Community and Service Organizations

• Student Coordinators: Joanna Curry, Vidhi Singh, Emily Hansen
• Student Advisors: Matthew Carter
• Faculty Advisor: Elena Stark, MD, PhD

Anatomy Academy is a student-run organization with a commitment to improving the health education of children living in the Westwood Salvation Army housing facility and other local underserved communities. The primary focus of Anatomy Academy is to establish visits to teach youth at the Westwood Salvation Army housing facility and to create other opportunities for medical students to interact with other school-aged children. The purpose is to provide relatable, fun, and medically-related educational experiences for children. We hope to promote an understanding of health and interest in science and medicine among children from various backgrounds. Members of the group collaborate with each other and faculty to engineer relevant, interesting, and interactive lessons for children of varying ages. 

• Student Coordinators: Santi Bhattarai-Kline
• Student Advisor: Tira Oskoui, Nicholas Hamilton 
• Faculty Advisors: Clarence Braddock, MD, Ashley Feinsinger, MD, PhD

The DGSOM Bioethics group is a student-led interest group committed to providing students with a unique forum to learn about and discuss ethical issues as they pertain to human health, biomedical research, and clinical healthcare practices. Our goals are to stimulate discussion of potential ethical issues that students may encounter in their careers and to equip students with several basic strategies to think through ethical dilemmas within a structured, rational framework. As a secondary objective, we aim to advocate for the greater incorporation of medical ethics into the DGSOM curriculum. These objectives are accomplished through student-led meetings, inviting guest speakers to discuss actual cases, and working with the DGSOM administration on curriculum reform projects. A student-led medical ethics panel provides additional opportunities for students to discuss actual cases brought forth by members of the Ronald Reagan Medical Ethics Committee, and to reinforce the knowledge gained from their interest in bioethics.

• Student Coordinators: Haidee Chen, Kandace Fung, Christine Lam, Kathleen Trinh
• Student Advisors: Cindy Liu, Karissa Wang
• Faculty Advisor: Ka-Kit Hui, MD

The Chinese Medical Interest Group (CMIG) is focused on addressing a critical need in the medical education of DGSOM students: effectively communicating and connecting with Chinese-speaking populations. Los Angeles is home to one of the largest populations of Mandarin-speaking patients in the United States, yet despite this, UCLA DGSOM does not have any formal opportunities to train future health professionals in medical Chinese.

By fulfilling this need, CMIG provides all UCLA medical students with:

• Opportunities to develop important skills that will apply to any specialty, as they will likely have ethnic Chinese patients in the future
• Opportunities to learn about the health disparities that disproportionately affect this population

The main avenues to achieve our objectives: 

• Develop our communication skills with ethnic Chinese patients by learning how to speak native languages in an effective and culturally-appropriate manner
• Explore unique aspects of Chinese culture and perceptions, focusing on their influence on health and how this differs from Western culture
• Learn how to approach patients in a manner not taught in the classical curriculum at DGSOM through understanding the patients’ cultural backgrounds
• Connect medical students with immersive opportunities to learn and practice their Chinese communication skills

• Student Coordinators: Sarah Larson, Emma Ruskin
• Student Advisors: Matthew Hing, Samuel Lewis
• Faculty Advisors: David Eisenman, MD, James Evans (UCLA Sustainability Manager)

Climate Providers is an organization of medical students who recognize that the climate emergency presents an impending public health catastrophe for our communities in LA and beyond— a catastrophe that will fall along existing gradients of racial inequity and structural violence. We seek to:

• Raise awareness of the health impacts of climate change
• Hold the healthcare industry accountable for its environmental impact, and work to reduce healthcare's contributions to the climate crisis
• Build a community of future healthcare providers committed to tackling the planetary health crisis, using the profession's credibility and prominence to advocate for the health of individuals and climate alike.

The organization will seek to achieve its goals through educational programming, advocacy efforts, and career exploration opportunities.

• Student Coordinators: Shannon Richardson, Emma Ruskin, Grace Yi
• Student Advisors: Marie Luff, Lauren Taiclet
• Faculty Advisors: Ka-Kit Hui, MD, Sheila Naghshineh, MD

The mission of the Community Healing through Art Medicine Program (CHAMP) at DGSOM is to amplify the innate social-emotional and therapeutic benefits of the arts for healing and wellness through immersive volunteering and educational events. In collaboration with community partners, students will be exposed to the therapeutic potential of art medicine in multiple dimensions: visual art, dance and movement, poetry, music, as well as verbal and nonverbal communication, managing special needs, traumatic responses, and self-care. 

