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"Dishing Up" School Supplies in Chicago

By Krys Foster, M2

Kids at the Chicago Youth Program show their appreciation for the school supplies they received from Feinberg.

In the spring of 2010, Feinberg's chapters of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA), and Queers & Allies (Q&A) hosted an Ice Cream Social for the Northwestern Chicago campus.

Though these organizations are typically known for their focus on the healthcare of minority groups, part of their mission is to emphasize that true health encompasses a wide variety of factors. The Ice Cream Social was designed to stress the significance that a proper education plays in developing a healthy lifestyle. The goal of the event was to raise funds to purchase school supplies for local children in need.

Medical students set up shop in the Lurie Atrium where they welcomed all passers-by with their decked out tables and smiling faces. They dished out bowls of ice cream and let the toppings fly in return for donations. A total of $400 was raised in just two afternoons.

When choosing the recipient of these donations, the students looked to the Chicago Youth Program (CYP) as an obvious choice. CYP is a non-profit organization which seeks to improve the life opportunities and health of at-risk youth who reside in Chicago's Cabrini Green, Uptown, and Washington Park neighborhoods. In addition to free health care services, this program provides a tutoring program for children grades K-12, as well as a safe environment for organized recreational activities.

At the end of the recent summer session, Feinberg students Krys Foster, Brittne Halford and Anita Petit-Homme visited CYP to interact with the children. They handed out bags filled with age-appropriate school supplies and taught a lesson on the importance of making smart food choices. This one event provided a springboard to not only provide educational materials for children in need but also to allow the children to interact with positive and socially relevant role models.

The proceeds from the Ice Cream Social will also be used to fund scholarships for high school and college participants of the organizations' annual Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP).

Though they realize their efforts may only have limited impacts on the general health of these populations, SNMA, LMSA, and Q&A were extremely pleased with the success of this event. They hope to continue with similar fundraising to not only provide a social outlet for the greater Northwestern community, but also to make a difference in the health — and education — of local communities, one person at a time.

Society Olympics Help Students Connect

By Ria Desai, M2

Students from the Thompson Society built a pyramid as part of the Society Olympics. As the winners of the day’s events, Thompson walked away with the prized Society Cup.

The societies of Feinberg School of Medicine hosted the second annual Society Olympics on September 25. The event began at 1pm and by 1:15 we had four shivering (it was cold and windy Chicago weather at its best!) teams of medical students decked out in sports gear and society T-shirts. Luckily, Timi Wusu, a Thompson Society Chair, decided to bring the "heat" and revved up his group with their Society chant ("huah!") and dance. The other societies quickly followed suit and the Olympics officially began.

We started the day with a series of kickball and ultimate Frisbee games. Thompson Society dominated the ultimate Frisbee competition, while Lawless and Ricketts each won one of the kickball games. The ultimate Frisbee challenges proved to one of the favorite events of the day. (You can only imagine the sweat-inducing competition on the field!)

Next, we moved on to relay races, including the tried-and-true bear crawl, the crab walk, three-legged race, walking with an egg-on a spoon-in your mouth, etc. The games were incorporated into two huge relays and each team had five minutes to strategize.

It was hilarious to see normally straight-laced medical students get creative with the rules, and James Kim, one of the Society Chairs, kept sprinting up and down the fields keeping track of the offenders. Lawless dominated during the first set of relays, while Thompson took first place in the next set. The relays proved to be a great team-building exercise as many of the events involved working in pairs. It was great to walk down the field and see an M1 practicing the wheelbarrow with an M3 (and they had just met that day), or even Dr. Baumgartner, a Thompson Mentor, tied at the leg with an M2 from her college!

After relays, the day ended with a "Society Pyramid" contest. The task was to build the tallest, most creative, and most Society-spirited "human pyramid" you could — oh yeah, and hold it up for at least ten seconds! The Societies really did an amazing job building intricate structures (if the mentor's anxious faces were anything to go by!). Cooper Society, led by their Society Chair, Amy Patel, came up with a cheer in addition to their pyramid and tied for first place with Thompson.

