Josh Ellis

Honors senior Josh Ellis wanted to be ready for medical school when he graduates, but he also wanted “something away from the common biology major.” When he chose his history major, he also chose a Medicine & Society minor because “keeping pre-med, it just made sense,” he said. “It allowed me to perfectly blend my interest in history with a pre-med curriculum.” Describing his experience in courses such as Readings in Medicine & Society, Josh said, “I love the outlook it has provided me on the medical profession.”

Beyond the minor coursework, Medicine & Society students like Josh often do internships and research to enhance their undergraduate careers. Working with Dr. Helen Valier, coordinator of the Medicine & Society Program, and responding to the many opportunities he receives through the program’s regular listserv messages, Josh applied last spring to an internship position with Dr. Teresia O’Connor at Baylor College of Medicine’s Children’s Nutrition Research Center, where he spent both the spring and summer working on a study focused on the physical activity of Hispanic children.

The study’s goal is to look at both environmental and parental influences on the physical activity of Hispanic preschool children in an effort to understand how they affect childhood obesity. In a two-pronged approach, the study uses data from GPS and activity monitors, as well as the results from questionnaires about their neighborhoods and environmental influences and parental practices around physical activity. Josh worked with the group as a part-time intern during the spring and, through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), as a full-time intern last summer. Through these internships, he helped organize the database, helped translate and proofread the questionnaire, created flyers, and helped recruit subjects for the study by posting flyers and speaking at community health fairs.

Because the project is bilingual and Josh worked so much with the questionnaires and flyers in Spanish, Josh’s interest in Spanish was sparked. “When you post enough Spanish flyers, you really start reading them. I definitely practiced a lot of Spanish, in anticipation of studying abroad. By the end of it I could recruit subjects in Spanish and most of the time I was speaking in Spanish,” he said. While he wishes he had started taking Spanish courses earlier, he is taking Spanish this year and plans a study-abroad trip to Mexico over winter break to increase his fluency. “By the time I’m a doctor, Spanish will be such a prominent language—how could you not be interested? I’m committed to being fluent by the time I graduate.”

As part of his pre-med preparation, Josh also attended a summer medical education program at Yale Medical College. The program is intended to help students get into medical school by offering an intensive introduction to the courses they will take, an opportunity to shadow doctors and research physicians, and exposure to medical workshops. In addition to his time in classes and seminars, Josh shadowed an ER doctor and a cardiovascular surgeon, visited Columbia medical school, and traveled to New York and other areas around Yale.

Josh has spent his time in the Honors College deeply involved—from his work with the Medicine & Society Program to time in organizations from Model Arab League to Invisible Children (which he founded at the University of Houston) to Honors Ambassadors. As he approaches graduation, he plans to take the talents and skills learned in Honors and its organizations to medical school or to the Peace Corps.

Verghese Lecture

The Medicine & Society Program was one of the co-sponsors when Dr. Abraham Verghese—noted physician and best-selling author—delivered the 2011 John P. McGovern Endowed Lecture in Family, Health, and Human Values. Dr. Verghese addressed his work in medicine and patient care and told stories about his education and experiences, from Ethiopia to the United States.

The Ether Dome

In September, students and faculty from the Medicine & Society Program went to see Ether Dome at the Alley Theatre. The play chronicles the introduction of ether and anesthesia into 19th-century America and the conflicts over ownership, patents, ethics, and addiction.

Fall Classes

As the Medicine & Society Program continues to grow, the cornerstone course for the program—Readings in Medicine and Society—continues to grow as well. The course, which introduces students to emerging trends in health and medicine from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, was so popular in fall 2011 that a second section, taught by writer Dr. Laurie Lambeth, was introduced.

Also running in the fall was the interdisciplinary research course Health in Harris County. The course, which was funded by a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Curriculum Development Grant written by program coordinator Dr. Helen Valier and Dr. Courtney Queen of the Abramson Center for the Future of Health, brought guest speakers such as Rocaille Roberts from Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services and faculty from the Institute for Medical Humanities at UTMB.

Taught by Honors research professor Dr. Dan Price, the course focuses on areas of health in Harris County. According to Professor Price, students engage primarily in “social science research such as surveys, interviews, and scientific literature reviews, but applying critical skills learned in the humanities to the social sciences.” Students presented posters about the Jung Center, M.D. Anderson hospital and cancer center, and childhood obesity at the Honors College on December 6.

Death and Dissection

The Honors College and the Medicine & Society Program have collaborated with UT Health Medical School to buy two cadavers to be used in a new clinical anatomy class this summer. Tentatively titled Death and Dissection, the summer class with Dr. Kathryn Peek will combine the anatomy and dissection course with students’ ongoing journals about how they feel about death. “I am delighted to see this new class emerging from the ever-closer ties between the Texas Medical Center and the Medicine & Society Program,” said Professor Valier. “The Honors College continues its work in bringing the ‘great conversation’ regarding the medical humanities and the practice of medicine to our pre-health professions students.”