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AMEC SZN
32 Plays2 years ago
There are only 25 days left until the Annual Medical Education Conference! We hope to see you on April 6th in Hartford! In this episode, we discuss highlights from Superbowl 2023, Renaissance ticket sales, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the Chadwick Boseman Memorial Scholarship, and the Black Doctor Shortage
We also asked past AMEC attendees about their AMEC experience, what they gained from AMEC, and why people should attend the conference!
To share your thoughts on our discussions or if you have any questions to ask our hosts, email podcast@snma.org for a chance to be featured on the show!
Disclaimer: The opinion and views expressed on our podcast do not reflect the official stance of the Student National Medical Association.
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
The views expressed on this podcast represent only those of the hosts and do not represent the views of the Student National Medical Association. It's officially 25 days left until AMEC, the annual medical education conference of 2023, will be held in person in Hartford, Connecticut at the Connecticut Convention Center from April 5th to April 9th, 2023.
00:00:24
Speaker
AMEC gives attendees several days of innovative programming geared at preparing the next generation of physicians for successful careers in medicine with tons of educational workshops and programs focused on academic and clinical success.
00:00:40
Speaker
professional development, and personal growth, AMEC is a premier experience that catapults attendees toward becoming clinically excellent, culturally competent, and socially conscious physicians. The regular rate ended on March 1st, but you still got the opportunity to purchase tickets. For more info, head to snm8.org slash page slash AMEC 2023 attendee.
00:01:11
Speaker
Let's get it!
Personal Growth & Overcoming Challenges
00:01:32
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to SNMA Presents the Lounge. Whether you're in the student lounge, doctor's lounge, or lounging around at home, get ready to join SNMA for meaningful conversations on topics affecting minorities in medicine and groups that often sit at the margins of healthcare.
00:01:48
Speaker
I am student Dr. Isabella, and it's officially March, and spring is approaching. For some, this is a season of harvest. We've got some spring, what's it called, flower buds coming out, not where I'm at, but probably somewhere else, maybe in Atlanta where Aldwin's at. There's some little flowers coming off, some warm weather trickling in. But the question of the day is, what type of harvest are we expecting to reap based off of the seeds we've sown?
00:02:15
Speaker
For me, I am expecting to reap a harvest of enjoyment. I have not enjoyed in a while, not since my birthday trip to Rome. And I need to get back to that level of just getting to really enjoy my life. There's board exams that now I may or may not have to move some test dates around just because of other things going on and just life-lifing, basically. And so it would just be nice to finally be able to just not have anything that is
00:02:42
Speaker
I feel burdening me and just to be able to enjoy. That is what kind of harvest I'm hoping to reap. What about you guys? What's going on? For me, I'm harvesting redemption.
00:02:55
Speaker
because people may doubt you, they may deter you, they may tell you things to prevent you from accomplishing the excellence that you see in yourself. And for me, I've always had the conviction to believe in myself. No matter where I am in life, no matter what position, when I'm down for the count, I'm never down for the count, right? Just like Weezy said, you know, they try to stop me, but they can never stop me. You know what I'm saying? I'm unstoppable. That's it.
00:03:21
Speaker
I'm harvesting the ability to redeem myself and claim the stake of success and accomplishment that I want to see in the world. And also, particularly for myself, when those that didn't believe in me, I believed in myself. So I say that to everybody. Always believe in yourself. Put yourself first, no matter what. You got what it takes. Erica, how you feel?
00:03:45
Speaker
What's up? What's up? Hey guys, student, Dr. Erica Dingle here. And you know, I feel like I'm in a harvest season of sowing seeds, if that makes sense. Like I feel like I just have a bunch of seeds that I'm sowing at the moment. So
00:04:05
Speaker
Nothing's necessarily harvesting at the moment, but in the future, I feel like I will reap from this extensive harvesting of seeds a lot of good things. Hopefully some peace, some prosperity, and gratitude.
00:04:31
Speaker
for myself and from others, just based off the season I'm in. So that's what I'm looking forward
February Events & Super Bowl Highlights
00:04:38
Speaker
to. This is a really good question. Love the reflection and love your answers. And now we're going to do what is our favorite part of the show, a real exciting show for everyone today. So it's time to run the list.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yes, let's go. For our preclinical students, running the patient list on the wards allows the team to address the pressing matters of the day. In this segment of the show, we'll be discussing some recent events in medicine and beyond that affect our communities and the populations that we serve.
00:05:17
Speaker
And lots of exciting things happen in February that we're going to highlight as well as things that are coming up. Um, cough, cough, a mech. So let's discuss. Can we start with the super ball though? I know what y'all think.
00:05:38
Speaker
Who wants to take it away? I mean, you know how the Super Bowl is probably one of the greatest, most magnifying events that we have here in America and in some fashions in the world? One of the best things about this Super Bowl is that this is the first time that we've ever had two quarterbacks face to face in the actual NFL Super Bowl. Highlighting that. Yeah, two black. You know what I'm saying?
00:06:07
Speaker
I'll talk about like in specific the game. I really enjoyed the game. It was, you know, initially I was going to actually hate the Eagles. So, uh, cause I'm a Giants fan. You feel me? So it's just that I live in Philadelphia. So I feel like I need to say something on their behalf, but honestly speaking, I don't even really care enough about Philly to be doing all of that. So, you know,
00:06:32
Speaker
Both teams, you know, Philly has amazing offense. You know what I'm saying? The Eagles had amazing offense.
00:06:41
Speaker
they just couldn't pull through. Because my home's pulled up. Even though he was injured, he actually had an ankle injury. So he wasn't up to par. But the rest of the team pulled up and showed our face, even though they was down initially. And the Eagles was punching them in the face. So overall, I thought the game was really dope. I highlighted a lot of successful black athletes. In particular, I wanted to really highlight Jalen Hurts, the quarterbacks for the Eagles, who has his whole team
00:07:09
Speaker
From his media manager to his agent, who's his actual girlfriend or fiance, one of those things are all women. They're all women. Yup. Yup. Although I would like to see black women for all of them. But there's about. He's not dating a black woman. He is. He's dating a black woman. I'm saying his squad for his squad that supported him. You know what I'm saying? He's not all women. You feel me?
00:07:36
Speaker
It's just want to make sure because I was like wait, so we're celebrating this because okay now I'm getting We just love that history month. So I feel that energy though. We need to bring that bring that I like that. I like that. Yeah, okay Hi, hi, hi, I thought about the game though. Hey, did you even watch it? I know yeah, probably was like Because I did not watch
00:08:10
Speaker
It was one of the most exciting, I'm not a football fanatic, but you know, I will, I will watch if they're like championship games. This was one by far
00:08:22
Speaker
one of the best Super Bowls I've ever seen in watching Super Bowls. Aside from, like, let's list out some of these notables first and then I'll kind of get into it. So we are all been already mentioned, right?
00:08:38
Speaker
We had two black quarterbacks that were facing off. We had Patrick Mahomes leading the Kansas City Chiefs, and then Jalen Hurts leading the Philadelphia Eagles. This was like black excellence on 1,000 for me, because then we had Rihanna come in later. But Jalen Hurts, he's the youngest quarterback in Eagles history to start in the Super Bowl. And he's like the underdog from his career at Oklahoma, I want to say. So it was just really good to watch how focused he was.
00:09:05
Speaker
Um, you know, they're young and leading their team. Patrick Mahomes was named the Super Bowl MVP for the second time in his career. Again, these like young dudes out here killing it. Um, so let me get into the game now. Like they scored in the first like two minutes of the game. It was out.
00:09:25
Speaker
The Eagles, I mean, they like they, this was a game. It really, really was just exciting. I was glued and I'm not, like I said, a football fanatic, but I really enjoyed watching the teams just kind of give it all that they had. They really left everything.
