2009 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship
for Community Service
Scholarship Finalist
Nirma Dora Bustamante
UT Southwestern Medical School
2nd Year
Nirma's Essay on Community Service
A smile, a word, mere presence, you never know what can make someone’s day or inspire them for life. The effect on either party involved with each human connection experienced through community service is immeasurable.
As a first year student, my most memorable experiences were those at Onesimo Hernandez Elementary, Thomas J. Rusk Middle School, and with the Dallas Area Alzheimer’s Association. In the fall, I was the teacher’s aid for the kindergarten class every Thursday for about 5 weeks at Onesimo. I mainly helped her with arts & crafts projects, reading, and recess. As the first year representative for the AIDS Week Committee, I made a presentation on drugs to a class of 7th and 8th graders at Thomas J. Rusk Middle School. Being able to interact with the kids and showing them that it is possible to become a medical student, is what I enjoyed most. Furthermore, I was able to practice my clinical skills first hand as a volunteer at the Parkland ER about once every two months, and through multiple health fairs. The Kwanzaa Festival, Kinkeade Early Childhood Health/Immunization Fair, and United to Serve Health Fair allowed me to educate others about health issues that affect their everyday life through registration, nutrition counseling, and BP and BMI screenings. As a standardized Spanish-speaking patient, with the Interpretor Apprentorship Program, and as an interpreter at Monday Clinic, I was also able to utilize my linguistic capabilities to help students as well as physicians in becoming better equipped for their interactions with the significant Hispanic population here at Parkland hospital.
Still, with all the community service activities I was involved with last year, I believe that being an HPREP counselor was probably the most significant. I was not only making an impact every Saturday for 6 weeks to high school students, but it was an avenue to me becoming one of the coordinators this year. The Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP) is an outreach program designed to provide high school students with the opportunity to interact with medical students, faculty, and health professionals. Aimed at recruiting students who are interested in a career path in medicine, allied health, or science, the program exposes the students to UT-Southwestern and its clinical affiliates. As one of the four coordinators, I am responsible in organizing the events and curriculum for the entire program, especially those on January 17, 2009. The program runs from 8am-12pm every Saturday from January 10-February 14, 2009. Because most of the students that attend the program are minorities and from modest means, for me, it is a great honor to know that my hard work will provide an opportunity to show them that attending college is an attainable goal and hopefully inspire them to pursue a career in the medical field.
In addition to HPREP, I am also the NNLAMS Southwest Region Co-Chair and UT-Southwestern chapter secretary. The National Network of Latin American Medical Students is a non-profit organization founded to represent, support, educate, and unify US Latino medical students. As Southwest Regional Co-Chair, I am responsible for the 9 chapters in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado. My main responsibilities are to make sure each chapter is promoting recruitment and retention of Latino students at all levels, educating medical students on Latino health issues, advocating for the rights of Latinos in health care, providing leadership opportunities for Latinos, and promoting volunteerism in the Latino community. Through NNLAMS, I was one of the students responsible for a booth at VIVA DALLAS, a free expo that attracts Dallas area Hispanics interested in learning about important trends and innovations in health and the environment and education. We aimed at educating parents and children about the detrimental effects smoking and drinking could have on the body with liver and lung specimens.
My community service experiences have become an inspiration that further compels me to work hard, a reminder of the truly important things in life, especially before a test, and have been priceless in my development as a clinician. My only hope is that with each experience, I have had the smallest bit of impact on another life. As a woman and a minority, I hope this is especially true in the work I have done with kids and those from more humble beginnings.
