Making an Impact: IDEA Grant

The Undergraduate Medical Education program initiated a call for IDEA grant proposals which invited medical students to participate in student-led projects focused on community engagement. The primary objectives were to promote community trust, facilitate learning and foster conversations with the local community.

This special funding opportunity – provided by the MD Class of 1958 – was extended to MD students, student interest groups and student-led programs. The call for proposals aimed to emphasize the importance of building a strong and sustainable connection between the MD program and the surrounding communities. This initiative sought to promote collaboration, health advocacy and mutual support, ultimately enhancing the relationship between future medical providers and the local community.

Ten proposals were funded up to $1,000. Project topics and medical students sponsoring the projects are below:

• Safety at Home - Maya Clamp
• DEAC Clinic Outreach Program - Alexandra Monetti and Natalie DeRouche
• Teaching Healthy Eating - Maria Krakovski
• Sisters in Science - Madison Hinson
• Breakfast at Ronald McDonald - Sydney Karre
• RxPurpose Program for Food Insecurity - Ulysis Baal and Yada Ali
• High School Health Fair - Angelica Coello and Alex Jennings
• Teaching First Aid - Maeve Murray
• Teaching Neurological Disease - Ankitha Iyer
• Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association Healthcare Screening Fair - Sean Wang and Kyungmin Yoo

In-depth overviews of select projects:

DEAC Clinic Outreach Program

The Delivering Equal Access to Care (DEAC) Clinic outreach Program, part of the DEAC Clinic, is a student-run free clinic that partners with community organizations to provide health screenings and health education to community members. The program offers glucose testing, BMI calculations and blood pressure (BP) testing, with results reviewed by a physician assistant or physician. The goal is to encourage lifestyle changes to improve health and connect the community to the DEAC Clinic or other low-cost clinics and resources as needed.

Alex Monetti, fourth-year medical student, and Caitlyn Perrone, second-year medical student, serve as co-outreach directors and Natalie DeRoche, third-year medical student, serves as co-executive director of the DEAC Clinic.

The project aimed to empower patients with elevated blood pressures by providing them with blood pressure cuffs to monitor their BP and connect with their providers. Funding for the blood pressure machines was secured through the IDEA grant.

In the fall of 2023, DEAC Outreach hosted three events: one with the Hispanic League ID drive for immigrants and two with the Food Pantry at Ardmore United Methodist Church. At these events, students screened 55 patients for BMI, glucose and blood pressure. Additionally, students provided participants with counseling on diet and exercise and distributed 26 blood pressure cuffs to patients with elevated blood pressure. Follow-ups were conducted at the DEAC Clinic or other clinics if patients did not qualify for the DEAC Clinic.

Since the IDEA grant funding ended in December 2023, the program has continued to provide blood pressure cuffs through the DEAC Clinic's grants and fundraising efforts, raising over $18,000 at their gala.

High School Health Fair

The High School Health Fair is an initiative aimed at educating high school students on important, age-appropriate health topics through interactive activities and casual conversations during their lunch hour.

The primary goal of the project was to enhance health care literacy among high school students, covering topics such as physical activity, nutrition, mental health, personal hygiene and health care prevention. The aim was to equip high school students with the knowledge and confidence to engage with the healthcare system as they transition to greater independence. Additionally, the project sought to provide medical students with experiential learning opportunities to engage with adolescents, a patient population they rarely interact with in their typical clinical skills curriculum, and to improve community relations between future medical providers and potential patients.

The health fair took place in November and achieved approximately 150 unique engagements through activities and information sessions, as indicated by the number of raffle tickets turned in. Prizes such as yoga mats, water bottles, and Starbucks gift cards were given away, along with small freebies like journals, play dough, sunscreen, deodorant, and feminine products to promote healthy coping mechanisms and personal hygiene.

The team is currently working with the Family Medicine Interest Group to secure funding for a repeat event this November and to establish a structure and administrative team to ensure the event continues in future years.

Cooking Up Leaders

Cooking Up Leaders is a four-week cooking program launched at the local Brenner FIT teaching kitchen. This program targeted at-risk teenagers who often faced challenges such as food insecurity, single-parent households and legal issues. The curriculum combined cooking skills with personal lessons on teamwork and communication and aimed to empower youth and encourage greater involvement at home. The project was made possible through collaboration with the YMCA executive director and Brenner FIT kitchen staff.

The primary goal of the project was to teach healthy eating, kitchen skills and personal skills such as confidence and leadership to empower young students from challenging backgrounds.

Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association Health Screening Fair

In October 2023, the inaugural Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association health screening fair was launched, focusing on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) and Asian communities, while remaining open to all. The primary purposes of the fair were to connect with underserved AANHPI and Asian families, raise awareness of the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist system across surrounding cities and communities and offer students hands-on experiences in a resource-limited setting.

The event took place outside Super G Mart, a pan-Asian supermarket in Greensboro and was made possible through the Community Engagement IDEA grant along with support from the Office of Academic Justice and Belonging.

The project aimed to achieve several goals including enhancing health care literacy and providing health screenings. During the event, 14 MD students, 2 physician assistant students, and one attending conducted screenings for high blood pressure, high blood glucose, low visual acuity and mental health using GAD-7 for anxiety and PHQ-2/9 for depression. Over the course of three hours, they gathered 18 participants’ interactions with the healthcare system, such as whether they had received a physical exam within the past year.

The current co-presidents hope to make the fair an annual event.

Sisters in Science

Sisters in Science is an annual event that works to immerse high school students in STEM fields with the specific goal of advancing the engagement of women in medicine and STEM. Each year, the School of Medicine’s American Medical Women's Association chapter hosts 80-100 Winston Salem/Forsyth County high school students for an immersion event with medical students.

This year, the participants heard from keynote speaker, Christine Ahn, MD, assistant professor of dermatology, who engaged in a question-and-answer session with our medical students over lunch and participated in hands-on activities, including an ultrasound demonstration, mock clinical reasoning cases and medical school tours. The entire day was "staffed" by medical student volunteers, giving participants more opportunities to mingle and learn from strong role models.