00:09:43
Speaker
that they had on that field. Now there was some issue with the turf though. Um, cause there was a lot of players that were slipping and sliding. So like even on social media, people were like, what's going on? Like, did y'all not check the turf ahead of time? Um, so yeah, I enjoyed it from a woman standpoint. And I know, you know,
00:10:04
Speaker
here and there, you might find some women that are actually, um, what am I trying to say? Just like, yeah, like they love football, not one of those, but I can say that I really enjoyed it. And then, you know,
Rihanna's Impact & Super Bowl Performance
00:10:20
Speaker
the Kansas City Chiefs won and it was really cool to see there was, what are the names of the quarterbacks or no, the other players open, the Kelsey brothers. Yeah. Yeah. So we had also had the half jersey. That was dope.
00:10:36
Speaker
Yes. So on both teams, there were brothers that were kind of going face to face. And it was just so cool to see at the end of the game. Mom was crying, but not crying. Yeah. Came up and hugged both of her sons. Yeah.
00:10:51
Speaker
Oh yeah it was well she was just she exhibited what it's like to be a mom in that moment and it was just it was dope so there's other stuff that occurred during this game right because it wasn't just all football so right it did y'all see like anything else from the show
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I came and I just, you know, I said, Rihanna, that was all I came after. I know there was other things happened too. Like, of course I watched kind of the beginning. So I did see the wonderful and amazing actress and singer Cheryl Lee Ralph sing, lift every voice and sing. So that was like a beautiful thing to witness. And also country singer Chris Stapleton. He also did an national anthem rendition that many are saying are actually is the top five of all time.
00:11:40
Speaker
Do you oh, what do y'all what do y'all thoughts about that? Cuz I'm gonna read I got a rewatch Okay, I got a rewatch to That's kind of tough. There's been mad people that we can leave that on the table for another I mean, I don't have enough to say cuz I don't even think maybe I like caught a snippet of it But I don't like I said, my focus is mostly on the Rihanna performance. So I don't really have much to say so it's something I
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, let's get right there then go ahead talk about your girl. Okay, so I need to shout out the person who did do the American Sign Language during her performance, which was amazing. I actually did see some I did see some clips on that on Twitter of her doing it. I thought that was like so dope. And I think it's nice because especially with all these social media platforms that we have coming out like TikTok, a lot of them are actually like actually like showing what it is to live as a
00:12:34
Speaker
deaf or hard of hearing person have whatever word you want to use to describe it and using sign language as a primary mode of communication in like general life just either with people who do use sign language or just people who are like regularly speaking some people also like I think some of them like read lips and stuff like that. So it's kind of nice kind of seeing how
00:12:54
Speaker
they're not necessarily exposing their community, but more so kind of informing and educating people who didn't have much knowledge as to how they really navigate through society as someone who's hard of hearing. Yeah. So I thought that was beautiful to see that Rihanna wanted to make sure they too were included in the performance and like got that recognition. But in regards to her performance, which of course is like what everybody was anticipating, I mean,
00:13:19
Speaker
We've talked about Rihanna a couple of times in terms of the stages of life that she's going through, how she's done her business with Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin, all of these things, had success with that, even her lingerie company and not been doing music for some time now. But now it's coming back and giving us some performances here and there. She released her single, Lift Me Up, that was written by Thames.
00:13:45
Speaker
And people have different opinions about that. People have different opinions about that. I have my own opinion about it. I thought it was a nice little sweet melody. Is it something that I think represents what Rihanna, what her platform typically is when she does music? No, not necessarily, but I thought it was different and whatever. She seems to be wanting to do a lot of different things these days in her life.
00:14:06
Speaker
Um, but in regards to the actual performance itself, I thought it was really, really, I thought it was executed well in regards to just like the staging, um, having, yeah, they had like floating stage. The set was like packed with so many bangers that she's had throughout her career from umbrella, uh, uh, Honda replay. Like she just like really came, came through it with her song. So I thought it was really nice. Like, um,
00:14:30
Speaker
And then even too, like the way that she kind of promoted the little surprise at the end with her baby bump, I thought that was like, okay, like, I love this for you. Because it shows us that she has, this is not the Rihanna that we watched when she was just, you know, only doing music. And that was like kind of her main thing. This is the Rihanna who's had all the success with her businesses, who's had her first kid.
00:14:55
Speaker
And now, yeah, exactly. And now Black Woman Billionaire, like, this is an evolved Rihanna. So it's nice to see her performing as this new evolved woman. And so I enjoyed it. I thought it was a great performance. Yeah, I think it was successful. And I'm glad that they used her as the main act in this football.
00:15:13
Speaker
Either way, if she was it's like you you can't win with the situation because even as she is pregnant, if she was doing backflips and flipping around, they'd be like, oh, that's too dangerous. How's she doing that when she's pregnant? But then she's, you know, moving in a conservative way, but still performing. And, you know, we know from medicine, especially when you're pregnant, that causes, you know, a lot of issues from a physical standpoint. Right. With breathing, you know, you have fluid overload is increases. And your heart failure, all that kind of stuff.
00:15:43
Speaker
So with that being said, like I really appreciate the fact that she was still able to perform on that stage perform those songs to the capabilities that we kind of expect her to do as well. Right. I think also like what was really amazing about the performance as well was like I like the dynamic array.
00:16:02
Speaker
of her being like on that platform and it's scary like you're in a huge stadium and you're going hundreds of feet up in the air standing there and to be able to perform and maintain your composure and you have a child with you and to think about that and that moment um I think was beautiful and also another thing I loved about it was Super Bowl performers are not paid right um when they think about Beyonce you think about yeah like
00:16:28
Speaker
But she was paid. I remember she she was paid because she was for more. Hello. And a different way. That's the same way by investing your time in the Super Bowl, because now she is going to build now is brand is acumen. People are going to start searching for it. So she did a really smart business move. And she's always been a business woman. She's like the richest black woman, one of the richest black woman in the world because of those kind of business moves. And
00:16:55
Speaker
I feel like really honestly, I feel like she's probably not going to drop any music anytime soon. And she doesn't have to. She's not obligated to do any of that. So for the people that's like on her, like, oh, why, you know, why I supported watching the Super Bowl? She hasn't dropped music. You know, hop off that. You know what I'm saying? Like she's still valid. She's still not because I really support her because even I seen a post the other day last week, she was on Skid Row. You know what I'm saying? And Kelly, it's an area in L.A. where they have homeless people.
00:17:22
Speaker
And she was giving back to those homeless people. So Rihanna, although she has all this money, she's always giving back, right? Like during the pandemic, she donated a million dollars for ventilators and also to Barbados at her home, you know, where she's from.
Beyonce's Renaissance Tour & Ticketing Issues
00:17:35
Speaker
So I really love to cherish what she's doing. And I'm very supportive that, you know, we are able to have another year where we have a Black artist that is being showcased and able to, you know, present their art in a historic moment that will live in infamy forever.
00:17:52
Speaker
Right. She did a thing. She really did. I think you guys summed up some of my thoughts. Everybody's going to always have something to say. She's evolved. She's a billionaire. She could do whatever she wants on that stage. And that's it. That's it. That's all. And I think she did us proud.
00:18:12
Speaker
you know, Black History Month, Black women doing their thing. And speaking of Black wealth, and what kind of can come off as people that are way out of our tax bracket at this point. Okay. The Queen Beyonce has officially announced her Renaissance World Tour.
00:18:34
Speaker
My goodness, I don't know if you guys had to deal with the Ticketmaster lotteries and the Beehive lotteries. It was crazy. Erica will be in Toronto in June seeing the Queen.
00:19:03
Speaker
I love this segment specifically because I can speak like personal experience about it. But real quick, so I'll do that in a moment. You know, she officially announced her world tour. Everybody went crazy. We do know she got
00:19:19
Speaker
She was snubbed for Album of the Year crazy at the Grammys. But despite that, because Beyonce fans stick together through it all, there's been so much demand and excitement for this tour. And the issue has been, you know,
00:19:36
Speaker
A lot of people were not getting tickets. There was a lottery. You had to register for either the lottery through the beehive or the lottery through Ticketmaster. A lot of people did both. And if you were lucky enough, you were going to receive a unique pre-sale code and that would allow you to buy tickets for preferred shows based on a group. So like group A with certain cities, group B with certain cities, group C, et cetera.
