Dear Alumni and Friends,

Fall orientation has just wrapped up, and we are just beginning to catch our breath. Tailyn has spent the last week at the National Association of Advisors in the Health Professions conference in Cincinnati, and we have just completed our nominations for scholarships to premedical and pre-dental students. Our acceptance rates into medical school, dental school, and physician associate programs continue to highlight the quality of our Miami students.

I’m most excited about the generous $1 million gift from Dr. William McIntyre '68 to endow a second advisor in our office. This new position will allow us to expand our programming and provide more timely advising to the 1100 premedical and pre-health students that we advise. This addition will help us accomplish the mission or the Mallory-Wilson Center to “enhance and enrich premedical and pre-health education at Miami University by providing the resources, information, and support that enable students interested in a career in healthcare to make informed decisions about their professional goals and to develop a plan to achieve those goals.”

Our curricular and extracurricular programming continues to attract and engage students interested in healthcare-related careers. Programming at the Center includes:

In addition, the Center oversees a variety of endowed scholarships which are based on academic merit, financial need, as well as the Messenger Loan Fund and the Frankel Outstanding Premedical Student Award Fund. I am very pleased to report that forty-three students were awarded scholarships totaling over $100,000.

One area in which we are continuing to grow is our preceptorship program, which is an extended, immersion-style shadowing experience. We try to match our interested students with alumni volunteers, some of whom even offer living accommodations for the students during the preceptorship. Through the efforts of our admin, Kathy Erbaugh, we were able to place 48 Miami students in preceptorships. We are only limited by the number of Miami alumni physicians and healthcare professionals who participate in our program. If you would like to get involved, reach out to us.

We continue to be enthusiastic about the future of the Mallory-Wilson Center and look forward to continued success in our mission. Thank you for your interest in Miami and the Mallory-Wilson Center. Your feedback is important to us, so please do not hesitate to contact us with comments or suggestions, and stop by when you’re in town.

Best wishes and stay healthy,

The summer is always a quiet time around campus, but there is still plenty to work on. Every year we have more than 300 students who apply to healthcare professional programs, many who reach out for assistance writing application essays and preparing for interviews. It’s always a fulfilling experience reading the stories that have brought my students to this point, getting to learn more about them on a deeper level so I can give them more individualized advice, and receiving that excited email letting me know that they received an acceptance.

At the end of June I attended the National Association of Advisors for Health Professions (NAAHP) national conference in our own back door in Cincinnati. This organization has been around for 50 years uniting pre-health advisors and admissions teams from around the country, and provides us with resources and ideas to improve the services we provide to our students. Continue reading.

I have been able to take care of many multigenerational families throughout my years in clinical practice. It has been a very rewarding and educational experience being able to care for these families. I have been able to get a view of how family dynamics and support structures at home can impact an individual's ability to prioritize their health.

I have found it very rewarding to teach students while they are in their residency. I have been able to see my former residents flourish in their careers and it has been very rewarding to know that I was able to help guide them through their journey. Continue reading.

Back at home in Columbus, Ohio, I did not realize the importance of my identity because I was a part of a very diverse school district. I was used to seeing people that looked like me and people who did not look like me. However, when I came to Miami University, which is a predominantly white institution, it was normal to be the only person of color in a lab section and lecture hall. One challenge that I have faced is trying to find my voice in a community of people that do not resemble me. This being said, I have been able to grow because of this discomfort and learn how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Even though my identity has posed a challenge in the sense that I have not had as many resources as my peers, I realize that it can be a strength. My identity has enhanced my shadowing experiences with other PAs and even my job as a healthcare assistant at Planned Parenthood. My perspectives have allowed me to relate to other patients that did look like me and did not have advocates for them.

One of the first pieces of advice I give to my mentees in LSAMP is to never suffer in silence. A mistake that I made coming into Miami was that I was not confident enough to speak up about what I was lacking in that would help my pre-health journey and future applications. I would encourage students to be more vocal about their challenges, classes they are struggling with, and even financial hardships. If I would have done that, I would have realized that I was not alone and there were other people in the same boat who knew about resources that could help.

