U of T summer mentorship program creates connections for Black and Indigenous youth

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:19:43 +0000

noreen.rasbach Fri, 08/17/2018 - 13:19

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The summer mentorship program provides more than 70 high school students who are Black, Indigenous or from other under-represented backgrounds with mentorship opportunities and hands-on experience in health sciences

Rohini Chopra

Topic

City & Culture

Alumni

Cities

Diversity

Diversity Mentorship Program

Faculty of Medicine

Graduate Students

Mentorship

Summer Mentorship Program

Undergraduate Students

Weaving needles into silicon skin pads isn’t what you’d expect many high school students to do on their summer break.

But this workshop in suturing – which creates strong, supportive connections to seal a wound – is just one example of the experiences offered by the University of Toronto's summer mentorship program (SMP). It’s also a metaphor for the program’s goals.

Support and connection are key themes throughout the month-long program, which provides more than 70 high school students who are Black, Indigenous or from other under-represented backgrounds with mentorship opportunities and hands-on experience in health sciences.

Idil Abdi, who will start Grade 12 in Thornhill this fall, was among the group of aspiring health-care professionals to take part in SMP this year. The group explored health-related professions – including medicine, nursing, public health and social work – through lab work, lectures and practical experience.

“I was eager to join SMP for a taste of university life,” says Abdi. “It surprised me to see all the academic options available in health sciences and I learned that with hard work and dedication, the possibilities are endless.”

Among the medical professionals the students met were pediatricians, radiation technologists and family doctors.

“It was incredible to see how they all support patients and have a positive impact on their lives,” says Jacob Fraser, a participant in the mentorship program who hopes to become a family doctor.

The program also provides students with career services like resumé and networking workshops. “Learning how to write a cover letter, present yourself and network was one of the highlights for me. These skills will help me navigate my way through the workforce today and later on in my profession,” says Tyler Cobbinah.

Since the program launched in 1994, more than 900 students have participated and 85 per cent of surveyed graduates have since begun working toward or completed a university degree.

SMP alumna Tonya-Leah Watts is starting her last year of undergraduate studies in biomedical sciences. Inspired by her time in the program, Watts is also preparing to write the Medical College Admissions Test.

“Where I grew up, I didn’t see people like me pursuing medicine. In SMP, I made connections with other people of colour who supported me outside of the program and helped me apply to university,” she says.

As it approaches its 25^th year, SMP continues to be a catalyst for building strong connections between adolescents and health sciences and increasing the representation of Black and Indigenous people in medicine by investing in their success.

Husam Abdel-Qadir graduated from SMP in 1998 after immigrating from the Middle East. Today, he is a cardiologist and clinician-scientist who volunteers with U of T’s diversity mentorship program and is the director of continuing professional development for the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario.

“The SMP broke down barriers for me – I was exposed to Black leaders in health care who proved someone like me can be successful in medicine,” Abdel-Qadir says. “I want to keep the momentum going and continue to create a strong and supportive community for Black and Indigenous youth, showing them they too can be a face in medicine.”

Faces of U of T Medicine: Damien Noone on becoming a doctor and choosing to be a mentor

rasbachn — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 20:28:00 +0000

Faces of U of T Medicine: Damien Noone on becoming a doctor and choosing to be a mentor rasbachn Wed, 10/04/2017 - 16:28

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Damien Noone took a leave from medical school to tour with Riverdance – the Show (photo by Erin Howe)

Topic

Our Community

Diversity Mentorship Program

Faculty of Medicine

As a child in rural Ireland, Damien Noone didn’t dare to imagine he’d be a doctor when he grew up. As a teenager, a conversation with one of his high school teachers opened Noone’s eyes to the possibility. Today, he’s an assistant professor in the department of paediatrics in University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, and a paediatric nephrologist at The Hospital for Sick Children.

He recently reflected on his journey into medicine with writer Erin Howe.

What sparked your interest in medicine?

As a boy, I had a few experiences that exposed me to the world of medicine.

When I was about 10, I remember my mother losing a baby through miscarriage. I remember going with my father to visit the priest for permission to bury the baby in the local graveyard. I felt so helpless. Years later, in medical school, I came to understand my mother’s miscarriages were due to rhesus disease, which causes antibodies in a pregnant woman’s blood to destroy her baby’s blood cells.

About a year later, I developed a lump in my neck and was admitted to the paediatric hospital in Dublin. The doctor thought I had lymphoma. His trainee – who turned out to be right – believed I had a blocked salivary gland duct. While I was in the hospital, I met a boy with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis who was on crutches and crippled with pain. I was overwhelmed at the unfairness of his illness.

Then that was it for a time. I grew up on a farm, and whenever I wanted to avoid study or homework I’d pop out to the farm to help my father. He’d generally send me right back in saying, “go study so that you don’t have to work like me.” He worked in a factory and was a part-time farmer.

A simple conversation with my career guidance teacher in secondary school had a huge impact on me. He was the first to say to me: “You could be a doctor, a lawyer or whatever you want.” At that point, no one in my family had gone to university and the words “I could” weren’t in my vocabulary.

Why was it important for you to become involved in the diversity mentorship program?

I read an insightful and honest column in the Journal of the American Medical Association called Underprivileged as Privilege. Written by one of our fourth-year medical students, Stephanie Zhou, the article is about the realities of being a medical student – whether current or aspiring – from a lower socioeconomic status background. One particular line resonated with me: “I realized that I did fit into medicine – I fit in with my patients.” Zhou’s words echoed the sentiments I’d felt from the first day of medical school, when the posh kids and the poor kids sat side by side in large lecture theatres.

The rich students had more expensive clothes, nice accents, and parents to be proud of, with fancy jobs and impressive titles. The poor were often from rural Ireland, had thick, country accents and were on government grants/subsidies because their parents couldn’t afford to send them otherwise.

The wealthier students knew where they were going and had a map to guide them. The poor were just so happy to be there they just followed the crowd, rode the waves and did what they did best — continued to fight the odds.

The differences never seemed to bother those of us who were less well-off. During the clinical years of medical school, when we met patients, our socioeconomic status became an advantage. Just as Zhou expressed in her article, we came into their own because most people aren’t wealthy and are down to earth. Also, there is nothing so humbling, grounding or levelling as illness.

Diversity Mentorship Program

U of T summer mentorship program creates connections for Black and Indigenous youth

Faces of U of T Medicine: Damien Noone on becoming a doctor and choosing to be a mentor

Read more about the diversity mentorship program