00:19:59
Speaker
The shows that were abroad, however, did not have this. So I think, like, when I said Toronto, like, oh, be clear, I'm paying less to see Beyonce in Toronto than I would in New York or the Meadowlands in Jersey. Are you flying? Yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
I am, but even still, the group of us that are going, it's cheaper. It would have been a cheaper experience to go abroad, and we're just making a little trip of it. But the issue I think that people are having, because your big cities like New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, they added extra dates, but
00:20:39
Speaker
The tickets are in like the thousands. Um, so, and I don't think this is a Beyonce thing, but then again, I don't know. I can't really say, I really don't think it is though. I think it's a ticket master poaching type of deal. Because these tickets are overpriced. Um,
00:20:59
Speaker
And there's a lot to be said about just the ticket industry for concerts at this point. But I've said a lot. What are your thoughts? I don't think y'all are going to the tour based on your initial reactions. But what are y'all thinking? No, I will not be going. And it's not because I don't support Beyonce or don't love her work or don't think that she's worth going. I just don't think it's worth that coin.
00:21:23
Speaker
in the stage of my life that I'm in. I'm a medical student. Like, okay, I got things I got to pay for. I have other expenses that are coming down the line. So I just personally don't have it, but I don't like to shame people for, you know, that's a base, that's an option that for those who want to do it, let them do it. I will not be doing that. And it's going to be, you know, I'm not in college anymore. I just, it's not that serious.
00:21:53
Speaker
There's other ways you can find money outside of that. But anyway, I just want to say that I don't like to shame people for choosing to spend on what they want to spend on. One thing about me, I'm going to spend on what I want to spend on. And you can think it's silly. You could think it doesn't make any sense.
00:22:11
Speaker
I will, but I will spend on it if it's something that's going to make exactly. So I never want to tell somebody, oh, don't pay this, don't pay that. If you have it, you have it. I just do think it's a little bit, um, it's just a little bit strange to me that it's like overpriced to that extent. Cause I just don't think it really reflects most of the people who actually listen to Beyonce, like this to me, you know, like say this is like,
00:22:31
Speaker
She's a someone who's consumed by a lot of like, I don't know, privileged, like white folk, not say that white people don't listen to Beyonce, I'm sure they do, but probably not to the extent that we do, you know what I'm trying to say? And a lot of us are just like middle class, you know, you know, well to do whatever living our lives.
00:22:47
Speaker
Normally, so it's I do find it a little bit odd that that's kind of the price range that her tickets fell into But once again, I don't like Erica what you already alluded to. I don't think it's a Beyonce thing I think it's you know ticket master and all of these other companies capitalizing off her in a greedy way. So
00:23:03
Speaker
It's unfortunate because now people it's it's barring people who otherwise want to go to not be able to go because of that and kind of Excluding her actual ride-or-die audience from listening to her and being able to experience that but hopefully You know, hopefully it's also a wake-up call to these companies that they need to chill out because like we're not also gonna just pay any price you guys want us to pay just because we have artists that you know that we do a you know, we do follow and that we do kind of ride for whatever and
00:23:32
Speaker
Um, so that's kind of my thoughts on the situation. And I think it's also good. I don't want to talk about everything, but I do think we've also kind of mentioned offline, like comparing her to other artists who have also had tickets that astronomically high, like Taylor Swift. And listen, I know I'm not a Swifty. I don't know what she's doing. I don't know what how her ticket prices have looked like. But all I heard is that it's been a bit similar to what Beyonce tickets are looking like. So I
00:23:57
Speaker
I don't know what you guys' thoughts are about that and whether you think that means that it's excusable or permissible for her to be having her tickets sold to that extent. Yeah. There were tickets though that were reasonably priced. If you want to be on the floor and club Renaissance, you're not going to pay. I think people just thought, oh, we just came out of a pandemic.
00:24:22
Speaker
And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to get four seats for $500. But going on those days, four seats for Beyonce were $500 at her last tour. And to your point, yeah, I don't think it's on her thing. I think, like you said, Taylor Swift had high ticket prices. I think this is just the route that these
00:24:48
Speaker
arenas are trying to take. I know that the Biden administration created a brief defining junk fees and other actions they've tried to kind of take and put in place to support consumers. Cause like people want to enjoy concerts like they did in the days of old. You buy tickets, you know, at your price point, we know certain tickets are really going to cost a lot.
00:25:18
Speaker
But there was there was $100 tickets for the for the show. Yes, yes. They still exist. This is we're not that deep in 2023 for them to be acting as if we're living in 3035. No, we could still, you know, I just I just don't think there's any excuse for this. So, yeah, I hope that this is, like I said, a wake up call to these ticket companies because it's not that serious. You know, personally, I just I don't think it's that serious.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah, Ticketmaster monopolized in 2010, or one of those years in the early 2010s-ish. They bought another company now, and now they've been the ones to capitalize on that. And we're seeing in fruition what has been a result of that. As you mentioned, Erica,
00:26:08
Speaker
pre-pandemic, her prices were 500, but now you spending, you know, a thousand plus on those same tickets. And remember during the pandemic, you know, Ticketmaster, it wasn't making bread, right? All of these venues and events by artists were not, you know, it wasn't a palpable situation, right? Everything was kind of virtual, right? They couldn't take advantage. So they're trying to capitalize now today on getting some of their money. And I do feel like Beyonce,
00:26:36
Speaker
Although it's not her fault, I do feel like Beyonce can have some say in regards to marketing, merchandising, or, you know, the promotion. I agree. And not utilizing chicken master. It teaches on rate. If you spend bread on and your lights light build not paid or your kids diapers is, you know, ran out, whatever the case may be, you can't afford kids diapers.
Chadwick Boseman's Legacy & Health Awareness
00:26:59
Speaker
That's your own decision. But at the end of the day, I think that there is some type of responsibility on her to be able to at least say something about that, right? Like, apologize. Because, you know, most people are middle class or below.
00:27:15
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Listen, she's not apologizing and I personally, I wouldn't apologize. Listen, she needs to get her coin too. She's still a human being, like whatever, not to the extent of like I said to this part, but I still don't think it's that serious. I mean, I don't even think she gets paid off a ticket. They pay her before, right? They say here's how much you're going to make, right? Performing. They're going to pay her regardless.
00:27:38
Speaker
No, Taylor still got to apologize first of all for she apologize. That's just my two cents. Anyway, I'll be honest. We love you though. We support you on the podcast, but you know, kind of on that, that wavelength that we're talking about, financial, entertainment news, you know, we're talking about spending too much, but I think it's time to kind of circle back to the part of giving rather than taking. Taking, yes. Oh, okay. So.
00:28:04
Speaker
something more on a positive note with Chadwick Boseman's Memorial Scholarship that actually was just recently instated. It's a 5.4 million scholarship at Howard, his alma mater, my alma mater, so you know, I gotta talk about this. And Chadwick, there's basically kind of a little spiel about the scholarship, but it was established to provide incoming students enrolled in the College of Fine Arts, Department of Theater Arts with a four-year scholarship to cover the total cost of university tuition.
00:28:30
Speaker
So the scholarship is awarded through a selection process guided by the dean of the college and the department chairperson. So this was actually established with the support of Bozeman's wife, Simone Luard Bozeman, and sponsorship from Netflix, which was the inaugural donor. So basically, they plan to have the first four scholarships to be awarded to one recipient in each class beginning in fall of 2021. And they're going to continue to distribute it to an incoming freshman each year on an annual basis.
00:28:54
Speaker
Um, the scholarship is going to just focus on students who exemplify exceptional skills in the arts, kind of alluding to Boseman. And, you know, he also too was a, uh, I think he was a film major, some, he also was in the college of fine arts as well. Um, and who also demonstrate financial need. So the inaugural class, we're going to shout you guys off.
00:29:12
Speaker
in this podcast for fall 2021 were Sarah Long, a freshman in musical theater, Sean Smith, a sophomore studying acting, Janae Ferguson, a junior in theater arts and administration, and senior Deidre Duncan, who studied dance. And actually more recently, Jaylen Seiberg, who graduated from Mount Vernon Stencil Washington School of the Arts in 2022, she received this Memorial Scholarship as one. I know that was kind of floating around on those social medias and everything. So I think it's amazing. What are you guys' thoughts on this momentous scholarship?
