secure and confident when they bring their children home. This is a great opportunity for you to engage in consistent community outreach, practice your teaching skills, and learn more about the experiences of the caregivers we support.

The Science and Healthcare Abilities Coalition (SHAC) is WashU Medicine’s disability affinity and advocacy group. SHAC is a local chapter of the larger national group Medical Students with Disability and Chronic Illness (MSDCI) and works to bring together disabled students and allies across all the health sciences programs at WashU Med. We host community-building events, have biweekly meetings for student support, and work on incorporating curricular content regarding caring for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities into the Gateway Curriculum. We are proud to be one of only a handful of medical schools in the country with an MSDCI chapter, and we strive to be leaders in creating more inclusive educational and professional environments where all students can thrive. We can’t wait to meet you!

Student National Medical Association (SNMA) was first established back in 1964 by medical students from Howard University College of Medicine and Meharry Medical College, two well-known historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). SNMA has since become a national organization with nearly 200 local chapters committed to the success and wellbeing of underrepresented and minoritized medical students. Here at WashU Med, SNMA organizes events to educate all medical students on many of the structural barriers within St. Louis and beyond that impede minority communities from accessing care, partners with community organizations to extend our helping hands into the community, and hosts fun social outings to foster community building amongst minority medical students. With each event, we aim to uphold the pillars of our national chapter: improve healthcare delivery to medically underserved communities, increase the number of of culturally competent physicians, and promote student wellbeing/community — and of course have fun throughout!

Students for Sight advocates for individuals with visual impairments within the St. Louis community by partnering with two local organizations: Delta Gamma Center and Achilles International (St. Louis Chapter). The Delta Gamma Center works with children from infancy to 18 years old and provides vision screenings, education, and therapy services for blind children and family members and fun outings like adaptive tandem biking and rock climbing for older kids. Achilles is an adaptive run/walk/bike club that provides sighted guide walkers, runners, and tandem bike captains for adults with visual impairments to foster community and support physical activity. I have loved volunteering with Achilles for the past 1.5 years and was so happy to learn that WashU Med has a club connecting students to these great organizations!

I really enjoy the collaborative spirit & educational legacy of Sun Protection Outreach Teaching by Students (SPOTS). It’s rewarding to work with my WashU Medicine and Saint Louis University medicine peers toward a shared goal of educating middle schoolers on sun protection and preventing skin cancer. I’ve loved leading workshops at the local middle school, fostering relationships with the St. Louis community, and providing impactful dermatology education. For incoming students who have experience teaching in school or are interested in dermatology, SPOTS is an amazing, well-established club with ongoing opportunities to work in our community.

WUSM Sustainability is a student organization aiming to educate and involve students in issues that impact the environment. Previous projects have included collaborating with sustainability efforts in various local hospitals, such as limiting emissions from anesthesia, as well as the addition of the impact of climate change in medicine as a part of the curriculum. Most recently we have gotten involved in the community at the One Health Fair in partnership with the Saint Louis Zoo, focusing on educating the public on issues regarding environmental sustainability. Moving forward we hope to continue to educate and move sustainability efforts forward.