Student Experience

DOCS 2012 lets students give back

DOCS volunteers met on the MCV Campus for bagels and coffee before heading to their project sites.

Photo courtesy Bethany Morehouse.

The School of Medicine Class of 2012 held its first Day of Community Service, known as “DOCS 2012,” in April. First-year medical students organized and participated in this service project to benefit the Richmond community. 

“Community service is a way of life and not something that can be accomplished in a single day,” said first-year student Bethany Morehouse, who along with Kate Wilkinson served as co-chair for DOCS 2012. Read more.

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Students travel to Honduras for global health

Amy K. O'Toole examines a Honduran girl as part of the elective’s medical-dental clinic.

Dr. Steven H. Crossman (M.D.'95/M),  associate professor of Family Medicine and the elective's faculty coordinator, hopes that the students returned from the trip with an awareness that primary care means so much more to those who are poor.

"The students who have not traveled as much usually come back pretty shocked by the extremeness of the poverty," he said.

The Department of Family Medicine sponsors or co-sponsors three trips each year to Pinares, Intibuca, and helps to financially support the clinic. Other faculty members who participated in the project and traveled with the group were Family Medicine’s Dr. Daniel Lawrence (M.D.'80/M) along with Dr. Thomas Ball of the Shenandoah Family Medicine Residency Program and Janett A. Forte (B.S.'87/H&S; M.S.W.'92/SW) with the VCU Institute for Women’s Health.

The global health service learning elective is part of Family Medicine's ongoing program in Intibuca where students team up with other volunteers to provide assistance with projects in health education, children’s health, water filtration, medical and dental care, nurse midwifery and community health work. On this trip, students saw up to 30 patients a day in a three-room medical-dental clinic and served eight villages by providing basic screening and exams for children. They also were involved with a water-filtration project and delivered 37 new water filters to households.

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MCVAA supports student missionary

Renata Salvatori provides physical therapy to patients at the only Spinal Injury Hospital in Africa.  

The MCV Alumni Association recently provided a $200 grant to Physical Therapy student Renata Salvatori for a spring break missionary trip to Kenya.

Salvatori and two other students from VCU worked with a physical therapist from the U.K. and others for 10 days at the Spinal Injury Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya.  

“The hospital had 30 beds and there were 500 people on the wait-list," Salvatori said. "So we split the patients between the four of us and went to work."

With wheelchairs made out of plastic porch chairs and not enough room inside the facility, they improvised to make things work. Salvatori says she plans to return to Kenya one day. 

"I wish we could have stayed a little longer so we could help more,” she said.

She would also like to travel to different locations where there is a need.

A citizen of Brazil, Salvatori came to VCU six years ago on an athletic scholarship. She works many jobs. As a physical therapy tech, she helps her professors in the Physical Therapy Department with research while also tutoring and mentoring athletes for the VCU Athletics Department to pay for her graduate-level studies.   

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School of Pharmacy students recognized for excellence

Jennifer Austin (left) and Lina Saliba were honored at the APhA annual meeting.

Several VCU School of Pharmacy students were recognized at the American Pharmacists Association's Annual Meeting and Exposition April 3-6 in San Antonio.

Third-year student Lina Saliba was one of only four students in the country to receive an APhA Student Leadership Award.

The leadership awards, endowed by Procter & Gamble Health Care, recognize outstanding academic achievement and leadership ability in APhA-Academy of Students Pharmacists members who are in their next-to-last year of pharmacy school.

Jennifer Austin, also third year, was one of only seven students in the country to receive an APhA Foundation Student Pharmacist Scholarship.

In addition, fourth-year student Toni Coe and co-authors presented a poster, “Assessment of Patient Perceptions of Medication Use Problems and Pharmacists Providing Medication Therapy Management Services.” 

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Med students look ahead on Match Day

Fourth-year medical students learned their residency destination on Match Day, held March 19.

The day brought good news for fourth-year students who beat the national average with 96 percent of them matching to one of their top choices.