Another piece of advice I would give to minority students is to own your identity and to walk proudly and boldly in who you are. My last piece of advice is to be comfortable with the uncomfortable and know that you are going to have to try to break out of your shell. If you are a first generation student like myself, you do not have an extensive network of medical professionals that you can shadow or receive mentorship from. Even though we may be lacking in support, I encourage students that share this situation to be more vocal and practice introducing yourself and having a list of questions already in mind. It is really important to be able to hold conversations with medical professionals and network with them on your own so that you can build that sense of support for yourself. Continue reading.

I joined Dr. Katia Del Rio-Tsonis’ Eye Regeneration Lab during the fall of my sophomore year. I work as an undergraduate researcher under the mentorship of Dr. Del Rio-Tsonis and Jared Tangeman, a PhD student. Our lab performs research within the field of developmental biology and we hope to better understand the regenerative properties within the eye of our model organisms, the Iberian Ribbed newt (Pleurodeles waltl) and chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). I was drawn to this research because our findings can be applied to diseases of the human eye, which often culminate in irreversible blindness since humans cannot regenerate their lens or retina. As a pre-medical student, I felt that this research influences the healthcare field, which is relevant to my career goals.

Being raised in a multicultural city, Miami, Florida, has provided me with successful examples of diverse leadership and taught me to embrace my Cuban identity. As a minority in the research field, I was very inspired to join our lab because it is headed by a strong, Latina, Dr. Del Rio-Tsonis. I am grateful for the culturally sensitive mentorship that I receive from Dr. Del Rio-Tsonis, who makes diversity a pillar of her research group. The array of unique individuals involved in the lab has led me to witness how diversity can promote creativity and innovation. This inclusive research environment and Dr. Del Rio-Tsonis’ role modeling has helped me realize that scientific discovery is accessible to underrepresented minorities like myself. Continue reading.

Written by Jules Jefferson '24

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) happen across the country at many different institutions annually. SURF give undergraduate students the opportunity to learn more about how to conduct research under great mentors. Each fellowship lasts for about 9 weeks. Additionally, there is programming throughout the duration of the fellowship targeted to research and career development. Applications are typically due the winter before the intended summer. A list of SURF and programs like it can be found here.

I participated in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s SURF in 2023. I conducted research under Dr. Elizabeth Kramer, MD, PhD, a Miami University alumna. I investigated how diesel exhaust particles impact cystic fibrosis lung disease. Through my project, I gained experience working with a mouse model and cell cultures. I learned a lot about planning a project and managing how to prioritize the endpoints of the projects. I presented my research at the 2023 North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference. I was sponsored to go through being a Schmidlapp Young Women Scholar. I was able to do other activities while conducting research.

I shadowed my mentor in both an outpatient and inpatient unit at CCHMC. She specializes in pediatric cystic fibrosis; however, she sees patients with many types of pulmonary diseases. Shadowing helped me to bridge the gap between the clinic and the bench as a physician-scientist, which influenced me to attend an MD-PhD program after graduation. Although SURF is a full-time job, I was able to manage going to work while applying in the same cycle. SURF gives you time to delve into your project while still being able to do other things in your free time. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to participate in SURF. It was an impactful experience because of how much I learned and a fun experience because of the relationships I made with my lab members.

Interviewee: Emily Fitzgerald - President of MEDLIFE

MEDLIFE is an acronym for Medicine, Education, and Development for Low Income Families Everywhere. Our impact as a club is to raise money and awareness for local and abroad groups who are less fortunate. MEDLIFE is dedicated to volunteerism and raising funds to carry out these service opportunities. I am the President of MEDLIFE Miami.

The overall mission and goals of MEDLIFE Miami are to raise awareness and funding for local and abroad organizations that aim to serve the less fortunate, including providing them access to healthcare. Members of the organization also volunteer to assist with these service opportunities.