00:29:41
Speaker
I love that he's able to continue his legacy. I think one of the most important things for me is being able to create scholarships and fund, especially for our minorities, the opportunity to be in these spaces where they can continue their excellence. And this is a way for us to create a memory of him, a sense of his essence being perpetuated into the future.
00:30:02
Speaker
and knowing what he stood for. Everyone knows that iconic when he was at HU and he was delivering that message about persevering and never losing hope and never giving up. And this stands for what he truly stood for. And I really truly believe that what Chadwick Boseman is
00:30:22
Speaker
is HU. It is our community. It is our culture. And to be able to allow people, that's one of the greatest gifts to give somebody. You know, education, knowledge, and the tools to be successful. We undermine that so much, where we put so much money and buying Gucci and Birkin bags and getting this and that car. But you can never, it's priceless what this education will mean for these people. And who's to say?
00:30:46
Speaker
You know, we have what someone said in acting theater arts, these might be people that might actually be popularized in the next 10, 15 years based off of this scholarship. Right. So he's doing something, not even his physical presence being here, but the fact that he's doing something that's going to leave a lifelong legacy. And that's what we need to do. And that's inspiring. So many different ways.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah. You hit the nail on the head legacy, man. That's what it's about. So many people talk it before they, you know, make their transition and you see nothing of them in the, you know, when they pass. So shout out to that. Oh my good Lord. Shout out to his wife. Cause only like, I can only imagine what
00:31:35
Speaker
like having to be the standing, you know? Yeah, she's dope. That has to be hard, but you know, she is a part of his legacy. So it's amazing. Congratulations to the students. Again, HBCUs for the win, always and forever. That's it? HU Howard. We in here.
00:31:57
Speaker
It'd be crazy like how many like how many celebrities that got bread but like don't even like make scholarships you know I'm saying like they could really create these scholarships to help but that's another topic but I just find that so interesting that we have so many scholarships that with people that don't even have bread but
00:32:16
Speaker
even Chadwick Boseman and his death, he's able to create that. But there's people living literally in today, right now, getting up, talking about, oh, I got 20 cars, you know, and this and that, you know, y'all know what I'm talking about. So it's the person that you just mentioned their name, like, two, three minutes ago.
00:32:34
Speaker
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know what? You know what else I wish, I wish to know. Oh, and that was a good point though. I agree with you. I think black celebrities should do more. One other thing that I wish black celebrities did more of was promote their own health and wellness. For example, we didn't know that Chavac Bowden was suffering with colon cancer.
00:33:01
Speaker
until I feel like he passed and that's fine because you know who are we to just invite ourselves into the lives of others especially when they are celebrities but I just feel like especially in the age of social media and in the age of
00:33:17
Speaker
people do what they see. Maybe we'd gain more traction in promoting health and wellness. And, you know, in this case, we have our health month that we always highlight for March, it's colorectal cancer. And we know that that's what, what took Sir Bozeman out of here. So, um, it, it, it, it affects black men.
00:33:42
Speaker
Oh, highly because they're not out here getting screened like they should. But just a little bit of knowledge about colorectal cancer. So it's a common and lethal disease. And the risk of developing colorectal cancer is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. Globally, it is the third most common diagnosed, commonly diagnosed cancer in males.
00:34:09
Speaker
And the second in females, according to the World Health Organization, now rates of both incidents and mortality are substantially higher in males than in females. So again, men, y'all gotta go start getting screened when it becomes age appropriate.
00:34:27
Speaker
There are some geographic differences with regards to, you know, the incidence rates. So, for example, in Australia and New Zealand, Europe and North America, and lower rates have been found in Africa and Central Asia.
00:34:46
Speaker
But you know that diet, environment exposure, your socioeconomic status, like these are the things that will influence whether or not you end up, you know, as a person that gets diagnosed with this.
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, we just we got to live better and treat our bodies better. Some things we can't really avoid. Like, I can't avoid what's happening in my environment. I'm about to pick up and move. But there's some things we all know we could take. So I think like the screening and the prevention is so key, especially like, again, with black men.
00:35:28
Speaker
We think about it. Oftentimes many men think about it. I'm going to have something go up into my derriere and back. And that's a certain way, the misperception of that. But you rather die than have an actual diagnosis or be able to be diagnosed early enough so that they can intervene and catch the polyps or catch the things that can eventually develop into the cancer, which for colon cancer spreads very rapidly and has disastrous
00:35:58
Speaker
outcomes. I think we ought to continue to speak for like the diet too, right? Like eating red meats, a lot of processed meats increases your risk for colorectal cancer. And not saying, you know, you have to rid yourself of this, but in anything in life, you got to do it in moderation, right? What you eat truly becomes who you are and a manifest in your health.
00:36:19
Speaker
So if you eat a lot of fat, then your body's going to become fat, and you're going to have a lot of fat in it and increase your risk for other things. So having that conversation and continuing to talk about this is really key. And I think we don't do this enough. I know a lot of my homies, they don't go to the doctors at all. They just don't. Even at 30, I'm 30, I'm 35, I'm 25, whatever. I'm healthy. I don't got no symptoms or nothing. But that's the thing with these things, right? They catch you off guard.
00:36:48
Speaker
when you start losing weight. And sometimes the symptoms are subtle too. You can't even like- No appetite. You know what I'm saying? Like you can't walk, you're weak, et cetera, et cetera. It's like, yo bro. And then next thing you know, you got stage four adena carcinoma or colorectal cancer. You know what I mean? So being able to do this early on, you know, I urge everyone, even for myself, you know, I've been doing a better job of going to a doctor and trying to rid myself of that mentality. Like I'm healthy. I'm not, I'm not having any symptoms. So
00:37:16
Speaker
what I need a doctor for. Especially being a doctor, it's crazy how that works. But anyway. And I think it's like important too that we mentioned on the podcast, you know, because we know that not everybody's going to, like you said, Aldwin, especially with black men, want to do the screening or whatever, take the necessary steps. But I think, you know, one thing we can do, at least for them on this podcast, is let them know about some of the symptoms that they could possibly see that could
00:37:40
Speaker
prompt them to maybe say, hey, let me go see my family doctor, my internal medicine doctor, whoever you see to get checked out. But some things to make note of that people who have had some form of colorectal cancer or maybe abnormal polyps or something of that nature would be a change in your bowel habits. So are you now having like
00:37:59
Speaker
looser stools or something like that. Seeing blood in or on your stool after you have a bowel movement so when you wipe you see like blood on the tissue or something like that. Diarrhea, constipation or just feeling like the bowel doesn't empty all the way. Abdominal pain aches or cramps that just don't seem to go away and then as you've already mentioned all done with weight loss and not being able to explain why you have it. So those are just you know symptoms that our listeners can
00:38:23
Speaker
Hopefully like I said this none of us would have to deal with something like this happening to us But maybe you know somebody who's been complaining about those things, you know or maybe yourself because these days I'm hearing that people even close to our age are Getting these this this type of cancer like it's actually really insane so I think that everybody should just be mindful of your body and
00:38:43
Speaker
any change that you can feel that is similar to what we've just said on this podcast. So, you know, like we've all talked about in terms of how to continue to fight this horrible disease and kind of just prevent it from escalating to a point that will be harder to treat, you know, there are just internal risk factors, age being the biggest risk factor for just sporadic colorectal cancer. Usually, I think they said it's more the incidence kind of begins to increase significantly, significantly between the ages of 40 and 50.
00:39:13
Speaker
And so that's why I think they're actually doing screening before I think it was 45 but they dropped into 40 because people were getting it at younger ages. So kind of just keeping that in mind. So if you know anybody, maybe your parent or whoever who's past that age or within that age, maybe you want to tell them hey,
00:39:28
Speaker
like go get screened. You know it's something that can be quick and I think the colonoscopy is the best way to do it because that actually tells you whether they can actually see the abnormal polyps. Some people do like the fecal occult blood test or something like that but that's not as specific because it doesn't tell you whether or not there's actually like polyps that are there that are abnormal which could then
00:39:49
Speaker
transform into some cancer. So colonoscopy being the best way to screen and just making sure, yes, that they said at age 45, but like I said, it may have dropped to 40 now. I think it did, but I'll have to kind of cross reference that.