CHAMP will empower students to advocate for access to high-quality resources in arts and healing, which will benefit our surrounding communities as well as organizational and individual healthcare providers. Students will have the unique opportunity to volunteer time in community clinical settings to interact with patients using art activities. The patient experience will become one of reflection, meaningful dialogue, increased empathy, connection, and reduction of emotional distress for all parties involved. In addition, we aim to educate our medical students and the community at large about the physical and emotional benefits of art through interactive seminars, volunteering opportunities, and partnerships with our community.

The goals of CHAMP are to:

• Educate students regarding art medicine as an accessible, nonverbal, and universal strategy for improving individual and community health through stress reduction and social support—without any stigma of therapy.
• Maximize the social-emotional benefits of the arts by focusing on the process of creative expression to build meaning, empathy, and community.
• Offer an evidence-based and effective means of addressing the increasing societal healthcare burden from chronic diseases rooted in emotions and behavior.
• Offer a humanizing complement to increasingly technological medical care, that can enhance the patient experience and the environments in which healthcare is delivered.
• Advocate for an established role for the arts in healthcare by validating their healing benefits and exposing our students, patients, and the community to their transformative value through insights gained from process-oriented activities.

• Student Coordinators: Halee Yue, Corinne Negvesky, Ryan Tiu 
• Student Advisor: Pooja Bisarya, Ursula Biba
• Faculty Advisor: Rashmi S. Muller, MD

Our mission is to connect all members of the DGSOM family through mindfulness and meditation.

• We hope to educate each other about different meditation and mindfulness practices and also serve as an entry point for beginners looking to start.
• We want to be an outlet for members of DGSOM to de-stress and hone their meditation practice.
• Meditation has many benefits that are being researched, and it has been incorporated as an important part of multidisciplinary care in fields such as psychiatry, palliative medicine, hospice, and oncology. We hope that educating our classmates about the practice will better equip them to converse with and provide recommendations to future patients.

• Student Coordinators: Sonia S. Raghuram, Fadi Dahoud
• Student Advisor: Baba Adejuyigbe
• Faculty Advisors: Jason E. Bahk, MD, Bret Dolezal, MD

Our mission is to educate DGSOM students about the impact of strength/resistance training on health and medicine.

• Student Coordinators: Harika Kottakota, Emma Ruskin, Charlotte Poplawski
• Student Advisors: Leane Nasrallah, Kasey Fitzsimmons, Zina Jawadi
• Faculty Advisor: Alice Kuo, MD

The mission of DCI is to foster a community of individuals with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses, as well as their allies, in order to promote justice, diversity, and inclusion. DCI is focused on five primary goals to enhance advocacy and accessibility:

• Community for trainees and faculty with disability and chronic illness
• Accessibility of resources and campus
• EDI and Representation
• Admissions & Curriculum Inclusion
• Quality & Inclusive Patient Care

• Student Coordinator: Emilio Rodriguez, Leslie Ojeaburu, Fahim Mahmud, Jorge Sifuentes
• Student Advisors: Nguyen Pham
• Faculty Advisors: Shaheen Harandi, MD, Niloufar Tehrani, MD

DREAM is an education advocacy project that seeks to bring resources to high school students in Los Angeles communities. The mission of this organization is to empower students who are under-resourced to pursue a demanding career via a longitudinal mentorship program with annual programming and cohort. Our three main goals:

• Provide individual mentorship via mentor-mentee pairings
• Provide group mentorship via themed group sessions run primarily by physicians, focused on interactive discussions, skills building, and career exploration
• Build community via group activities and resource sharing

• Student Coordinators: Ursula Biba, Rebbecca Brena, Erica Escalera, Larissa Nicolas, Othneil Sparks
• Student Advisors: Kendra Arriaga-Castellanos, Monica Le, Sam Lee, Ava Mousavi
• Faculty Advisors: Alejandra Casillas, MD, Margarita Loeza, MD

First Gen is an extension of the larger UCLA-wide First To Go! Initiative to highlight the first-generation experience in higher education. In this group, first gen medical students are those who are the first in their families to attend college. Students who identify as "First Gen" will be able to connect to other DGSOM students, residents, fellows, faculty, and alumni who are proudly First Gen themselves.