Finally, Dr. Reifler, the head of Society Task Force, announced the final scores and the winner…Thompson Society! As people began to disperse — it became clear that the day was a success — because walking away with or without the Society Cup didn't seem to make a difference in the mood of the day. Fostering this type of fun between mentors and students is exactly what makes Society Olympics such a positive experience.

The Olympics were never conceived to identify "the best" society. Instead, as cliché as it sounds, they're about bringing people together. This is so important in medical school because, unlike college, the curriculum doesn't enable inter-class interaction. Therefore, these connections are essential. If Society Olympics demonstrate anything, it's that medical students understand their importance and are determined to have fun along the way!

There Ours Shall Go Singing: Anatomy Closing Ceremony

By Nicki Araneta, M2
(adapted from "The Beat")

M1 students from last year's Anatomy Lab listened as a teaching assistant answered questions about structures during dissection.

M1 students participate in the Anatomy Closing Ceremony to pay their respects to the selfless individuals who donated their bodies to the Anatomical Gift Association to further medical education. This event was held at the end of the 2009-10 school year. All quoted students are currently in their second year of medical school at Feinberg.

I have few memories that remain from my medical school interviews. But one that is still distinct belongs to a visit with a medical school in Ohio. I was being shown the campus with the other interviewees. We were marching around in penguin suits when someone posed the classic question, "What about your school are you most proud of?" Our tour guide pondered for a few seconds, and to my surprise he did not talk about the curriculum, problem-based learning, or the free clinics. He began to talk about the Anatomy Closing Ceremony that his class had recently organized to honor the people who donated their bodies so he and his classmates could learn anatomy.

At Feinberg the ceremony has a long history, and Dr. Larry Cochard has been around for all of it. The event was originally the idea of a student in 1996, and since then Dr. Cochard and Dr. Douglas Reifler have participated in the planning. "All the ceremony events are similar to that first year: a flower ceremony, readings of essays written by students, musical performances," explains Dr. Cochard. "But how engaged the students are always impresses me. They take the initiative, they do everything; I just sit back and give some input."

One thing was very different, however, for the Class of 2013's ceremony in April. This year, for the first time, the families of our donors were invited. Patrick Tyler was a student on the planning committee and he pushed hard to invite family members. "The ceremony is about reflecting on the gravity of what our donors have done for us. It is also about saying thank you, and the people left to thank are their family members." Patrick believes that sharing this experience with the family members in attendance will allow students to reflect more deeply.

Many students shared Patrick's sentiment. Clark Van Den Berghe had taken an anatomy class before starting medical school, but without dissections. He says that the dissection component made Anatomy lab a more complete learning experience. "I've learned things this way that I couldn't have learned other ways. I am very grateful that people are willing to give their bodies."

Anatomy is an intense experience, and medical students spend much of their first year in the lab. On the first day everyone is nervous. Students are shy and careful about making the first incision, though this quickly gives way to studious determination. Before long the cadavers are no longer recognizable as we cut and tear to find structures. In anatomy lab I detached myself. I forgot that my cadaver had been a real person. I had to. Once anatomy was over, though, I signed up to help organize the closing ceremony. I wanted to remember.

Other students reflected on the group learning experience of the anatomy lab. Nikhil Bassi and his anatomy group had to deal with particularly tough dissections. Their donor had been a large person, which often made finding structures on his body difficult. "Sharing in the experience and struggling together strengthened our bonds. Even now when I go down into the lab, I have all these memories from different anatomy units. I'm a little sentimental going down there now."

Medical students are very concerned with studying, but sometimes it's easy to forget what we're studying for. Our goal is to help people, but we can forget that there are people who help us along the way. Atsuko Yamahiro performed the song "Hands" by Jewel at the ceremony. In reflecting on her song choice Atsuko said, "There's a lyric in the song that says, 'Where there's a man who has no voice, there ours shall go singing.' Our donors are helping us. Right now we're the people who can't sing. In a way they're singing to us, so that we can sing to others in the future."

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