"EHHOP" stands for East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership. Um, so it's a student-run physician-supervised free clinic for undocumented and uninsured patients in East Harlem. And I come from an immigrant or undocumented background. And so that's a population that's really near and dear to my heart. And so that's some of the type of work that I always wanted to pursue coming into medical school. And so I took on a leadership role on the Access to Care Team, where we address a lot of social needs related to our patient population. So around emergency Medicaid applications, food insecurity, rent assistance, among other things.

I was involved in both the response to COVID from kind of a broader student body perspective, and also from the eHealth perspective. And so I think it really helped EHHOP get integrated very early on. And I think we were able to do incredible things. I mean, we raised close to $80,000. And that was split between funding for groceries for patients, and then also just direct cash grants to patients.

And I think that, you know, from a community standpoint, I think that like the fact that, you know, from basically like, no time, there's been several different like memorial services, there's different like speak-ins, different teach-ins, there's like several book clubs that have started. And I think that like there really is an ethos of really trying to, like, unpack all of what's happening, both like currently in the moment, but then also like way, broader scales, like what's happening in the world, and then particularly in the US, and I think that like, that's something you definitely don't have at other places.

Trying to make mental health care available to people of all colors and backgrounds. And that's why we go out there in the world. I actually do think it is very much in sync with the ethos of reducing privilege and creating equality and... and sharing what we have with the rest of the world.

The Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs, also known as "CMCA" is the school's Diversity Center. The CMCA really has two primary roles. The first role is to provide a space of support for students that are underrepresented in medicine and science, as well as faculty that are underrepresented in medicine and science.

The work they do is so present and I think particularly in this time, at this particular time in history, I think that like one of the biggest kind of like sources of support that I found has been like my like melanin doc group chat that is like been such a like a steadfast rock throughout it all. And that's like I know I can go for anything and vice versa.

The second role is really what I like to call CMCA, serving as an alternate platform for students to explore the MD+ and the plus is really an intersection of medicine and social justice through an urban health lens. And so the CMCA offers opportunities for all of our medical students to engage in research, training, education, service and advocacy, and community engagement opportunities, specifically in East Harlem, but also when possible throughout New York City and beyond.

Yeah, I mean, you interact with just about anybody from any walk of life, which is what I really love about this place. And I think it really makes you think critically about who you're going to treat when you're, you know, wearing your physician's coat or your white coat, in clinic, or in OR, whatever it is. And so I think it gives you a lot of exposure that I think is important for students to have during their medical training.

Honestly, students get involved through the contagious energy of our other students. You know, our students are so incredible and so energetic and, um, and do so much work. That it just, you know, the word gets out. You know, we will be at orientation. You know, we'll post it on Facebook and we'll email out. But every year we just get a wave of students that gravitate to their fellow students and to the energy of our program, and it just grows and grows.