00:40:05
Speaker
And also, if you are, if it is 45, let's assume it's 45, if you have any family history of somebody who's had any kind of inflammatory bowel disease, so that's like Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, if you know anybody in your family who's had colon cancer, or if you have a genetic syndrome known as
00:40:22
Speaker
Basically, the abbreviation is FAP. I don't really feel like pronouncing the whole thing but if you type in FAP colon, it'll pop up or Lynch syndrome and Lynch syndrome is a genetic condition where typically you have different members of your family who have different kinds of cancers. So, some may have ovarian cancer, some may have breast cancer, all those things. So, sometimes…
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah. Listen, you know, I'm in my step one study period, so I got to spit. Okay. Okay. So I better know what the heck I'm talking about. So yeah, I think in a nutshell, um, you know, this, we're talking right now just about prevention screening and just things we can be mindful of to continue to keep this disease at bay. Um, but I kind of want to throw this question out there though. You know, Chadwick was only 43 when he passed away, right? And
00:41:07
Speaker
Do you think because of his notable example and other people of color, especially men, that folks in our communities should actually be screened earlier in life? What are you guys' thoughts about that? I think that they should be screened early enough.
00:41:21
Speaker
I don't, I mean, I'm not, I'm not sure like at what age would be particularly the best to do that because you don't want to be over invasive with those kinds of things. Right. Cause you, you know, you have to, you know, undergo anesthetics and, you know, you have to drink the fluid and all that kind of stuff. And it could be traumatic and traumatizing, especially for black men, right. And then the setting up.
00:41:42
Speaker
how they feel about that situation so I do believe that prevention is the best way because often times especially we see with breast cancer and other diseases
00:41:54
Speaker
when it manifests is at the worst because we haven't been able to capitalize on opportunities to meet our physicians where they're at prior to being diagnosed or prior to the disease developing. And when we talk to our, you know, our black men, I think that we have to be in these spaces where you find them at, right? Barbershops, you know, arenas, basketball arenas, you know, sport events, right? The church.
00:42:20
Speaker
You know, meet them where they at, you know, sometimes a liquor store and being able to sit down with them and let them know, like these are some of the consequences of health that can manifest. And if you don't know, you don't know. And I think even a lot of people aren't even sure of why Chadwick Boseman died, to be honest in our community. They just know that he died, but they don't even know that he had actual colon cancer. He's like, oh, he died at early age. That sucks. Too bad.
00:42:45
Speaker
But to be able to have that sit down and that that one on many black men, they don't have that right. They don't have someone to sit down with them, make them comfortable to acknowledge the fact that their health should be a priority, because if you're not healthy, then you can't take care
Black Representation in Healthcare
00:43:00
Speaker
of their family.
00:43:00
Speaker
We just be on the grind. We just be on the go. Like, we just try to make it out here. So I think it says a lot about where our culture and our society is. And even, you know, we know the disparities and we'll talk about it later in terms of, you know, the amount of Black doctors that are out there versus our population that causes a significant effect on that. So we just need to be out here and make sure that our brothers are, you know, held down and we're not doing enough of that.
00:43:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, historically, we've been left out of the conversation and left away from the table. Because what is it now? Like 5.7% of doctors in the US, like under 6% of black doctors
00:43:52
Speaker
in the US. I'm getting your drifts this year, like less than 6% of doctors are black in the United States. Sorry, I'm just, my brain is going. Listen, that's why you have us. There's not enough of us. So, you know, when you talk about the need for screenings and the need to push
00:44:11
Speaker
for screenings and whatever else to take care of our health. Like, well, there's the reason right there. It's in our faces. And there's a black doctor shortage, right? We know this. We see it when we go to our own doctor's offices. Let me ask a question. When did you see your first black doctor? What age?
00:44:36
Speaker
I had to be like maybe like maybe 14? That's cap.
00:44:44
Speaker
I think so because, but you know why my mom had a friend, my mom grew up with a friend and she was like, I had one pediatrician for most of my time. And at some point she wanted us to switch pediatrician. So she forgot that she had a friend who was a pediatrician. And so she started taking us to her, but she was a little bit farther away from where I lived. But I had to probably already be a teen at that point. Like I think I was maybe 14, 15 or so. And I didn't even really see her for that long. Cause I soon was going to become an adult and transition into
00:45:12
Speaker
Adult care and not see a pediatrician. So yeah, so team for you about you all in for me is probably I mean I so I had a She wasn't a continued doctor. So but she was a pediatric resident and I remember I was an NYU booklet and they had a photo of us I was on my mom's lap and she
00:45:35
Speaker
was smiling at me and seeing me, but she was a resident at the time. That was the first time, but I don't remember that situation. I just remember the picture, but for real, for real, the first time was when I was an undergrad, probably like when I was 20, when I went to an event for a guy called Dr. Levi Watkins, who
00:45:57
Speaker
found a defibrillator and his mentee was there. And that's when I first shadowed like my first black physician. You know what I'm saying? So I was like 2021 is the ER doc kind of thing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. How about you? Well, I was going to, so follow up question and then I'm going to add answer for both of the questions just real quick. So when did your influence, like did it come from, did your influence to become a physician come from a black doctor that you saw or met?
00:46:24
Speaker
Or was it just, I want to be a doctor? Like how? A lot of people.
00:46:28
Speaker
Um, well, I kind of grew up in a health centered family a little bit. Like my mom is a pharmacist. My dad himself is like a physician. Yeah. So like I kind of kind of grew up in that space. Okay. No, no, no, no. Cause I'll tell you, this is the, we're talking about, cause you guys know I'm Nigerian, right? Like I'm Nigerian American. And there's a whole process when you're an international medical graduate, as you probably know, Eric, because he also went to school in the Caribbean. So that process is crazy. And he didn't even get a residency until like, I was already almost.
00:46:57
Speaker
Like, I think I was probably midway through high school. So for most of my life, my mom was actually the breadwinner because she was like, wow, the process of can you please?
00:47:06
Speaker
No, I'm just saying, like, that's real, like, that's tough. Yeah. Just because the process to, like, getting your license to practice pharmacy as an international medical graduate is much simpler than if, say, you're a physician from, like, it's just, the process was way more seamless. So she is actually the person who was mostly the breadwinner in our family. So she was actually the one who actually inspired me to go into health more so because she kind of lived and breathed, like, nutrition, wellness. Like, we always only ate, like, organic food. She always knew what medication I needed to take and stuff like that if I was sick. So I think, like,
00:47:35
Speaker
her being so health-minded and so whole conscious kind of like gave me that interest early on. I knew I didn't want to go into pharmacy because like drugs wasn't really, I wasn't like crazy about drugs, but I cared about the whole mind, body, well, like wellness kind of taking care of yourself. So I think that was my influence. So you are more in, yours is from home, right? Exactly. Basically it was more from home. Not to remind you so. So all of a sudden, what about you? Yeah. Minds was, I mean, my mom's a nurse, licensed practice nurse.
00:48:02
Speaker
My eyes was really like innate, really. And then eventually became like, I'm seeing more black doctors, right? Like on social media or connecting with them, et cetera, et cetera. But it was innate for me because I knew that in my community, like there was no black doctors at all. I needed to be that representation and leader.
00:48:22
Speaker
Got it. So for me, I had a black pediatrician. Dope. Aw, that's great. And that's what made me want to be a doctor. So my point, I know that was a lot, but I think the point is having more doctors makes more people that are black want to become doctors. You know what I mean? Exactly. So we have this shortage, and everybody's asking, why is there a shortage? Why are there not more black doctors right now? It's because we're not seeing more black people become doctors that much.
00:48:51
Speaker
I mean, I wasn't trying to take us down a long road. I just wanted to show if there's more of us, then there will be more black doctors. We have to continually remember that. Most people don't see their first black physician until they're either out in residency or a medical student. That's a five.
00:49:16
Speaker
I mean, there's been articles about it. We have Jacqueline Howard from CNN, um, who kind of shed light on this and there being, you know, just sociopolitical and economic conditions that exist in the background that contribute to the disparities that we see. And I really want to discuss though, I don't want to mispronounce his name or this person's name. Don't worry, I'll say it. Okay, please. Sean Adebaybo.
