get involved with IFMSA's international health front!
Andrea Shaw
With so many exciting new endeavors going on with IFMSA, I'm stoked for this
year! Fun lectures, advocacy, community service, exchanges, links with
national liasons, sweet!!! We’ve had two years of exchanges so far, we
learn more at each step of the way, the administration continues to be
supportive, and we look forward to more growth for the next exchange season!
A group of us have gathered post-exchange season to gather feedback from
this summer’s exchange students and discussed IFMSA structure at the
national and local level and how Upstate fits into this picture. We all
look forward to expanding clinical and research exchange opportunities here
at Upstate, but we need everyone’s help in doing this!
For those of you interested in sustaining the international exchange
opportunities at Upstate, the following shoes need to be filled so that we
can all lend a hand in the responsibility of supporting this program
together!
At the national level, the executive board has national officers that
include the president, VP, treasurer, secretary, etc, as well as national
officers of clinical and research exchange. The national officers connect
to local chapters via local officers, notably the local president and
exchange officers. This school year, Rokhsanna Sadeghi is our superstar
IFMSA president who will help oversea the lectures, activities, exchanges,
etc. But, there is still room for leadership help when it comes to local
officers of exchanges! If anyone is excited about keeping exchange
opportunities rolling at Upstate, the positions of LEO (local exchange
officer) and LORE (local officer of research exchange) are great ways to get
involved and learn the ropes of a great national and international
organization like IFMSA!
Responsibilities of exchange officers will include gathering student
interests, communicating with national officers to facilitate exchanges, and
communicating closely with clinicians, researchers, and faculty who support
foreign students when they come to Upstate on exchange. I'd be happy to
discuss specifics of these two positions with anyone interested in this
leadership role!
Additional responsibilities that we need for program development are
students to help with the following activities:
1. Housing arrangements for incoming students
2. Transportation for arrival/departure of visiting students
3. Social program- organize or gather ideas for visiting students
Responsibilities for exchange duties could easily extend to 2-4 students if
we had the interest and energy to expand our program in that way!!!
Please write back to sh...@upstate.edu if you have any interest in taking on
any of these local leadership responsibilities! An organization is only as
strong as its members and the sustainability of this student-run program
depends on students interested in international health who are ready to
stand behind it! Woohoo!!!
So, feel free to email me with questions or requests in the next week so we
can get an idea of how many people are interested in different positions,
then we can come together and discuss how this new structure will move
forward!
Peace,
Andrea