Pre-health students gain career exposure through RIT-Rochester Regional Health Alliance connections

First-year student Scarlett Ostos Gallardo jumped at the chance to attend a clinical workshop earlier this month for medical students on clinical rotation at Rochester General Hospital.

Gallardo, a biomedical sciences major from Sonora, Mexico, and her peers from the Pre-Health Society at RIT attended the lecture and training session, Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy (OMT) for Headaches, on Feb. 4, alongside third-year students from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“Being able to interact directly with medical students and learn from them is incredibly valuable,” Gallardo said. “The RIT pre-health program provides early exposure to clinical skills, different medical pathways, and opportunities to connect with students and professionals in the field.”

Kai Foust, a second-year psychology major from Saint Albans, West Va., also networked with medical students who were passionate about OMT. “Many of us were able to connect with medical students following different paths. It was a memorable experience.”

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RIT

Amber Charlebois is the director of RIT’s Office of Pre-Health Professions.

Amber Charlebois, director of the pre-health advising program—which is housed within RIT’s University Studies—wants the pre-health students to see themselves in the shoes of medical students. “Our students gain more than just clinical knowledge; they gain confidence and connections and the sense that that the ‘clinical years’ of medical school are within reach.”

Connections made through Catherine Shannon, executive director of the RIT and Rochester Regional Health (RRH) Alliance, opened doors to the OMT workshop series. The session is part of a pilot-series facilitated by RRH medical doctors.

“We want to move beyond the classroom to show students what years three and four of medical school feel like,” Charlebois said.

Hundreds of RIT students seek guidance from Charlebois in fulfilling their pre-med or pre-health requirements for professional or graduate school. Building community is one of her priorities for the still-new advising program.

As part of that effort, a new fellowship program will launch this fall offering additional leadership exposure and professional engagement for incoming students. Currently in the pilot phase, the RIT Health Leadership Fellows Program will build a tight-knit community of pre-health students who learn to navigate medical environments together early in their RIT career.

The OMT workshop series will be a signature offering of the fellowship program, along with specialized curriculum on community health and outreach, visiting guest speakers, and a $1,000 stipend for 15 fellows, Charlebois said.

Elismarih Gonzalez, a third-year biomedical sciences major from San Juan, Puerto Rico, gained a new perspective from the workshop experience.

“We were all learning the osteopathic manipulation technique at the same time,” Gonzalez said. “Being a part of the lesson made it a lot easier to stay engaged as part of the group and not just as an undergrad student watching.”

The RRH workshop series exposed RIT students to osteopathic medicine as an alternative to traditional allopathic medicine. Doctors of osteopathic medicine are physicians who adopt a holistic approach to healthcare. They practice in all specialties and apply hands-on techniques to diagnose and treat patients with musculoskeletal conditions.

RIT offers early acceptance programs for qualified students to the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, LECOM Early Acceptance Program, and the Early Opportunity Program in Medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

“I gained an understanding of the areas osteopathic physicians focus on and how Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy is applied in clinical settings,” Gallardo said. “I found the experience helpful in guiding me toward what I enjoy and what I may want to focus on in my future career.”