00:49:44
Speaker
Yeah, thank you for announcing. I'm a 30 a med student in Boston and she was interviewed in this article and had a lot of questions that kind of pertains to us. I'll list a few of them.
00:49:59
Speaker
The deeper she got into her medical education, the more she realized, or I'll read it in her voice, the deeper I got into my medical education, the more I realized if I'm in the system, I know how it works. I not only know the science, but I also know how the system works. She said how in many black and brown communities there can be limited access to care and resources within the medical system.
00:50:24
Speaker
I know what to ask for on the patient side, but if I'm worried about something for myself, but then also for my parents and my family, I feel you sis on this 100%. Because the way you have to move in the system as a black person is very different, especially if you're coming from a background where you don't have any family members that are doctors. You don't know anyone in your periphery that went into medicine. So I think these comments from this student,
00:50:54
Speaker
they heavily influence this issue. It's systemic and it's not something that could be changed overnight. So I don't know your thoughts.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that, I think what she said is powerful in the beginning in terms of like, I not only know of the science, but I know how the system works. And that is the part of medicine that we actually don't really realize is the most important part, you know? We come in, bright-eyed, shiny, like, oh my gosh, I want to go into medicine, I want to change the world, I want to make it impact, I want to do all these things, but then you realize, but then you realize,
00:51:32
Speaker
Okay? You realize how many roadblocks are set up for you. You realize that they actually don't care about you at all. Like, this is what she doesn't care about you. And you need to fend for yourself. And even if you have the knowledge, there's still going to be internal factors that are going to block you from receiving the care that you deserve. So once you see that, you know, a part of you realizes that outside of just the clinical aspect, you have to do the advocacy part as well or else it means nothing, you know?
00:52:00
Speaker
So I think she brought up a very good point that we need to kind of continue to mull over. But you know, that's why what she was mentioning. That's why I always go back to my block, right? Because even now, like, you know, being in the school system, whatever, I see kids and they're like, you're a doctor and they're just surprised, especially black kids and stuff like that.
00:52:23
Speaker
Because I don't even have to say a word, but the fact that they acknowledge and see that you're a doctor, it changes the world for them because now they envision what they can possibly do. They initially couldn't see that because you are what you see. If you don't see black doctors and you're black itself, then that's like the extreme extent of which you believe is possible for you. But in my neighborhood, we, you know, we got a lot of dudes, I think, you know, and respectfully, you could do what you want and
00:52:52
Speaker
Anything can happen, but respectfully believe they could be athletes and rappers because we are inundated with social media. A lot of rappers that are black, a lot of athletes that are black that are doing superb things and not nothing against them. But that is not the only field that you can find yourself in.
00:53:09
Speaker
We look at places like technology, you know, STEM, right? Like there's a lot of places where you can make a lot of bread, but because we don't advocate or we don't expose that to these children in these school systems. And I think it's really a manifestation of the racist, the racism and the structure of racism that's preventing us from getting accessibility to these places that we're not there. You know, we got one to 2% of people in STEM tech, you know what I'm saying?
00:53:37
Speaker
Like that's crazy. You can make six rigors being a software analyst or software engineer or aerospace engineer or you know what I'm saying? Cyber security. But you don't know what you don't know. And so that really speaks to that, right? Like not having family members, not having people. And for me, like I really had to get out the mud, right? My mom was an immigrant from Cameroon.
00:53:59
Speaker
came here and didn't really know any of the you know the culture of America and so being able to like find myself and learning about that now my duty is to advocate for people and also be in those spaces where I can say I got you I got a homie that called me last week one of my mentees this man um
00:54:20
Speaker
You know, he'd been to jail and in prison, all that. He had a sentence, got charged and all this stuff. End up getting accepted to med school here in America and didn't have the top MCAT scores and none of that. But he's like, bro, you believe in me, right? And because you believe in me and I saw how you was working and I saw that you was present, that I knew that you could do what you did. You know what I'm saying? I see my story. So, yeah, thanks. Yeah. From that perspective, it's like it's about the exposure and who you know and what you know and what you encounter.
00:54:47
Speaker
So that I think is important for us, not to just and I see a lot of doctors like we're in the hospital, we work and that's great. But please like being a community as much as you can, you know, when you have the opportunity to speak to children, even if you're not getting paid for it, just be there like
00:55:04
Speaker
It's great to be a doctor, but it's also great to be an inspirator and someone that encourages our community to see and envision what they can do in the future. And that is what life is about. Like we mentioned on this podcast, leaving a legacy is not about just yourself.
00:55:24
Speaker
But with that being said, I mean, you kind of already touched on it all doing like, where do you think that pipeline, where do both of you guys think that pipeline is kind of leaking? Because I do think that like with anything, like you said, with any profession, there has to be a way that you encourage a demographic to enter that field. And most of the time, there are certain things that.
00:55:43
Speaker
the person's going to have in their life, whether it's school or whether it's going to be where they grew up influences people that they know, family members, whatever, that's going to encourage them to say, hey, like, either I want to go into medicine, or I want to go into tech, or I want to go into law or whatever, at least for the medicine aspect, where do you think that pipeline is kind of wavering that we aren't getting that upward trajectory of more black doctors as we should?
00:56:06
Speaker
I think it's a few things, to be honest. I think it's the testing. I think, you know, some people are wizards, right? They can literally know any and everything, but they might have some tests taking anxiety that...
00:56:24
Speaker
they're just not good test takers you have the mcat that in the mcat we know now does it does not determine how well of a doctor you how good of a well you're performing med school very still have these systemic exams you know that have.
00:56:39
Speaker
Can I say that a systemic exam or an exam place that has come from years of old that really don't show any type of determinant for how students will practice. I think also financially, you know, you look at the costs for the MCAT and prep courses and, you know,
00:57:07
Speaker
if you're actually paying for college yourself versus having somebody pay for it, pay for it for you. Everybody's not on scholarship. I think those would probably, I know that's not necessarily a leaking pipeline per se, but I think even if you were to get the brightest and get students involved from
00:57:31
Speaker
like elementary, junior high through STEM programs. Where are these students located? Likely, you know, are these inner city students and students in underserved, underprivileged areas? Of course they're going to have issues when it comes to finances. So I feel like that's the issue that's going to probably be the issue that will prevent others from achieving this in the future. It's sad, but
00:57:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I perfectly agree. You know, it's so cross prohibitive. Like for me, when I applied a residency, I spent $2,000 just to apply to like 95 school or something like that.
00:58:13
Speaker
And I actually use a stipend from one of my away rotations at an institution that had a lot of money in Cali just to pay for. You know what I'm saying? You just have to figure out. Luckily, I was blessed to get that away rotation. But even when we talk about the MCAT, preparing resources, preparing for step one, step two, when you get into actual undergrad,
00:58:40
Speaker
even outside of like the financial perspective is like the lack of mentorship, lack of finding people that look like you that are in the positions that you want to see yourself be. And then being present, I think the most critical period is particularly in high school, where, you know, we see a real significant divergent shift.
00:59:00
Speaker
and what people believe they can accomplish. Because again, I see in the school system, it's like, there's not a lot of black male figures, you know what I'm saying? There's not a lot of black doctors in the school system. There's not, you know what I mean? Like putting on, like saying, yo, you could do this, you know?
00:59:18
Speaker
It's very easy to be led astray. And so I think with the pipeline, we have to create the excellence that we want to see. And we've got to bring back the entrepreneurs, the doctors, the people that are engineers, and coming back to these schools and talking about what they do. Because that's oftentimes a rarity. My middle school, same middle school that Jayla went to is about to close down in the Bronx. And I think about the fact
00:59:48
Speaker
that I'm missing out. I never even got a chance to even go back to the school. And I don't even know. There's maybe there's one other person that's that's a doctor that I know that graduated from that middle school. You know, I'm saying that I went to. But we never went back. Like, you know, I'm saying that school is like in the hood hood type shit. You know what I'm saying? So it.
