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Student Activities & Clubs Community Outreach

Many of our student organizations serve the local and global community. These organizations help provide health care and education to underserved populations in Philadelphia and other regions throughout the world.

The student organizations listed below are examples of clubs hosted by students and are often but not consistently recognized by the Office of Student Affairs and SGA. For a current list of currently recognized student organizations, please visit http://ducomsga.org/student-group-directory/.

Beating Hearts

The mission of the College of Medicine Beating Hearts is to educate middle school students regarding the basic anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system, to teach them the importance of maintaining heart health, and to equip them with the basic knowledge and skills to perform Hands-Only CPR and AED use. Beating Hearts will teach these life-saving skills to middle-school students through a series of three heart-health education sessions. The first two sessions will take place on the middle school campuses, while the final session will take place at the College of Medicine and include a tour of the SIM center and anatomy labs.

The success of this program relies upon dual partnership between the administrators, teachers and students of nearby middle schools and DUCOM medical students. This program will partner with four nearby middle schools and offer the program to all students in the 7th or 8th grade. This new student organization is unique from existing organizations in both its scope and mission. Beating Hearts will open doors for medical students to teach important CPR skills to local students and generate true community engagement in the process.

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Boys and Girls Club

Boys and Girls Club is a national organization of local chapters that provide after school programs for young, often disadvantaged, students. Students from the College of Medicine visit the local chapter in Germantown once a week to help students with their homework and run fun activities for them to enjoy. We also organize events where we bring the students to the College of Medicine to let them see the SIM center and the gross lab.

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Classroom2Careers (C2C)

Classroom2Careers (C2C) is a local organization based in the Philadelphia High School for Girls. The mission of C2C is to encourage high school students to explore their interests in STEM careers by bringing together Philadelphia public high schools, colleges, and businesses to create a sustainable and scalable ecosystem that provides high school students with access to: information, opportunities, and networks of support that are key to life-long success.

The College of Medicine C2C focuses on assisting C2C with expanding their outreach in the medical field. We aim to link high schoolers interested in medicine with medical students, organize events to ignite a passion for medicine, showcase what it means to be a medical student, educate students about the path to becoming a physician, and finally connect students with experiences in the medical field, such as volunteering, shadowing, and research. Our activities include hands-only CPR training, teaching how to interview patients and conduct a physical exam, running simulations at the sim center, touring the cadaver lab, and facilitating discussions on ethical issues physicians currently face.

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Drexel Mentoring and Pipeline Program

The Drexel Mentoring and Pipeline Program works with high school students after school at George Washington Carver High School. In addition to doing science and medicine related activities we also educate the students about professional life after high school, preparing for college, and other important career information. Activities include learning how to do physical exams, planning fundraisers and touring the gross lab.

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Food Insecurity

The purpose of the College of Medicine's Food Insecurity Interest Group is to both promote partnership with our community and work to raise awareness and eliminate biases regarding people who are food insecure within our community. There is undoubtedly a large amount of food insecurity in Philadelphia, let alone in our community surrounding the College of Medicine in East Falls and Germantown. As a result, by partnering with soup kitchens and food cupboards, this interest group hopes to organize groups of students to directly immerse themselves in the community by volunteering at these locations and forming connections with the people who use these services. Students who volunteer would then be able to participate in debrief sessions to discuss their experiences.

Additionally, we aim to hold educational sessions with guest speakers and food drives to promote awareness regarding both the multiple ways that people can become food insecure and little things that the DUCOM community can do to help our larger community. Our goal is to directly interact with community members who are experiencing food insecurity while providing ways to learn more about the issue and doing so will allow students to both give back to the community and better understand people who are food insecure.

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Healing Arts

The mission of the Healing Arts club is to provide a creative outlet for medical students, forge relationships through community arts projects, and recognize the healing power of the arts for our patients. By utilizing different art-based therapy techniques and activities, our goal is to promote health, relaxation, and general wellbeing to the people of Philadelphia, particularly to those most in need, while also providing an opportunity for medical students to access their creativity.

While there are art-based clubs in existence at College of Medicine already, Healing Arts is unique in that it combines art activities with community outreach and volunteering. Our faculty advisor, Professor Denise Wolf, is very well connected to the therapeutic arts community in the greater Philadelphia area and is enthusiastic in supporting our goals and broadening our impacts within the community. Some activities we plan on pursuing include working with Ronald McDonald house to do crafts with the children, working with Angels in Motion to create encouragement cards for those struggling with addiction, and a partnership to support victims of sex trafficking in Philadelphia. Through our club, we hope to bring peace and healing to our community through the transformative power of the creative arts.

 healingartsducom@gmail.com

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Health Career Academy

The Health Career Academy (HCA) is a three-year high school enrichment program which currently starts in the 10th grade and progresses through the 12th grade. One of the main missions of the program is to support disadvantaged high school students to graduate from high school and pursue careers in health care. Medical Students teach modules to high schools students on topics ranging from gun shot wound and trauma to nutrition and pregnancy.