• We envision mentorship and tailored resources that focus on student, resident, and faculty well-being and self-preservation (from the medical school years to beyond), through the First-Gen lens.
• We will connect to First Gen resources/workshops at the UCLA university level (the established UCLA First To Go! Initiative), including but not limited to:
  • mentorship (if interested) between First Gen medical students and First-Gen UCLA college pre-medical students.
  • networking between First-Gen graduate chapters (e.g. UCLA Anderson School of Management, UCLA Law, First-Generation Graduate Student Council at UCLA).
  • advocacy of First Gen concerns and issues at bimonthly UCLA First Gen Advisory Board meetings.
• We seek to connect, empower, and celebrate the First Gen community in medicine.

• Student Coordinators:  Allison Brimacombe, Amani Carson
• Student Advisors: Savannah Starr
• Faculty Advisors: David Kulber, MD, Andrew Vardanian, MD

Our Vision: Sustainable and accessible surgical care worldwide.

Our Mission: To educate, inspire, and unite students through engagement and mentorship in global surgery.

Our Goals:

• Create awareness about and to advocate for global surgery
• Educate students about global surgery and sustainable interventions
• Connect students who are interested in global surgery across the country and world
• Facilitate communication and mentorship between students and current global surgeons
• Foster the development of the next generation of global surgeons, OB/Gyns, and anesthesiologists

• Student Coordinators: Stephanie Bueno, Jack Fukushima
• Student Advisors: Matthew Hing, Stephanie Clavijo, Yusra Ahmedin
• Faculty Advisors: Elaine Chan, MD, Clarence Braddock, MD

Our Mission & Goals:

The Summer Health Justice Internship is a community-centered and community-led program co-created by DGSOM/CDU medical students, community members, and physician activists aimed to provide first-generation BIPOC students with an opportunity to:

• Engage in a med student and community-led curriculum around structural racism, vulnerability, and social justice in medicine
• Receive personal and professional mentorship for a career in health justice for underserved communities
• Complete a final research or arts-based project. 

URM pre-med students are negatively impacted by systemic racism and therefore, intentional pipeline programs are needed to overcome unique barriers faced by first generation, Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) students.

• Co-creation of knowledge: The curriculum veers away from the assumption that the teacher holds all the knowledge, and the student an empty vessel to be filled. Facilitators are required to complete the same reflection assignments as the interns, and interns are encouraged to bring material for class to engage with together.
• Adapted for learners at different stages of critical consciousness: The first week of the curriculum is designed so that facilitators model critical engagement, encourage questions of all levels, and develop a shared language. Facilitators assist learners to collaborate with peers. Readings are scaled: background resources for topics that are new to the learner required material, and enrichment material for those who are very familiar with the week's concepts. Interns have "buddies" and assigned mentors for the duration of the 9 weeks. At the end of each week, interns provide feedback on what activities were most useful, redundant, or unnecessary.
• Building trust: The Health Justice internship prioritizes the health, wellbeing, and growth of BIPOC participants in this space. Trust is required to see, learn, unlearn, criticize harms created by structural racism. Our interns and facilitators have experienced structural violence, but in different ways. We allow for flexibility to process together and independently the sociopolitical events that affect our families and communities (e.g. COVID19 pandemic, police brutality, dehumanization of unhoused, election results- Focus on community resilience: Beyond structural violence, we developed a curriculum that highlights community strength, achievements, and resilience. This is an intention to change the narrative that oftentimes depicts marginalized communities are weak, broken, unhealthy, and dependent.
• Creation of tangible product: In addition to this experience, the curriculum is geared to assist learners in collaboration with a tangible product, "a final project", to carry with them for their future endeavors. Along with reflections, interns gain material that may be used in their personal statements, their applications for jobs and other internship opportunities, etc. Facilitators and mentors assist learners, provide support and guidance to reach their stated goals for this product.