01:00:11
Speaker
It's like you just get lost in what you're doing. And I think that we got to learn to give back as we proceed and get high and high in the echelon of what we got going on. We have to also bring up forth the people that's behind us. So I think.
01:00:25
Speaker
with the pipeline, like not neglecting and forgetting our responsibilities. And again, leaving that legacy, there's so much that we need to do. We get up, we go to our family events functions, we go travel, we go to these vacations, but what about the kids that's starving to get that excellence that they need, starving to get that mentorship, starving to learn who they wanna be, starving to see the beauty of the world when they worried about when am I gonna eat?
01:00:53
Speaker
When am I going to see my dad starving? You know what I'm saying? So we got to be there. I'm not saying we got to be there all the time, but we have to have some sense of presence so that they know what is possible and what is impossible.
01:01:08
Speaker
I think that's an important thing you definitely mentioned in terms of gotta have the basics, the essentials fulfilled so that way people have the energy to even dream. So I think that's like a great way to end it. And both of you guys kind of, you know, brought up good points in terms of where we can just kind of address the lack of funneling
AMEC 2023 & Networking Opportunities
01:01:26
Speaker
black people into medicine. And we're going to continue to places like this, like the podcast, we're going to continue to promote these issues and make sure that I said so that way, we continue to be on the mission of increasing black numbers and making sure we're well represented in these spaces. So I think that's a great thing. And on top of that, we have other ways, at least through the podcast and through SNMA, that we continue to promote, you know, black excellence,
01:01:52
Speaker
Black Success, Medicine, all of that. And our conference, our annual conference, as we stated in the beginning of the episode, AMEC, is coming up. And so you know that we always have our little episode beforehand, where we kind of chat about what it is that we're looking forward to with AMEC and kind of like what we're excited about when it comes to the conference. Of course, before that, we have to shout out
01:02:13
Speaker
our AMEC Ticket Giveaway winners, Chelsea Edebie and Esther Mallett. You guys will be attending AMEC free of charge. So congrats to you guys. We hope you enjoy. Hopefully we'll catch you guys at the events that we have planned when we get to AMEC. This year, we have our events kind of on the same day. So hopefully we hope that we have people come out on Thursday and kind of see what we're about. We were there last year.
01:02:37
Speaker
And we had a great time. Unfortunately, Erica wasn't able to make it out, but you know, she will be coming this year. And it'll be three of us, the whole gang, Andi will be there, our whole team will be there. So looking forward to kind of seeing everybody in person. Of course, we're going to play our little snippet right now of
01:02:57
Speaker
D'Andre Ade Skenda, who are going to talk about their experiences at AMEC, kind of sharing about how their first AMEC went and kind of what to expect. So we hope you guys enjoy that clip. Hi, my name is Ade Ashranoubi. Hey guys, my name is D'Andre Tate Drummer. Hey y'all, my name is Skenda.
01:03:15
Speaker
I'm currently an emergency medicine intern at the University of Pennsylvania. I also serve as the external affairs co-chair from 2020 to 2022. Former EAC co-chair as well as current general surgery resident. I'm currently a transitional year intern going into ophthalmology. When I was a medical student, I was involved in SNMA at the local, regional, and national level.
01:03:39
Speaker
My most recent position in the organization being the former executive producer of SMA presents the lounge. I would say that my best AMEC experience was last year when we went to Orlando and we had it in person after two years due to the pandemic. My favorite memory of AMEC would have to just be linking up with all of your friends and peers across the country in one spot.
01:04:08
Speaker
One of my favorite parts about AMEC is the board of directors banquet dinner that happens at the end of the conference. I would say that was a great opportunity for me because I was able to do a good amount of speaking engagements, which was really great. I was able to talk about my experience doing documentary filmmaking and shedding light on health disparities.
01:04:30
Speaker
to have a good time and encourage each other through a black medical student, resident, or physician. Honestly, I just think it's a wonderful way for all of us to dress up, hear from our amazing board members, and just celebrate all the achievements that we've accomplished at the local, regional, and national levels throughout the year and set our goals for the upcoming year.
01:04:54
Speaker
And then it was also great to connect with a large amount of people and see familiar faces in person. Enjoy this year, yo. That's my experience. I'm excited for AMEC this year. It's just a wonderful time to gather with our community and just celebrate each other.
01:05:12
Speaker
Thank you guys for listening to that clip. We hope you guys enjoyed and we hope that got you excited for AMEC that's coming up. So I guess we can kind of get into our AMEC experience and how we felt about it, what we liked about it.
01:05:27
Speaker
You know, we kind of took time offline to listen to our episode we had last year before we had our live show in Orlando. And, you know, at least me and Aldo can attest, I had a great time in Orlando. What about you? What was how are you? How did Aimeko for you last year?
01:05:43
Speaker
Yo, me and Erica had some time. Like, I love that we, uh, last year was the first time we actually met. And did it go today? You sent me to Erica. I was like, I was, I was singing to Erica. Like I was dreaming for you. You know what I'm saying? We had time to like, it was a hologram. It was a hologram. Y'all. I send myself via hologram. Okay. And that's it. It was good enough.
01:06:12
Speaker
But you're going to be there for Hartford. That's what matters. You know what I'm saying? That's all good. This is true. But we was outside, you know, we, you know, we had a great time. You know, I met some amazing people. I was like between, you know, moderating and managing the events for the Osteopathic Committee at like four or five events and then like still navigating, like, you know, the extracurriculars and everything.
01:06:35
Speaker
I love, like, they had the pool. We had a big pool party out there that I missed, but I heard about. That was crazy. Like, we had a silent party. That silent party was lit, too. They had the panoramic camera. You went to the silent party? Yeah, I went there. Oh, wow. I went out there. Oh, you was like, OK, sorry. Yeah.
01:06:56
Speaker
I was at the pool party, but I didn't like, I didn't put on any bathing suit. I was not inside of the pool. I think it was actually with Audine at the time. We were like chilling on the side of like whatever, the tables and stuff like that. They were in that pool. They were in the pool. I was not. We were not there. Wow, bro. I pulled up after. And I see people I knew, see people that I hadn't seen in a couple of years and stuff like that, which is really cool. And then,
01:07:24
Speaker
You know, we had the, you know, the 90s or 80s party, which I got stuff for. I did not go to that. Yes, I did. I remember being super stressed about. I remember being super stressed about my shelf exam. I had my neuro shelf exam during. I remember I told you that, you know, we think I ended up passing. But listen, that was scary. That was a scary time for me because I was like.
01:07:46
Speaker
How am I supposed to go to this conference get lit with all these beautiful black people and then come back and take the shelf exam I had to I had to control myself I said I'm gonna go to like maybe one or two event like two nightlife things But the rest that aren't I gotta I gotta stay home and study. So that's why I missed out on some whatever happens
01:08:13
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? I was outside. Like my man's lived in Orlando, so we also drove around, went to different clubs and stuff like that. So I loved it and I can't wait for Hartford. I ain't gonna lie. Like every year,
01:08:24
Speaker
I think that's like top three things I look forward to every year of my life, like in the last six years, is going to AMEC. Yeah. Well, now I'm excited. That's great. Yeah, I totally agree. It was a great time. And I think it was nice it being our first time, at least for me, with my first time in an in-person AMEC conference, then doing our live show because we had done the live show.
01:08:45
Speaker
the year prior as our first, during our first season, but it was virtual. And I know we had a great time when we did it virtual, but it was nice to kind of have that like live platform and have people come out and, you know, talk about, kind of engage with us and talk about all the topics that we had for them. And, you know, it got a little spicy at some point, but it was, it was a great time. And I hope that people come out this year and see what we're about, you know, because we always keep the same energy. We always kind of keep the momentum up and we want to, we want to promote SNMA and what we stand for. But I think in general,
01:09:14
Speaker
in terms of the conference and what it stands for, which is making sure to have the workshops to get people more informed about what the organization offers and things that they can hope to gain being a member of SNMA. So we had different workshops that I found really interesting, you know, specialty based so people are interested in certain specialties, you can kind of go out, listen to panels. They had
01:09:36
Speaker
you know, different I know, I even had like, I think, event with like, black woman in film and all that stuff. And she kind of talked about her work in that, and even just like different professionals in medicine and talking about their trajectory in medicine, what they've accomplished so far.
