VCOM Auburn Yearbook 2019

SNMA Student National Medical Association

Derriyan Price, President; Lauren Cooper, Vice President; Brittney Thomas, Secretary; Dominique White, Treasurer; Siraj Abdullah, DO, Faculty Advisor

The Student National Medical Association (SNMA) is the oldest and largest nationally recognized student run organization that is committed to supporting current and future minority medical students, meeting the demands of underrepresented communities and augmenting the number of culturally competent and well-rounded physicians. In VCOM-Auburn’s SNMA, members value and boast a very multicultural and diverse membership which allows us to pool together various skillsets and ideas. While adhering to the organization’s mission statement, this academic year’s executive board focused on the missions of cultural competency, community service and fundraising. Throughout the year, members continued to carry the torch and shine light upon the importance of diversity and inclusion in medicine while serving others. To jumpstart the new school year, SNMA hosted a Welcome Barbeque for the class of 2022. The incoming students enjoyed Byron’s Smokehouse BBQ, snow cones from Kona Ice-Auburn and tunes from DJ Juan. The incoming students were given the chance to meet and greet the VCOM family and purchased $1 raffle tickets for prizes ranging from carwashes, scrubs, haircuts, massages and more!

This event established a presence for SNMA and set the tone for the rest of a productive and educational school year. Following the welcome event, SNMA continued to work to solidify plans for the August Cultural Competency Series – Making A Choice to Change the Face of Medicine. This consisted of a two-day interactive series that focused on educating the students on being culturally competent physicians and challenging us to commit to addressing health care disparities in rural areas and underrepresented, disenfranchised communities. The keynote speaker was Dr. Dave Chae, Human Sciences Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Health Ecology and Equity Research. His talk was titled “Racial Disparities in Health: Medicine and the Population Perspective.” The next morning, SNMA hosted the Alabama Poverty Simulation from Birmingham, Alabama. The simulation allowed students to role play and experience everyday challenges and obstacles experienced, while trying to obtain optimal healthcare, housing, transportation, education, food and more. The goal of this event was

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