 Ducomhealthcareeracademy@gmail.com

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Health Outreach Project (HOP) Clinics

The mission of the Drexel University College of Medicine Health Outreach Project is to work in partnership with the community to provide caring, nonjundegmental, and interdisciplinary health services to individuals who have limited or no access to care. The HOP clinics strive to create a respectful environment in which patients, students, community members, and health professionals work and learn together to address community health issues in innovative ways. HOP programs provide oppurtunities to address obstacles to health care, including language and cultural barriers, hours of operation, lack of insurance, homelessness, and drug and alcohol addiction.

The HOP clinics aim to prepare medical students to be excellent physicians while providing medical care to underserved populations in the Philadelphia area. Through our efforts at the Eliza Shirley, Salvation Army, StreetSide, and Arc clinics, as well as pop-up community events, underserved Philadelphia residents receive free, high quality medical care and other services from 1st and 2nd year medical students.

Learn more about Health Outreach Project (HOP) Clinics.

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Homeless Health Alliance

Our organization strives to engage both medical students and the homeless community at the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission through educational discussions that promote mutual understanding between future physicians and the broader underserved homeless population in Philadelphia. Through this organization, medical students will have the opportunity to form long-lasting and enriching relationships with the homeless individuals, while learning more about the various systemic barriers that they face in society, inside and outside of healthcare. Additionally, through this organization, homeless individuals will have the opportunity to increase their knowledge regarding various prevalent health topics while being empowered to take initiative to promote wellbeing in their healthcare and lifestyle.

Overall, this organization will facilitate important connections between College of Medicine students and the populations they serve in the Philadelphia area, ultimately fostering increased mutual understanding and bridging the gaps between future physicians and prospective patients.

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Jump Into Reading

Jump Into Reading is an educational outreach program run by Drexel med students who are dedicated to facilitating Philadelphia's youth to develop a passion for literature and academia. Each Wednesday, Jump Into Reading volunteers aim to raise awareness about the fun and benefit of reading to the children of Eliza Shirley residents. They share laughs and read a variety of books with all children age 3 and up.

 jumpintoreading@gmail.com

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Kelly Readers

Aiding the kindergarten students of John B. Kelly elementary with literacy.

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LabakCare Student Organization

The purpose of the LabakCare Student Organization is to improve the health of underserved communities by providing no cost preventive health care services in Philadelphia and local surrounding areas, in addition to providing international clinics in Haiti and Nigeria. LabakCare offers health screenings, flu shots, and referrals to uninsured individuals through partnerships with local nonprofits, shelters, and religious institutions. This organization is a unique opportunity to work with fellow medical students in organizing fundraising efforts for this non-profit organization while also having the opportunity to work together with physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care workers and students in order to screen patients and help them understand their diagnosed health issues.

Students who are passionate about sharing in LabakCare's mission of serving medically underserved communities, working to decrease the incidence of preventable chronic diseases, working with interdisciplinary aspects of healthcare, and organizing efforts to expand the reach of LabakCare's service to underserved communities are encouraged to join.

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Medical Interpreters

College of Medicine Medical Interpreters hopes to create a database of students willing to serve as medical interpreters in the community, as well as to provide these students with the appropriate training to do so.

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Mothers & Baby Dragons

The goal of Drexel University College of Medicine's Mothers & Baby Dragons (MBD) is to promote healthy pregnancies through one-on-one partnerships between low-income pregnant women and medical student companions who can help facilitate a healthy prenatal journey. College of Medicine medical students provide support to expecting mothers by accompanying them to prenatal appointments at the Women's Care Center in Philadelphia, and regularly communicating with the mothers to discuss their unique challenges and successes throughout the pregnancy and during the baby's first few months.

We believe that every woman deserves easily accessible resources to deal with the realities and challenges of pregnancy, and extra guidance and a listening ear can give these women the help they need to start a happy and healthy family. Our goal for medical students involved in this effort is to develop empathy, skills for effective communication with patients, and the drive to go above and beyond for patient care. We hope to develop champions for comprehensive and high quality care for underserved patients through advocacy, good listening, effective teaching, and providing inspiration and hope for patients to achieve their goals for health.

 drexelmbdragons@gmail.com

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Move It With Mommy and Me

'Move It With Mommy and Me' runs at the Eliza Shirley HOP clinic. The hour long sessions focus on physical activity for mothers and their children. Student volunteers guide exercises and offer nutritious snacks for community members.