01:09:52
Speaker
and people who are interested in that kind of pathway, you know, you could come out hear what they have to say and see how you want to incorporate that into your own life. So I thought those are all really great things. And also just like the community aspect, like you met so many people, like I'm, there's people I met, you know, during AMEC last year that I still follow on social media to this day or whatever. I think one of them, like what a good, one of the people that we were hanging out with me and on Dean, he actually promoted one of our episodes that we ended up kind of
01:10:18
Speaker
Publishing I think a little bit after a Mac. It was a really good episode I have to remember the name of it or which episode number it was but he like promoted it So I'm thinking it's nice because he was there for our live shows and then he came out and was still listening to our episode So I think it also gave us more publicity as well. That's fine. So that's why I appreciate a Mac I think it's really good because it allows people to not only gain more
01:10:41
Speaker
momentum in their drive for medicine, why they want to be doctors, but also find ways to be creative in terms of how they want to kind of continue expanding upon their career options in this field. So I think that's why people should come out, people should come out to get inspiration, get, you know, that energy and drive you need to keep pushing because I'm sure we're all in different stages in medicine right now. And sometimes it's hard to kind of push, push on with each and every day. But when you come out to conferences like this, it kind of rejuvenates you, you know, you think, okay, like, this is why I'm in the field. This is why, you know, I decided to become a doctor. So
01:11:11
Speaker
I personally always recommend everybody, any black or even, you know, a minority, maybe you don't even got to be black, who wants to feel inspired for a couple of days, come out to AMEC. We on the podcast recommend it. But I don't know about you all do. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Even though I didn't attend last year, because I did do the online one the year before. And I want to say I met
01:11:38
Speaker
two people that have really kind of helped in the last year, year and a half of med school, not being in med school. Um, like that one AMEC introduced me to two mentors and that was online. Um, and got me connected. Um,
01:11:58
Speaker
I ended up doing region four executive board. Like, so it, it's something that yes, it's fun. Um, and I, I, I assume even in person is more fun, but if you work, like your network is your net worth. If you really go with a plan, you know, what, what do I want to accomplish? Who do I want to meet? Like you set your intentions.
01:12:27
Speaker
it will come to you and you will benefit from it. And like I said, that's just from an online experience. And I think it was harder to actually kind of do something of that nature, you know, like really network. We will, we didn't even see each other really except for like one or two sessions. And I like literally two mentors that I still keep in touch with that check in. Oh, that's amazing. And it is so,
01:12:54
Speaker
Go to AMEC with the intention of getting something out of it. Period. For real, for real. That was one of those clubhouse days, too. Back then, we used to love the audio and just chatting. Right. Chatting like crazy. We're not there anymore, but that was a good time. That was fun. That was a lot of fun. I miss that. I ain't gonna lie. Shout out to us. I sincerely owe that.
01:13:18
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, Alden, did you want to talk a little bit about kind of I think you kind of already alluded to it, but was there anything in specifics you kind of want to talk about in terms of that's kind of it? OK, he said basically come out, get lit. And that's that's a mech. I mean, I must say.
01:13:33
Speaker
I'm going to say this year, I'm not on the board. So it's nice to be able to really enjoy it and not have to deal with programming and have multiple meetings while AMEC. So it was very hard to have a complete enjoyable experience, although I did enjoy. But this year, I'll be really getting in and have my leisure time to do what I need to do, you know what I mean? Hopefully for my wife.
01:14:01
Speaker
Oh gosh, but I was gonna say, for what it's worth, everything I just explained, you have done in AMEC. You were president of this and co-chair for that and taking pictures with the osteopathic head and hosting them at breakfast. So my point, yeah, you might get rich and chill right now, but
01:14:26
Speaker
while you were a medical student, what did you do? You put in the work and you made work for you. So, I mean, don't downplay it. Like you, I know what you didn't get to experience, quote unquote, in the manner that you wanted to, but experience and now you, you really did put in work. I watched it, you know what I mean? For two years in a row. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
01:14:52
Speaker
You did your thing. We love it. Thank you. And of course, now that we've talked about our experiences being at AMEC, Erica alluded to the one we had two years ago, which was a great time. I and Alden kind of touched on what we did last year in Orlando. But this, now kind of talking about this year, what we're looking forward to, we kind of offline listened to our prior episode that we had
01:15:17
Speaker
the right before we actually had our live show in Orlando. And we kind of talked about what we were looking forward to, like what to expect and all those things. And you know, I know Aldo, he was talking about the osteopathic stuff, the speed dating, whatever. Erika was talking about basically just getting for us to like come together, see each other in person, having that experience. And as well as that other panels, we're looking forward to
01:15:41
Speaker
looking forward to, but I know because you didn't get the chance to go probably now. But you did talk about the TikTok stuff. You did talk about that.
Reflection & Event Participation
01:15:47
Speaker
So that's an important part as well. And then I was more so just talking about kind of just like what it was like to be live and in person in that experience.
01:15:57
Speaker
of having because it was my first time going to a live AMX. So kind of how that would be going in person and how getting the full experience of meeting other black people and who are in medicine and everything like that. So I mean, what are you guys is how do you guys feel I guess today in comparison if you guys want to kind of touch on what you said in that prior episode and how you guys now feel today in comparison to what you said back then and whether there's anything new that you think that you're looking forward to this year
01:16:26
Speaker
Yeah, for me, you know, obviously the osteopathic events, I'm gonna go support and there's several of them. This year I had that I'm going to be speaking on the deal, speed dating, maybe not speed, but post-match panel. And then also doing a financial literacy speaking event as well, which would be really a little switch up.
01:16:47
Speaker
which I'm looking forward to enjoying. And also, again, like not having those responsibilities and being able to like really enjoy. We have some events that, you know, we'll be hosting that you guys will see us at. But I remember last year when me and Esabella, you know, we hosted the
01:17:07
Speaker
BOD banquet that was really dope. Yeah, it was different, you know going up on Yeah, that was kind of There was too much going out. Listen, okay I've I've did this I went to Howard so I can deal with this organization. I can deal with last minute stuff A little bit anxious like I was having a little bit of anxiety, you know, I gotta just push through being a beautiful It was a beautiful bet. It's just that listen, okay
01:17:36
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, is there no speedy dating this year though? No, no, is it still do you know if there's a speed dating event this year? It was just I'm asking for a friend Stay tuned and see What about you I'm looking forward to me and Finally
01:18:05
Speaker
We have milk. So I have to get into my rock. Sorry. What is good with you today? Yeah, that's pretty. I mean, we'll see like how it unfolds, but that's definitely top priority. OK, that's good. Yeah, me too, in terms of like in terms of yeah, like I'm looking forward to once again, like I think I'm looking forward to I think it's nice that all of our events this year are falling on one day because then this time I can kind of just actually care about enjoying
01:18:35
Speaker
all of AMEC and like to a higher extent than I could last year because okay every day we have a period we pretty much had an event every day so at some point you had to like carve out time to prepare and you know look through what we wanted to talk about so sometimes that kind of did get in the way of like oh well maybe was thinking to go to this workshop or whatever so I think it'll be nice to not have like
01:18:55
Speaker
that burden of like, OK, we got to make sure we're on go every day. So, you know, I can put my all on Thursday and then kind of enjoy and see what the other days of the conference have to offer. So and that's what I'm looking forward to. Yeah.
01:19:08
Speaker
So come out to AMEC, everyone. I think that it is going to be a great experience. We on the podcast, of course, we represent SNMA and we also represent our annual medical education conference. And we hope that everybody takes the time out to see what we're about. Come see the podcast live and in person, see our energy, see what we're coming with. And if you're not already a member of SNMA, get on that because it's definitely life changing. Hey, that's our show.
01:19:38
Speaker
Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of The Lounge. And let us know your thoughts about the discussions we had today by emailing us at podcast at SNMA.org. You know the vibes. Be sure to follow SNMA on all our social media platforms to stay up to date on upcoming events. Let's go. Thank you guys for listening. We'll see you hopefully in heartbreak.
01:20:08
Speaker
We will see you there.