Uncategorized
August 15, 2019
Book Review of: So you want to talk about race, by Ijeoma Oluo (And comments on hobbies)
By Josiane Joseph Last year, while moving through the realm of a fast-pace M.D.-Ph.D. student I was gifted something I did not know I needed. It was a book—a really good book. As I read it, I found time to reflect on new perspectives and savor a different flavor of thinking, the non-scientific variety. It […]
June 1, 2019
Book Review: The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist by Ben A. Barres
By: Samantha M. Bouchal I came upon Ben Barres’ autobiography completely by chance, while conducting a literature review on glia. A paper published in Nature by his laboratory, “Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia”, had been cited no less than 853 times, and I had wanted to learn more about the exciting work […]
April 11, 2019
By: Marina Walther-Antonio THE PROBLEM: SCIENCE AS A PRIVATE CLUB Science is an activity reserved to the intellectuals, the “smart ones”. This is the general perception, which let’s be honest, is reinforced, if not cherished by most scientists and the scientific establishment. And while the scientific profession certainly requires the understanding of what the scientific […]
March 9, 2019
Guest Blogger: Katie Linder, Introducing “On the Pulse”
By pkiessling 
The following was written by Katie Linder, a current M2 on the Diversity and Inclusion Council. She describes the recent addition of the “On the Pulse” feature to the Medical School’s internal website: Hi all! My name is Katie Linder and I’m a second year med student and member of the MCSOM Council for […]
February 21, 2019
By Josiane Joseph “…a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? … It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and […]
February 19, 2019
Book Review: Tranny by Laura Jane Grace
By tljordan 
I remember the first punk album that I got my hands on: Dookie by Green Day. I sat in my basement in that high backed computer chair watching the music videos on repeat, unknowingly unlocking a part of my identity which would be ebbing and flowing from the surface to the depths of myself. […]
January 17, 2019
By: Andrew M. Harrison, MD, PhD P2P. Surely this acronym has not yet been claimed. I met a clown recently. As Patch Adams was the only clown I knew of, also a physician on the side, I joined him for the recent holiday season in the backwoods of West Virginia at the Gesundheit! Institute for […]
December 18, 2018
In Case You Missed It: Charlie Blotner
By tljordan
On November 27th, The Kern Center Innovation and Design Series of Unexpected Conversation brought Charlie Blotner to speak for a lunchtime talk, titled “Establishing Trust in Healthcare: How the Transgender Community is Building a New Ecosystem for Health.” What made this talk interesting from the start is that Blotner brings a unique viewpoint as a […]
December 11, 2018
How do we improve the status of mental health in graduate school?
A recent article in The Atlantic covering the mental health disorders people suffer with in graduate school recently popped up on my suggested articles on Google, and on my Facebook timeline (I will give up Facebook, eventually). In the Facebook comments, and in the post sharing this article, people overwhelmingly agreed that this was nothing […]
November 25, 2018
Growth During the Application Cycle
By pkiessling
The transition from premedical studies to medical school may be the most dramatic change a future physician will experience in their education, yet the medical school application process inherently resists any continued growth for applicants. Primary applications are submitted in June, interviews extend into the fall and winter, and acceptances are released during the spring of […]