In my second year of medical school, I took up the opportunity to become a leader by establishing a charitable organization at my university. With the help of a few executive board members that I put together, I was able to start up a chapter on my campus of one of the world’s largest, student driven, nonprofit, medical missions’ organization known as Global Brigades. I thought of the idea, while I was pondering about joining a medical fraternity. The organization’s online ad had shown up on my computer and I thought I would join. As soon as I contacted the advisor, she suggested that I start a chapter on my campus. This was a big deal for several reasons. First, the way my medical school works is that I spend my first 2 years on an Island,
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When my University heard about this opportunity, they right away endorsed me to help me with the start up. Even Global Brigades had their interest in us, merely over the fact that we were a medical school and we would provide medical professionals for their medical missions. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I gave it a shot. After all, as Puccio, et al.(2012) stated, “We can take this stimulus and imagine what might be—or not.” In Puccio’s (2012) article, he mentions the chocolate bar that melted in the scientist’s pocket led to the invention of the microwave. Similarly, my interest to join a fraternity or an organization, led to my starting up of an organization. First, I put together a few trusted executive board members to help me with the logistics of the organization. Then, getting campus approval and campus funding, along with Global Brigades acceptance, all took some time. However, Global brigades helped me throughout the way. Finally, after all the formalities were completed, we became an official chapter at my University, the first of its kind in all of the Caribbean. …show more content…
It is a known fact, that all medical students must have volunteer medical missions on their resume to make them an ideal candidate for residency positions. This grasped a lot of student’s attention and encouraged them to join. Our main goal as an organization was to “Reduce fear and increase trust” as Hamal (2009) emphasizes in his article. This was a stressed idea, because a joining member should be able to understand who and what they are getting themselves into, especially in medical school, which requires a lot of time invested into studying, so wasting time was not an option. An average member also doesn’t like to be overwhelmed by too many rules and regulations. Therefore, I made it a point to reduce regulations and rules of the Chapter to a minimal. After our first fifteen members, we began to charge thirty dollars per individual to join, which helped us raise money to hold fundraiser events. We even got endorsements from other organizations merely due the fact we were a charitable organization.
When my University heard about this opportunity, they right away endorsed me to help me with the start up. Even Global Brigades had their interest in us, merely over the fact that we were a medical school and we would provide medical professionals for their medical missions. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I gave it a shot. After all, as Puccio, et al.(2012) stated, “We can take this stimulus and imagine what might be—or not.” In Puccio’s (2012) article, he mentions the chocolate bar that melted in the scientist’s pocket led to the invention of the microwave. Similarly, my interest to join a fraternity or an organization, led to my starting up of an organization. First, I put together a few trusted executive board members to help me with the logistics of the organization. Then, getting campus approval and campus funding, along with Global Brigades acceptance, all took some time. However, Global brigades helped me throughout the way. Finally, after all the formalities were completed, we became an official chapter at my University, the first of its kind in all of the Caribbean. …show more content…
It is a known fact, that all medical students must have volunteer medical missions on their resume to make them an ideal candidate for residency positions. This grasped a lot of student’s attention and encouraged them to join. Our main goal as an organization was to “Reduce fear and increase trust” as Hamal (2009) emphasizes in his article. This was a stressed idea, because a joining member should be able to understand who and what they are getting themselves into, especially in medical school, which requires a lot of time invested into studying, so wasting time was not an option. An average member also doesn’t like to be overwhelmed by too many rules and regulations. Therefore, I made it a point to reduce regulations and rules of the Chapter to a minimal. After our first fifteen members, we began to charge thirty dollars per individual to join, which helped us raise money to hold fundraiser events. We even got endorsements from other organizations merely due the fact we were a charitable organization.