DREAM - Driving Resilience through Empowerment, Advocacy, Mentorship

Driving Resilience through Empowerment, Advocacy, and Mentorship (DREAM) is a student organization at the David Geffen School of Medicine that brings together UCLA medical students, undergraduates, and medical faculty to empower underserved youth in Gardena. As a key partner of Gardena High School's new Medical Emergency Services Academy (MESA), DREAM will serve two critical and overarching roles: 1) Medical and clinical development For the past two years, DREAM has worked closely with Gardena High School to provide medical and clinical skills training on ultrasound, clinical problem solving, life-saving measures such as stop-the-bleed and overdose reversal, and more. These trainings are critical not only because they empower underserved youth to pursue careers in medicine, slowly adding to the mosaic of representation, but also because they propagate life-saving information throughout communities neglected by systems of healthcare and health education. 2) Medical Mentorship Academy (MMA) For the 2022-23 school year, DREAM is proud to introduce a year-long mentorship program that will bring medical, undergraduate, and high school students together through “mentorship families.” In addition to longitudinal mentorship towards a career in medicine, the MMA will also provide didactic sessions with themes organized into three blocks, all aimed at helping disadvantaged students get into college, pay for college in spite of obstacles brought on by socio-economic or immigration status, realize their potential for a career in medicine, and explore the different careers that medicine has to offer.

jesalcedo@mednet.ucla.edu

Signatories: Leslie Ojeaburu, Van Nguyen, and Christopher Dann

Advisor: Pamela R Cysner