Get engaged at IU School of Medicine!

There are so many opportunities to get involved at IU School of Medicine, and we are approaching our Spring Interview Day, which will be held on Saturday, May 2, via Zoom.

Joining a committee, serving on a coalition, or reaching out in our community helps strengthen your medical school experience. Graduating fourth-year student, Vanni Rodriguez, found incredible value in serving on Medical Student Council, “My involvement with MSC during medical school helped me appreciate the efforts of our administration and also learn what it takes to create a curriculum and advocate for students. These stood out during my residency interviews because programs were interested in my roles in medical education, and how I would transfer those skills to my role as a resident to advocate for my class. They were impressed with my involvement and dedication to medical education during my four years of medical school.”

Below are opportunities involving student engagement and leadership opportunities on campus ranging from student government to service groups.

Medical Student Council (MSC)

• Defined: The Medical Student Council (MSC) is a medical student leadership group. MSC governs the IU School of Medicine student body. Our voting body consists of MSC executive board, class officers and campus representatives. Under the MSC umbrella are the Medical Student Service Group (MSSG) and the Wellness Coalition.
• Executive Board Elections: Leadership positions on the MSC executive board open up every late November/early December. If you are interested in becoming involved in MSC, please join us at our General Body Meetings! Dates for meetings can be found here.
• Next GBM: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 6pm (EST). Meeting will be Zoom only and can be accessed here.
  
  

Student Committees

• Defined: IU School of Medicine has several committees that you can get involved in as a student! Each committee has a different goal and mission, and as a student you would get to either add a student perspective, like in the many curriculum-based committees, or be a part of student led initiatives at IU School of Medicine like the Spring Formal committee or the Student Space and Renovation Committee. There are three “umbrella” categories that a committee can fall under: Dean Appointed Committee; Medical Student Education Appointed Committee; Medical Student Council Appointed Committees. Go to our list of committees to see which ones you would be interested in. Make sure to pay attention to the “Members” of the committee on the website to know if you are eligible to apply.
• How to Apply: Almost all of the committees will interview interested students during Fall and Spring interview day (go to our list of committees to find out when each committee interviews). Application for Spring Interview day can be accessed here. You can apply to the committees you are eligible/interested for. Deadline for applications is Tuesday, April 28 at 11:59 pm.
• Spring Interview Day will be helped on Saturday, May 2nd via Zoom. This is where you will interview for the committees you applied for!
• Student Committee Highlights
  • Curriculum Committees: Consider applying to CCC, CCSC, or FCC! They oversee all the curriculum happening at IUSM from Transitions 1 all the way to Elective Clerkships! Here is what Annie Gensel, CCSC member had to say: “CCSC is an amazing experience that allows you to be a part of the curriculum at IU School of Medicine at the highest levels. We are voting members that deans and other committee members frequently turn to for input of the student voice. It has been a great opportunity to increase communication to fellow students about curriculum changes going on in our school. If you are passionate about a specific topic, there are plenty of chances to join task forces and to hold meetings with deans to improve curriculum even further than the monthly meetings.”
  • Advocates for Clerkship Enhancement: Consider applying to ACE (Advocates for Clerkship Enhancement). For those familiar with SCLC, they are the equivalent to SCLC, but for clerkships! These students work with clerkship directors to ensure that feedback from students is being incorporated into the improvement of each clerkship.
  • Student Space and Renovation Committee: Consider applying for the Student Space and Renovation Committee! These students work with Medical Student Education to come up with ideas and initiatives for student spaces!
  • Spring Formal Committee: Consider applying for Spring Formal Committee! These students plan the biggest statewide event that many students look forward to every year! From a current committee member: “Being able to plan the BIGGEST statewide event of the year is a blast. It’s rewarding to see hundreds of us come together from across the state to just have fun and dance for an evening!”
• Contact Information: Click here for current committee member contact information.
• Pertinent Deadlines:
  • Spring Interview Day Application: Open until Tuesday, April 28 at 11:59 pm! Watch the MD Student News for the application link.
  • Spring Interview Day: Saturday, May 2
    
    

Student Interest Groups (SIGS)

• Defined: SIGs are registered organizations that are founded and led by students at IU School of Medicine. SIGs are divided into groups based on their topic including: Medical Specialty SIGs, National Medical Association SIGs, and Special Topic SIGs. If you aren’t sure which specialties you’d like to explore, you can sign up for medical specialty SIG clusters.
• SIG Clusters are groups of related medical specialty SIGs. These include hospital-based, surgery, and primary care/others.
• Contact Information: Click here for SIG contact information!
  
  

Wellness Coalition

• Defined:
  • Wellness Coalition at IU School of Medicine strives to promote health, wellness, and self-care for medical students through projects and events in alignment with the 8 dimensions of wellness: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual. We are a statewide organization that helps to facilitate and plan events designed to educate students on the different aspects of wellness, and we advocate for, and plan, programming that promotes student wellness.
  • In addition, our members also include representatives from various wellness related student organizations including Vital Healing Project, the FIRM conference, and Gold Humanism Honor Society. Together, we work to increase programming for all of IUSM's students.
• Highlights: We plan a wide variety of events, and we help student groups and SIGs to plan their own wellness related events. Some events we plan include small things like therapy dogs after exams, terrarium building, and canvas painting. In addition we plan much larger events like nights at an Indianapolis Indians game, hikes around the state, and we plan the end of year Wellness Carnival. In addition, we have hosted sleep specialists and nutritionists to educate students about taking care of their own personal health.
• Contact Information:
  • General contact info as well as campus representatives can be found here.
  • This is a general link to IUSM's wellness services.
  • Contact Wellness Coalition Chair and Vice President of Wellness, Abigail Brenner, for more information.
    
    

Medical Student Service Group

• Defined: Medical Student Service Group (MSSG) is a student-led group that fosters student leadership through engagement with community service learning experiences. MSSG provides opportunities for students to gain skills in leadership, peer mentoring, and assessment while engaging with their community through service. MSSG works with IU School of Medicine student affairs service learning professionals to foster and develop strong community relationships.
• Highlights:
  • Best Buddies:
    • Purpose: Best Buddies International is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). As a school organization, we hope to not only create lifelong friendships between students and community members with IDD, but we also hope to provide students with a better understanding of this population in order to provide proper care for them as future physicians.
    • Frequency of volunteer events: Our aim is to have around 3 events per semester, though we are a new organization and are still in the planning stages for events. Furthermore, our expectation as a Citizens Chapter is that buddies will have 3-5 hours of solo facetime together per month
    • Contact info:
      • Eric Galante (co-chair) - egalante@iu.edu
      • Allison Etling (co-chair) - fosteraa@iu.edu
  • Crispus Attucks:
    • Mission: The mission of the Crispus Attucks Student Interest Group is to expose, encourage, educate, and inspire local high school students in the fields of science, health care, and medicine.
    • Frequency of events: Two one-hour volunteer events per month.
    • Contact info: Email casig@iupui.edu
• Newsletter Sign Up: If you want to stay up to date on service learning news, you can sign up to receive the MSSG Newsletter updates here.
• Contact Information: Click here for contact information and project descriptions!