Health Careers Mentorship Program is a student-founded, student-led program that past and present interns and coordinators hope will continue to be a presence in the coming years. In the third semester, a coordinator becomes a director. HCMP asked some of the past and present directors for their comments about their experience with the program.
“The ability to participate in HCMP has been an incredible opportunity well beyond my shadowing semester as an intern. At the third semester and beyond, when you become a director, its amazing the kinds of opportunities you find to take on more leadership roles and shape the future of the organization. As Director of Professional Relations, it was my responsibility to create and maintain the professional connections that separate HCMP from other pre-med orgs. I was the person who met with hospital administrators and some of the top physicians in Austin to bolster HCMP’s reputation in the community and to find more ways that our members can get involved in the health care field that they one day hope to enter. It’s been a rare and exciting experience.”
Angie Hamouie, 2010-2012 Director
“April is not the cruelest month of the year, our world is not a wasteland. In this world here in Austin, there is a capacity in volunteerism, altruism, and servicing your fellow man. Encouragement can be found in ovarian cancer, faith is found in numbers, those with strength and conviction will lead. I’ve learned that that one does not need a MD or a bachelor’s degree to meet with the decision-makers of the hospital. It takes great determination and courage to attain the mission message, find solace in a smile, or walk the Wright Way. In my brief brush with real world medicine, it has only strengthened my passion that we can create a new breed of health providers, physicians that are autonomous where service begins at the greeting. I appreciate all that have encouraged and discouraged me from continuing into the medical profession. In this manner, I am able to fully evaluate the advantages, disadvantages, and politics that this career entails. My greatest challenge was communication at first. Then, through the examples that were practiced all around me, I learned. I challenge those that interact with our program to promote the essence of leadership and power of altruism. Philantrophists donate their money but service is giving your personal time. I challenge those that leave, leave behind your optimism, non-competitiveness, and open mind so that others may draw from them and be fueled by your inner faith. ”
David Nguyen, Spring 1998-2002 Director
“In any pre-medical program, you will find that some students are armed with the important information much earlier than others. In 1997, David and I concluded that the solution was really quite simple. I now like to think that the Health Careers Mentorship Program experience helps to level the playing field. When an undergraduate is given the right information early on and when they are given just a glimpse of what transpires every day on the wards early in their education, a paradigm shift can occur. HCMP provides an environment in which students who have an interest in medicine can create a clear vision early on. Keeping a journal of your medical experiences, weekly forums in which like-minded premed students can share their ideas and teach/motivate each other are the activities which help students prepare their roadmap to medical school. I am most proud that we have been able to keep this a student-run organization. Raising our expectations for students who have gone through the HCMP experience allows them to develop the professional attributes necessary for the medical profession. Turning over the responsibilities of running the program to previous interns allows them to gain confidence in their leadership abilities. Let me repeat that. We are building LEADERS here at the University of Texas at Austin. We are indebted to Dr. Wright and all the physicians like him who are invested in our medical training and make all of this possible.”
Gunjan Parikh, TAMUS HSC College of Medicine M3