11/10/2022
Meet Our 2022 Summer Scholars Recipients!
Thanks to your generosity, we were thrilled to announce the 2022 cohort of OSMA Foundation Summer Scholars scholarship recipients!
Nearly half of short-term summer internship opportunities for medical career development are UNpaid. OSMA recognizes the financial challenges medical students face, and we're here to help remove some barriers. The OSMA Foundation's Summer Scholars program awards $2,500 stipends to medical students across Ohio's medical schools, helping to fill the financial gap of an unpaid internship.
Kamala Nelson
This summer, I am working with a general surgery resident in the Pritts lab to investigate specific storage bodies in endothelial cells called Weibel-Palade bodies, which release inflammatory and thrombotic factors, such as p-selectin and von Willebrand factor. We are hoping to further study the pathway by which these bodies are released through the use of different enzymatic inhibitors, such as calphostin C.
Aniruhd Prabo
The OSMA Foundation Summer Scholars program allowed me to dedicate time to this and support myself during the unpaid portion of this research opportunity. After dedicating time to this project, I am confident I want to pursue a career as an FQHC primary care physician and work on improving the delivery of primary care for Medicaid populations.
Rebekah Russell
I have been very busy during my summer research program. My first project has been conducting research at University Hospital exploring socio-economic factors involved in preterm birth within Cuyahoga County. In addition, I have been working on other research projects focused on the relationship between environmental factors and maternal health, the health of transgender individuals, and race and ethnicity in medical education. Furthermore, I am working on a few community projects. One project involves working with Birthing Beautiful Communities, a nonprofit community of birthworkers, to improve health education. My second community project is working with East Mount Zion Baptist Church to hold a community Health Fair.
Megan Sharpe
Currently, I have been tasked with getting responses to a survey asking the people of Northeast Ohio their thoughts/attitude towards COVID vaccines now vs at the beginning of the pandemic. I am also drafting an OpEd on the importance of a healthy diet/exercise plan in overall health. I would like to expand it to include the importance of green spaces, feeling safe, and POLITICS/POLICY AS A SDH (so happy about this!). Finally, I've been tasked with helping to plan a health fair for the month of July 2022.
Noelle Thompson
This summer I am working at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) in Geneva, Switzerland. FIND is a UN affiliated organization and global non-profit that is considered a leader in improving and advancing diagnostic equity and capacity around the world. This is a huge need in medicine and the gaps in it have been further highlighted over the last few years. My project this summer is to lead a research project where I am conducting a mixed-methods analysis of Global Fund data to better understand the extent of use of geospatial analysis across diseases.
Matthew Yoder
I continue to perform weekly tasks that maintain patient records in the clinic's EMR and ensure smooth communication with pharmacies and outside providers. We are in the midst of an account audit to determine which providers or volunteers no longer require access to our system in order to further our commitment to patient privacy and confidentiality. We have partnered with a gastroenterology office to provide a select number of diagnostic colonoscopies free of charge to patients with demonstrated need. I will be involved with the identification and documentation of eligible patients before, during, and after the event.
(Select “Summer Scholars Program” from the donation form's options.)