WIM MENTORING PROGRAM
Women in Medicine (WIM) is a student organization within Columbia University’s chapter of the American Medical Students Association (AMSA). WIM is dedicated to providing potential MD and MD-PhD students with information about pursuing a career in medicine and the sciences. Our organization centers on the experiences of female physicians. Hence, we host panels and invite female physicians to interact and share their experiences with undergraduate students. While gaining a broader understanding of the different fields of medicine, we also focus on issues specific to women’s health. We are constantly reaching out to our community. We participate in the annual New York City Women in Need (WIN) volunteer program, and have organized activities to help the women and children in the Bronx WIN shelter. We plan to further our community service this year.
For the past few years, we have established a small mentoring program for WIM members. Several physicians have generously donated time and energy, and allowed a student to shadow them. This proved to be an invaluable experience for our members and we are very grateful to all the physicians who participated in the shadowing program. However, limited by the number of participating physicians in the past, we were unable to match each interested student with a mentor. In the upcoming school year, we are hoping to expand this program, allowing more WIM members to explore the life and work of female clinicians and medical researchers. We are looking for female physicians at the Columbia Medical Center who would be willing to allow a Columbia student to shadow them and sample their specific field.
Our members have a wide range of interests and we strongly encourage physicians from different fields to participate. We often find that this experience is not only rewarding for the students, but also for the physicians. At the beginning of October, interested students apply for the mentoring program with the understanding that they are fully committed to it. We match each student to her mentor based on the student’s fields of interest and the physician’s specialty. Once this process is completed, the student is then responsible for making the initial contact with her mentor. Depending on the availability of the student and physician, the student can shadow the physician either once a week for a couple of weeks or on weekdays during school holidays (such as spring break and winter break). Our members are very flexible, and would be more than happy to work according to the physician’s schedule. This program should not be onerous for the mentor, and they are not expected to make special arrangements for the students.
Our members would love to have this opportunity to know more about the rewards and challenges associated with practicing medicine. We greatly appreciate your consideration and hope to hear from you soon. If you are interested, please fill out the following form and email it to womeninmedicine@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Caitlin Rogers CC’12 and Can Hu CC’13
Women in Medicine Co-Chairs
Columbia University: AMSA