The medical center training programs were filled with the program directors' top choices for the first time in 16 years.  

Visit the photo gallery, the student residency destinations list and Dean Jerome Strauss' perspectives on Match Day.

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Dental student examines relationships

Lyndsey McCaskey will present her project at the upcoming Virginia Dental Association and American Dental Association meetings.

As part of Reunion Weekend, the School of Dentistry offered its annual Clinic and Research Day. Vendors displayed state-of-the-art equipment while students presented their research projects to a panel of faculty judges.

Third-year dental student Lyndsey McCaskey presented the day's winning project titled, "Psychosocial Impact of Class II Relationships in the Mixed Dentition." The purpose of the project was to see if people think differently about children who have Class II malocclusion characteristics, which includes small chins and flared upper teeth, typically referred to as buck teeth.

The evaluators were children between the ages of 7 and 12, mothers and elementary schoolteachers. The subjects were shown pictures of children between 8 and 10 with either a Class II appearance or what is considered a normal appearance. They were asked to indicate their perception of each pictured child for the following statements:

• This child is a good leader
• This child is good at sports
• This child has lots of friends
• This child is smart
• This child would be teased

According to the answers from every category, children with a normal appearance were perceived to be better at sports, a better leader, having more friends, being smarter and less likely to be teased. Overall, boys were rated better than girls at sports, but boys with a Class II appearance were rated worse at sports than girls.

Scientifically, early orthodontic treatment in 8 to 10-year-olds have no benefit over waiting until all teeth have come in, usually about age 12-14, but this study shows there is a psychological benefit to have the treatment performed earlier.

McCaskey spent a year collecting data in Richmond and near father Dr. Ted McCaskey's (D.D.S. '98/D) orthodontic practice in Butler, Pa. She won an all-expense paid trip to present her study at the upcoming Virginia Dental Association meeting and the American Dental Association meeting in Honolulu this October.

Pharmacy students give back at fair

Second-year School of Pharmacy students Cary Goin (left) and Brittany Cannon take their message on the road. 

More than 70 School of Pharmacy students took part in the school’s third annual Community Health Fair on April 17.

Third-year student Holly Gurgle reports that the fair at Manchester Middle School went really well.

“Each time that we put on these events, it gets a little better.”

In addition to 17 patient-education booths and diabetes and hypertension screenings, the fair offered something different for children: health-education classes on topics such as heart health, nutrition and substance abuse, poison and smoking prevention. Children in second through seventh grades were invited to participate in the interactive classes while their parents visited the “adult” portion of the fair in the middle-school cafeteria.

“The children’s classes were a total hit,” Gurgle says. “Kids did everything from play bingo to learn the dance moves to the 'Cupid Shuffle' to jump rope.”

Overseeing the students’ efforts were Akash Alexander, assistant professor; Amy Kennedy, community pharmacy practice resident; and Evan Sisson (B.S. ’92, Pharm.D. ’94), assistant professor.

The planning committee comprised first-year student Brad Martin and third-year students Jon Carter, Megan Danford, Deanna Flora, Dina Patel and Artie Strunk.

A number of pharmacy students also participated in the second VCU/MCV Campus Community Health Fair at Armstrong High School on March 21.

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Two VCU students earn Fulbright Scholarships

Jessica Jagger

Jessica Hite

 Jessica Hite, who graduated from VCU this spring with a master’s degree in biology, and Jessica Jagger, a second-year doctoral student in the School of Social Work, will receive funding from the Fulbright Program to travel to Panama and Jamaica, respectively, for in-depth study in their areas of interest. 

Six VCU students have received Fulbright awards in the past four years.

“These students have worked exceptionally hard in representing VCU in the

Fulbright Scholarship competition,” said Jeff Wing, national scholarship coordinator in the Honors College at VCU. “The Fulbright provides them with an invaluable opportunity to pursue their research interests in the field for an extended period of time. Their Fulbright experiences will inevitably influence their career trajectories,” he said.

