Georgetown University School of Medicine Executive Council

The first Student Government Meeting of the ‘22-‘23 AY will be held TONIGHT! The Executive Council leaders are excited to meet and interact with our GUSOM fam✨

As a reminder, this meeting is MANDATORY for student clubs. Please use the QR code to pre-register your appointed club representative for tonight’s meeting.

💙,
Your Executive Council

Please join us for our FIRST general body meeting of the school year! The meeting will be held virtually (via zoom) this Friday, September 2nd from 4:30-5:30pm! 

We will be welcoming our new members and going over important information about upcoming events, elections and plans for this academic year. See you then! ✨

Zoom Meeting ID: 97624894122
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Also, join us as we welcome our members back and kick off the long weekend with a rooftop social this Friday, Sept 2nd from 6-8pm! (After the general body meeting). 

Come out for rooftop fun, food, and to meet your fellow members here at GUSOM!! 

See you there!  😄

The Office of Student Affairs, The Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and LSAC invite you to the “We Messed Up” lecture series inaugural event featuring Dr. Kathryn Hart on Sept 8th from 6:30-7:30pm in Harvey Hall. “We Messed Up” is a new student-led initiative that invites physicians to share stories of setbacks, failures, and resilience when the stakes are more than just passing exams. Join us for our event on September 8th at 6:30pm.

RSVP: https://forms.gle/dSNnMfsg5JQpW7yB8

Buy your tickets now for the hottest event of the season (see link in our bio)!

The Golden Apple Awards & Gala is an annual GUSOM tradition to nominate and honor faculty, staff and students who have enhanced their medical education. This is a black tie optional awards ceremony & dance reception that will be hosted Friday April 8th at the Ga***rd National Hotel! Hope to see you there!

Ticket pricing:
$35 for Students $35
$75 for Guests, Faculty, and Staff

The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at GUSOM seeks students to join the Spaces & Places for Advocacy & Racial-Justice Knowledge (SPARK) Committee! If you are interested in joining our movement, whether through facilitating dialogues or engaging with our GUMC community, please fill out the SPARK application by this Friday on https://som.georgetown.edu/diversityequityandinclusion/spark/

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month – Faculty & Staff Spotlight:

Yumi Jarris, MD

How has your heritage shaped you into the person you are today?

A: I am a third generation Japanese American. My parents and relatives, American citizens, were forcibly removed from their homes in Seattle and imprisoned in internment camps, which were horse stalls in Idaho. This occurred in the relatively recent past during WWII. My mother was in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped. She lost a sister and walked through the city over blistered corpses looking for her sister -- and she never found her.My brothers and I were the only Asians in our elementary school. We were bullied for being "J**s". I dreaded going to school on Pearl Harbor Day. My blonde haired blue-eyed best friend asked me if I stood against the wall all day because my face was so flat.My parents wanted us to assimilate and we did not want to be seen as different even though you could easily pick us out. I asked my parents not to eat with chopsticks when my friends came over – a perfect example of internalized racism.My experience has made me more compassionate toward marginalized populations, and fueled my passion for population health to eliminate disparities and confront structural racism.

What does being an AAPI in medicine/higher education setting mean to you?

A: I am so proud to be a full professor in academic medicine. Asians are the second largest racial group among medical students, however, we are underrepresented in academic faculty positions, especially within senior faculty, much like females and other people of color.
If you could share one piece of advice with current and prospective AAPI medical students, what would that be?

A: Become a leader in medicine and show the community that we are not the silent minority. Find others with whom you can find solidarity, and speak up against bias or injustice when you see it. You will never regret it, but you will regret not doing it.

To say 2020 was hard is an understatement. As COVID-19 devastated our communities, the Georgetown experience was suddenly filled with many challenges. For many of us, it took its toll on us in many ways - academically, socially, or on a more personal level. We were testing our practice of Cura Personalis in ways we never expected.

But in the midst of this adversity, you all found ways to push through. Even though our classrooms changed from physical to virtual, we pushed forward together and still found ways to change our community and school for the better. Even though this year was far from ideal, thank you for allowing us to represent you during this year. More than ever, we look forward to closing this chapter of our new normal and reuniting in person in the fall!

