Andrea Gonzalez, who also serves as Vice President for the Class of 2022, shared her vision for serving as the new Vice President of Committee Affairs on Medical Student Council (MSC). Learn more about her platform here, and why students should consider participating on a committee to enhance their future career. If you missed it, please check out our other articles featuring new President, Megan Chiu, and Vice President of Leadership, Rebekah Roll.
One of the events your position oversees is Interview Day. Can you share with us a little more about what that day is all about?
Interview day is a day when students can interview for one of several Indiana University School of Medicine committees with open positions. Around a month in advance, applications for the interviewing committees will be sent out through our student newsletter. Interview day makes it convenient for students to be able to interview for several committees at once. We actually have two interview days in the fall and spring. The spring interview day will occur sometime in April, 2020, so be on the lookout for more information!
One of your qualifications is serving as current Vice President for the Class of 2022 and serving as a Student Representative of the Foundations Curriculum Committee (FCC). Can you tell us more about the FCC and your role as a student on this?
The FCC is the committee that oversees Phase 1 of our curriculum. We make decisions on all things that can occur in Phase 1. Something we recently discussed and worked though was our current Phase 1 grading policy and trying to make it more clear for students. I was able to give input from a student perspective on how to create a more understandable grading policy, which I think we were able to achieve, and will be shared in the future! We also get to review the End of Course Reports for each class, which are generated from our End of Course evaluations. I have enjoyed my time on the FCC and have felt really welcomed as a student on this committee.
Why should students become involved in a committee? How might it help further their future career?
The reason I wanted to get involved in a committee, more specifically an academic-based committee, was because I thought it would give me a new set of lenses to view the academic side of medicine. This is something I want to do in my future career. I was really passionate about education before starting medical school, and I wanted to continue to fuel that passion through an academic committee and make positive change on the education we receive. Being involved in a committee is a great way to gain leadership experience, while potentially also gaining a new perspective.
How do you want to improve committees for next year?
I think the biggest challenge that students face when applying to a committee is really understanding if a certain committee is something they want to do or if they have time for it. I want to fix this barrier by working with our committees to make more robust Roles and Responsibilities. This was something I was able to do with the student curriculum liaison committee (SCLC) and the last VP of Committees, Rebekah Roll. Many of our committees have gone through some changes, and I want to make sure that is reflected in their roles. I am also open for suggestions on how to continue to improve our committees and would love to hear them!
Having served in leadership already, what is one of your proudest accomplishments?
My proudest accomplishment at Indiana University School of Medicine has to be our Class of 2022 Town Hall to gain student perspective of our first couple months at Indiana University School of Medicine. We presented it at our monthly Dean’s meeting and a lot of what we brought up, including orientation and transitions 1, saw major change based on what we presented. Of course, none of this could have been done without the rest of my class officers, who were integral. Our class officers were also the first to have statewide meetings with the regional campus representatives to facilitate an open dialogue across the state about topics we need to address. I have really loved and valued my time as Vice President for the Class of 2022.
Is there anything we have missed or that you would like to add?
I am so excited to serve the whole student population through this role as Vice President of Committee Affairs. I want to emphasize that the work being done in Medical Student Council is for the students, and while we are students, the best way to represent everyone is to hear your voices, concerns and ideas. Please reach out to anyone of the fantastic people on MSC Exec, or your amazing class officers who are here to continue to improve Indiana University School of Medicine and be the voice of every student.