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Naloxone Outreach Program

The Naloxone Outreach Program is a HOP Health Project that seeks to increase access and awareness to naloxone, a lifesaving drug that reverses opioid overdoses, as well as increase awareness and destigmatize issues surrounding the current opioid epidemic in Philadelphia and all across the country. The Naloxone Outreach Program focuses its community outreach in Kensington and other Philadelphia neighborhoods through handing out Naloxone kits and providing free trainings for community members to use the lifesaving drug. Additionally, the Naloxone Outreach Program is the center of an Interschool Collaborative that seeks to educate healthcare professionals (both current and in-training) about the opioid crisis and naloxone, through educational trainings and community outreach both nationally and in Philadelphia. The Naloxone Outreach Program also seeks to increase advocacy efforts through public policy work, collaborating with other agencies and organizations fighting the opioid crisis, and more.

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Pediatric AIDS Benefit

The Pediatric AIDS Benefit Concert is an annual gathering of Drexel University College of Medicine's most musically talented students and faculty with the goal of raising money to benefit patients of the Dorothy Mann Center for Pediatric and Adolescent HIV at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. St. Christopher's Hospital is a pediatric teaching facility in North Philadelphia for the College of Medicine. The funds raised through PABC help to provide families affected by adolescent HIV with emergency funds for housing, utilities, food, and rent, and helps to offset other expenses such as college application fees and supplies for summer camp. To date, PABC has raised over $520,000 to benefit children at St. Christopher's Hospital.

Learn more about the Pediatric AIDS Benefit Concert.

 drexelmedPABCgmail.com

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Philadelphia Human Rights Clinic

The Philadelphia Human Rights Clinic (PHRC) is a collaboration between UPenn, Jefferson, and Drexel schools of medicine. The clinic functions primarily to coordinate medical evaluations for asylum seekers. Physician volunteers write an affidavit based on this evaluation, which serves as powerful evidence in immigration court. Medical student volunteers serve as scribes during the evaluations and write the first draft of the affidavit. We also host a monthly speaker series featuring doctors and community leaders who work with the refugee population.

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Physicians for Human Rights

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We use our investigations and expertise to advocate for the prevention of individual or small scale acts of violence from becoming mass atrocities; protection of internationally-guaranteed rights of individuals and civilian populations; and prosecution of those who violate human rights. PHR mobilizes health professionals to advance health, dignity, and justice, and promote the right to health for all. Harnessing the specialized skills, rigor, and passion of doctors, nurses, public health specialists and scientists, PHR investigates human rights abuses and works to stop them.

The PHR National Student Program (NSP) is a coalition of student-run chapters that engage in education, advocacy, and fundraising events within their individual schools and regions to support the mission of PHR and its four primary initiatives: mass atrocities, torture, sexual-based violence, and persecution of health care workers. Mission of the NSP: To create a community of well-informed leaders in the medical field equipped with the skills to prevent, identify, and end human rights violations around the world through careers guided by a human rights framework.

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Prisoner Healthcare Initiative

The mission of the Prisoner Healthcare Initiative (PHI) at Drexel Univeristy College of Medicine is to facilitate student opportunities for health outreach and structured learning within regional prisons, jails and half-way houses. These opportunities will allow students to gain invaluable exposure to the sociopolitical and socioeconomic issues that underlie the immense health disparities faced by the presently (and previously) incarcerated. These opportunities will also provide an avenue for students to confront and overcome biases as they interact with many individuals who have been marginalized by society, and help students gain firsthand knowledge of the challenges and rewards of working with this underserved patient population.

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SAFE (Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic)

SAFE (Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic) is a national organization for U.S. physicians, nurses, and health care professionals dedicated to eliminating the American firearm violence epidemic through research, education, and evidence-based policy. It is an apolitical group, attempting to get more people in healthcare professions, and people around the country, to see gun violence for what it is, a public health crisis. The organization has three main goals:

  • Educate Caregivers - by creating trainings for current physicians and healthcare workers, as well as implementing firearm safety and gun violence information into medical school curricula
  • Fuel Research - we know the Dickey Amendment has blocked the CDC from funding firearm research; we hope to gain funding from other sources for such research
  • Support Evidence-Based Policy - you can find a list of the policies SAFE supports on their website (https://www.standsafe.org/supporting-evidencebacked-policy/)

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STAR: Students Against Racism

The purpose of this group is to unify students interested in fighting against racism and discrimination in the health care field. The main task of this group will be planning the annual Racism in Medicine Conference. Organized by the Philadelphia-area medical schools, this student-led conference aims to fight racism in medicine by joining students of various healthcare professions and engaging them in both captivating dialogue and strategic action planning. The College of Medicine will be hosting the 2018 Racism in Medicine Conference, and this group will serve as the primary point of contact for all conference communication. Outside of the conference, the group aims to increase awareness of racism and discrimination in healthcare through information sessions, panel discussions, and community outreach.

 
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