Please continue to stay healthy and safe during these trying times. We are all in this together!

Sincerely,
Your ‘20-’21 Executive Council

OneGeorgetown Student Club Spotlight: Family Medicine Interest Group

How would you define your student organization?

A: A student-run organization that fosters the exploration of Family Medicine as a field and allows students throughout GUSOM to learn more about it as a career and develop clinical skills.

2) What's the most important or gratifying thing about being part of your student organization?

A: FMIG is incredibly supported Dr. Sarah Kureshi, our faculty lead, and the Department of Family Medicine and its other faculty. They really take an interest in our ideas, events and well being, and the opportunity to be mentored and form relationships with FM physicians and faculty has been the most gratifying part of being involved in FMIG.

3) What role do you think your student organization will play in the era of COVID-19?

A: We're hoping to be able to establish consistent outreach at one of our family med sites come the summer/fall to help with vaccinations, patient in take and other student permissible activities.

4) What advice do you have for current and prospective medical students?

Really figure out why you want to do medicine. What type of physician do you want to be? What type of impact do you want have? Etc. Remembering your why will help you through the highs and lows of this journey.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month - Student Spotlight:

Madhav Patel

Specialty of Interest: Orthopedic Surgery

What does being a AANHPI student mean to you?

A: It empowers me to provide culturally competent care - to partner with patients and attend to their cultural beliefs and perspectives, while embracing and learning about their differences to reduce biases and disparities. 

What advice do you have for current and prospective AANHPI medical students?

A: Live by a mission that serves others and get lost in the pursuit of it. Be ambitious about what you can do for those around you and be humble while you take action to accomplish that. Focus on self-awareness and growth, avoid comparing yourself to those around you. Stay close to your true friends and family. Most importantly - smile as much as possible everyday.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month – Faculty & Staff Spotlight:

Ann K. Jay, MD

How has your heritage shaped you into the person you are today?

A: My parents immigrated to the US in the 1960s, so I feel like the Korean culture I grew up in was from that generation. My parents were children in post-war South Korea so I think the trauma of that experience heavily influenced their parenting styles. I was raised in a very Korean household and lived in a very homogenous area, always being only a handful of Asian families in my schools. I grew up with the ideals that education was the most important asset; that grit and resilience and hard work trumps everything; that family loyalty is of supreme importance; that elders are to be respected and honored without exception; that taking short cuts in life only short changes you; don't sit on your laurels because you got the highest grade in the class because #2 is going to work harder to knock you off of that seat; and that humility is the most important attribute to have - except if your kid gets into Harvard.

I also learned that men were more important than women and that women played a subservient role to men; that women need to be quiet and not have opinions, especially if it is discordant with those of the men; that I needed to be perfect or else not show up at all.
I think there was a period of struggling to find my identity. But I am clear of that know. I am American. I am so American - I absolutely do not identify with Korean people who live in Korea. But I am also fully aware that I am an American who grew up and lives in an America with an Asian face and because of that, I am regarded by my ethnicity first before anything else.

What does being an AAPI in medicine/higher education setting mean to you?

A: To be honest, Koreans are not underrepresented in medicine at all. I also come from a family of physicians. I have always felt that I belonged in this space. If anything, there was the expectation in my family that we all needed to go to school/training beyond college. However, being an Asian woman in medicine and in radiology which is a heavily male dominated field, has had its challenges. I trained in a different era of medicine - when sexual harassment and microaggressions and macroaggressions against women and people of color were tolerated. Through these experiences, I have learned to have a voice. And so now, being an AAPI in medicine is different for me. I see it as my duty to make changes for trainees and students so that they do not have to go through what I have.
If you could share one piece of advice with current and prospective AAPI medical students, what would that be?

A: I learned through watching my parents that we needed to be quiet in front of Americans. I wish I had known that being super quiet during my clinical rotations did not serve me well at all. I wish I had known that I needed to get over the cultural fear that then had grown to be an internalized, personal fear of speaking in front of people. So practice, practice, practice speaking in group settings. 
And to reach out to mentors! I didn't know how to ask for help to navigate the medical education system. It's always better to have a game plan going in rather than having to do damage control.