• Student Coordinator: Eliana Jokolvsky, Eric Smith
• Student Advisor: Noy Kaufman
• Faculty Advisor: Gary Schiller, MD

The Jewish Medical Student Association (JMSA) supports Jewish life for medical students at UCLA and promotes the study of the Jewish tradition and its contributions to the field of medicine. In addition, JMSA serves to fight antisemitism while practicing allyship to the Jewish community.

• Student Coordinators: Yasaman Salahmand, Ahaana Singh
• Student Advisors: Maggie Hui, Aura Elias
• Faculty Advisors: Cecily Gallup, MD, Sural Shah, MD

The Los Angeles Human Rights Initiative (LAHRI) is a group of medical students, residents, and volunteer clinicians dedicated to:

• Providing pro-bono forensic medical and mental health evaluations to survivors of persecution seeking asylum in the United States.
• Raising awareness regarding issues affecting the physical and mental health of local refugee and immigrant communities.
• Expanding UCLA’s footprint in the arenas of research, policy, and advocacy related to refugee and immigrant health.

• Student Coordinators: Abena Adobah, David Lee, Amanda Miller, Nina Modanlo
• Student Advisors: Grace Riley, Dana Grundy, Isa Abdul Cader, Danielle Newton
• Faculty Advisor: Denise Nunez

Mission: Los Angeles Medical Student Volunteers partners with local community organizations to identify roles for medical student volunteers to support the broad health needs of Los Angeles. We are grounded in the belief that health and wellness are human rights and that factors such as nutrition, housing, and social support are critical to one's health. We encourage the growth of student leaders and community advocates through humble exploration of service in health equity and holistic care for our neighbors.

About: Los Angeles is home to numerous health and wellbeing-oriented community organizations. Many students choose DGSOM in part because they want to serve the diverse community of Los Angeles that will be home for four years or more. However, researching volunteer opportunities that fit each student's individual needs and interests is challenging. Now that students have only one year of pre-clinical coursework, a streamlined process for volunteering in the community is essential to maximize students' time and provide reliable, consistent support to neighboring organizations. With the support of the existing organization, Los Angeles Health Volunteers (LAHV), we established the student-run chapter Los Angeles Medical Student Volunteers (LAMSV) to facilitate this process. LAHV has fostered relationships with several medical, public health, and social services organizations that are seeking volunteers. We will match students with an organization, respecting their interests when possible, where they will volunteer on a regular basis. Students commit to in-person volunteering, and/or they and their partner organization can identify a project the student will lead to address a need of the organization. Furthermore, we work closely with the existing UCLA undergraduate chapter of LAHV to ensure smooth communication with our partner organizations. Medical students and undergraduates paired with the same organization may collaborate on projects in domains such as advocacy, education, and research. We will hold a showcase at the end of the school year in which undergraduates and medical students share their projects with the UCLA/DGSOM community. In addition, we plan to develop a mentorship program between medical students and undergraduates. LAMSV is building a platform to engage medical students in responsible, meaningful volunteer work that will address the needs of local organizations and enable students to learn about the complexities of improving and maintaining the health of our community.

• Student Coordinators: Nadir Adra, Nicole Johnsen 
• Student Advisors: Corinne Allas, Ayesha Ng
• Faculty Advisor: Jason Napolitano, MD

MDivas aims to provide a creative outlet for medical students that not only promotes a safe space for all dance levels but also promotes both students’ well-being and a sense of community across all years of medical training. Our goal is to challenge our dancers to learn different styles of dance including Bhangra and various styles of urban choreography, which include K-pop, Hip-Hop, Jazz Funk, and Lyrical choreography.

• Student Coordinators: Julia Gensheimer, Ryan Shih
• Student Advisors: Anna Wood, Christina Le, Reza Kianian, Holly Huang, Keeley Ravellette
• Faculty Advisor: Esteban Dell'Angelica, MD

Med Mentors at UCLA is a group of DGSOM students eager to serve the premed community at UCLA and beyond. Our primary goal is to share advice and resources with all UCLA premed students and alumni, but we also offer resources to premeds across the country. We do this by hosting student panels, providing peer advising, compiling premed resources, and assisting the pre-health office in the UCLA Career Center.

Med Mentors give DGSOM students of all years the opportunity to share their stories and premed advice with others. Helping premeds is highly rewarding, and it helps DGSOM students develop necessary mentorship, communication, and leadership skills.