KaleidoMed<\/a>, a group of pre-health and pre-med students wanting to merge the institutional gap between the university and the city through medical volunteering and social work advocacy.<\/p>\nThe goal is to emphasize social work values like education and tolerance with medicine, said Hample, 18, of O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of students want to make these meaningful connections with our community, but they don\u2019t necessarily know how to,\u201d said Narayanakumar, 19, of Middleton, Mass. \u201cWe want to serve as a place where they\u2019re able to bridge the gap from the university to the people in our Pittsburgh community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal of the group, Hample said, is to work with outside groups for advocacy events both on campus and in the community. This could include a sexual assault awareness and prevention event, and community health screenings, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be able to build lasting partnerships so our students can consistently serve and learn,\u201d Narayanakumar said. \u201cWe focus on long-term relationships rather than just one-off events or volunteering.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Hample calls \u201cvolunteer matchmaking.\u201d She hopes the club can connect students to volunteer experience, mentorships or internships in fields or specialties of interest to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can pair people into these meaningful, long-term, sustained relationships instead of having these one-off events,\u201d Hample said.<\/p>\n
Partnering with longstanding groups is crucial, Hample said. She emphasized the importance of combining medicine and social work to approach underserved groups respectfully.<\/p>\n
The goal, she said, is to build empathy and understanding among students to better connect with the communities they serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that what we\u2019re doing is not just for show,\u201d Hample said. \u201cWe want to purposefully engage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hample is majoring in social work and biology. Narayanakumar is a biology and public health major.<\/p>\n
They both believe that the excitement of Pitt students matched with the longstanding work of community providers can prove to be a success for their club.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents, especially in the pre-health field, are itching to be a part of the community, but it\u2019s hard to find resources especially when you\u2019re in a new city, and especially if you\u2019re a freshman,\u201d Narayanakumar said. \u201cWe really want to be a group that can provide all of these resources for our members.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t