Reflections from the Outgoing Student Advisory Committee (SAC) Chair
by Emilie Fisher (G4)
The MSTP Student Advisory Committee (SAC) is a group of representatives from each class that acts as a liaison between the student body and the MSTP Leadership Team. Through the monthly SAC survey, committee presentations to SAC, and discussion topics raised by class representatives, we aim to collect student ideas, feedback, and concerns. Year after year, SAC facilitates student-led initiatives to modify aspects of the program in response to the needs and desires of the current student body. Reflecting on my past two years as Chair and Chair-elect, I am struck by the commitment of our students to propose and implement such improvements in their spare time. I am grateful for all those who served in this capacity, and thankful for the opportunity to work with you all.
For the 2022-23 academic year, the SAC theme centered around Intentionality. We wanted to encourage student committee leaders to be intentional about the events they chose to put their limited time into, aiming to prioritize events that most align with our program values and create purposefully inclusive environments. Antiracism, Diversity, and Inclusion (ADI) efforts were central to our theme, and we asked each leader to discuss how they were incorporating ADI in their programming. In addition to an ADI overview at the beginning of the year, this was also the first year in which the ADI Council presented to SAC as a committee.
The main avenue for SAC discussion topics is the monthly feedback survey, wherein students can share their thoughts with the SAC Chairs, Leadership Team, and/or entire SAC in an (optionally) anonymous manner. This year we had 25 responses, with submissions from all classes. While this is down from the 34 entries in 2021-22, we feel this is in large part due to the increase in in-person communication and verbal feedback as our community returned to on-campus activity. Whether originating in the SAC survey or through conversation, student ideas led to the following items over the past year:
- Development of a near-peer mentorship survey and database for students returning to medical school and beginning the residency application process. This initiative, led by Maxwell Roeske and Evonne McArther, aims to ease this transition, and provide rising M4s with specialty specific advice.
- Establishment of a Graduate Student Council (GSC) MSTP representative, as led by Victor Borza and Sarah Reed, to increase communication, collaboration, and resource sharing between the MSTP and graduate school departments.
- Discussion of goals for G3 chalk talks (formerly research in progress talks) and clarification of objectives, relevance, and format for future years.
- Substantial discussion with the Leadership Team on MSTP participation in medical school longitudinal coursework during their graduate school years.
Though this list is by no means exhaustive, I feel it exemplifies the tangible changes made over the past year due to student involvement. As SAC Chair, I feel lucky to have worked with so many of you who are deeply invested in making our program better for our peers and future students.
Sarah Reed (rising G3) will take the reigns as SAC chair for the 2022-23 academic year. She has already begun work on creating easily digestible factsheets for the various graduate programs in an effort to ease the transition from medical to graduate school, which I am sure she will continue to create with SAC next year. I am grateful for all Sarah has done for the MSTP community already, and excited to see what ideas and innovations arise during her tenure as SAC Chair.
Sarah and I would like to sincerely thank all the SAC representative and committee leaders for volunteering their time and perspectives, as well as all students who provided feedback – whether in the SAC survey, during office hours, or chatting with us in the halls after seminar. We would also like to thank the Leadership Team for their continued support of the student-led initiatives. I truly believe our program continues to improve because of the ideas of the students, and the support provided for transforming those ideas into reality. As former SAC Chair Natalie Bennett wrote last year, our community is truly what makes the Vanderbilt MSTP the special place that it is, and we are so grateful to be part of it.
Emilie
Outgoing MSTP SAC Chair