Why Immersive Summer Programs Are Important for Healthcare Students

Summer programs through the University of Arizona Health Sciences Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Focus on fostering diversity in the health professions and setting students up for success in graduate and medical school. Two students, Emma Gallardo Martinez and Tawanda Zvavamwe, shared a glimpse of their 10-week experiences.

Emma Gallardo Martinez is a public health major at the Arizona Mail and the End Zuckerman College of Public Health.

I am studying public health because I want to go into the medical field to work with people who are often not included in statistics to close the gaps in health inequities. Once I finish medical school, I aim to work in the area where I grew up in South Phoenix and help the underserved population without access to good health care.

of Frontier Studies (FRONTERA) The program fits many great experiences into one summer, such as volunteering in the community, virtual clinical shadowing, and writing workshops. Sometimes it’s hard to do everything you want to when you’re on the pre-health track, and working in the lab was fantastic. The faculty and researchers are happy to have us there, and I hope to continue working in this lab.

I am working. Dr. Paloma BeamerLaboratory on a research project Focuses on reducing exposure to volatile chemicals in small businesses.Such as hair salons and car dealerships. A major focus of the research project was testing the air quality in beauty and automobile shops and talking to people.

People in the lab speak Spanish, because we focus on Hispanic- and minority-owned businesses. They need to know that their work won’t hurt them. Often, we don’t know how toxic some products are until we start working with them. We provide personalized results for each hairdresser and mechanic, so understand what toxic chemicals they contain and consider replacing them with alternatives. With this research project, there is the satisfaction of impacting someone’s life.

The trip to help clean up in the Winchester Heights community near Wilcox, Arizona was brilliant. I learned more about how health inequity exists in a society, like how the uninsured outnumber the insured. Many people in that community could not go to the nearest hospital.

That experience of talking to people and learning about health care issues in their area is why I wanted to do FRONTERA in the first place.

Tawanda Zvavamwe is a physiology major with a minor in emergency medicine and biochemistry at the University of Arizona.

I intend to attend medical school to pursue a specialty in emergency medicine, trauma surgery, or transplant surgery. These specialties provided the opportunity to interact with individuals and perform technically challenging procedures, which is what I originally sought in the medical field.

When I’m not in the lab or classroom, I volunteer as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) at the University of Arizona Emergency Medical Services. As a volunteer, I see patients in the field before they arrive at the hospital. Every future doctor should have the experience of helping a person in critical condition to improve in the short time they are with them.

of Border Latino and American Indian Summer Exposure to Research (BLAISER) It’s blessed to hide the program. At first, I focused on research, but this program has other benefits. For a pre-med student like me, it was a comprehensive experience, from MCAT prep and virtual clinical shadowing to program coordinator Jensen Garcia and program director Dr. Alison Huff.

For my research project, I am working on Dr. Brian McKayA lab where we study how to cure age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in humans. My role will be explored. How and why clinically proven medicine helps treat the disease. I think we take our vision for granted, and I’m lucky enough to work on research that has a direct impact on people.

Our trip to Wilcox, Arizona, for a community cleanup event left a lasting impression on me—especially as the young girl translated between Spanish and English as we worked as a team to clean up neighborhood streets.

I grew up in Zimbabwe, and seeing her reminded me of myself. I was that bilingual kid helping my parents move to a new country. But most of all, I felt like I was back in Zimbabwe, even though I was living in another country with a foreign language. I have come across a community that struggles with lack of resources but is rich in community spirit and love for their fellow men and women.

As I reflect on my goal of curing age-related macular degeneration and reinventing treatment, experiences like the one we had at Wilcox remind me that small actions like picking up trash and giving voice to a small community are just as important. .