Read more.

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Chemistry student named Goldwater Scholar

Syed M. Karim was named a Goldwater Scholar.

Syed Mohammed Karim, a junior at VCU, has been named a Goldwater Scholar, the premier national scholarship for undergraduate math, science and engineering students. 

Karim is the sixth VCU student to receive a Goldwater Scholarship in the past three years.

The chemistry major is a Gaithersburg, Md., native and attended Colonel Zadok Magruder High School in Rockville, Md.  Read more. 

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Honors student wins CAA award for paper

Provost Stephen Gottfredson congratulates student Kanwar Anand.

VCU Honors College student Kanwar Anand was awarded the first Undergraduate Paper Award in conjunction with the Colonial Athletic Association's "Globalization and Society in Modern India" conference.

His paper was titled, "Medical Tourism: A Perfect Example of How Globalization Has Impacted Indian Economy." 

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Brandcenter hosts Recruiter Session

The Brandcenter brings together students and recruiters.

Students graduating from the the VCU Brandcenter participated in a Recruiter Session in late April.  

More than 100 recruiters from around the world came to meet students and see their portfolios for potential job opportunities. The Recruiter Session is set up like an “open house” where students have the tables to display their individual work. Recruiters can review their work and then meet with students one-on-one. 

Afterward, students and professionals mingled at a cocktail party and discussed employment issues and job hunting.

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Ad students collect awards

Every year, VCU’s undergraduate advertising students enter their work into top creative advertising competitions. Student recognition has increased in recent years, with acknowledgment from top student competitions.

This semester alone, students have won a total of 17 Addy Awards, including Best of Show and four Gold and 12 Silver awards. All work originated as a class assignment in assistant professor Bridget Camden’s senior-level classes. 

 

The award-winning students will compete against the local winners of the American Advertising Federation District 3 ADDY winners from Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. All entries that receive gold and silver ADDY awards on the district level compete for national recognition, the third and final tier.

 

In the past, VCU’s advertising students were recognized by the New York One Show, the annual Richmond Show and in publications such as CMYK magazine, the top trend-setting advertising publication in the country.

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Arts students receive Javits fellowship

"Paris in 1939" by Nataliya Slinko

Students Ian McMahon and Nataliya Slinko have received the Jacob K. Javits fellowship to be awarded next year.

The four-year fellowship is awarded to fine arts students at the graduate level who have demonstrated superior academic ability and show a financial need. The Department of Education awards fellowships in selected fields of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences, which includes tuition and fees along with a annual stipend of about $30,000. 

Amy Hauft, chair of the VCU Department of Sculpture, said McMahon and Slinko fit the profile of other recent selections for the fellowship from the university.

The newest work from McMahon and Slinko is on view along with works of five other sculpture M.F.A. students in Viva Comet Unis, the VCU Sculpture MFA candidacy show at 1621 W. Main St. The show began May 8 and can be viewed by appointment. For more information, call 828-1511.

Students Angela White, John Henry Blatter and Sami Ben Larbi are current Javits Fellows. White and Blatter received their award four years ago and will graduate next year. Larbi received the award in 2006 and will graduate next year. Read more.

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Students reveal prototype on da Vinci Day

Mike Garrett unveils the prototype. 

A group of engineering, business and arts students unveiled April 15 the prototype of a $500 operating table for the developing world during VCU’s da Vinci Day celebration.

The prototype table the da Vinci team conceived is in four pieces – a base, a simple scissor jack, an axle and the segmented bed top. The price constraint dictated that components be readily available and mass produced. It fits into a 24-inch, cardboard cube, marked with a circled cross on the outside and the words “Operation Simple.”

The presentation was followed by a lecture from noted da Vinci scholar Bülent Atalay, Ph.D., of the University of Mary Washington, who discussed, “Leonardo and the Unity of Art and Science.” Read more.  

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