Historical News & Events

SCB News Highlight

Congratulations to Kenji Kobayashi (Class of 2018), who was selected this year for the UICOM Granville Bennett Award, honoring a graduating senior who has made substantial contributions to the area of medical education. Kenji was awarded for his innovative and hard work on designing and implementing a formal student representative system of feedback into the third-year core clerkships. Kenji received the award at the CMSC Awards Ceremony held on Tuesday, April 11 from Dr. Abbas Hyderi, M.D., M.PH., Associate Dean of Curriculum. Kenji will be going on to Baylor University in Houston, TX for his residency training in Otolaryngology. Congratulations to Kenji and all of our other graduating seniors!

Curricular Updates

May 4, 2018 – SCB, in collaboration with the Chicago Medical Student Council (CMSC) and M2 Class Board and through the recently formed USMLE Preparedness Committee (UPC) have worked with UICOM administration to organize a 2nd USMLE Step 1 CBSSA practice self-assessment to all M2 students in a proctored, simulated environment. This is in addition to the 1st CBSSA exam that has already been provided by the school. It is our hope that by providing an additional self-assessment later in the semester, students will better be able to gauge their preparedness and readiness for Step 1 and tailor their individualized study plans towards their specific needs. Additionally, the UICOM administration has also agreed that starting with this upcoming academic year, access to UWorld for M3 students as they prepare for Shelf exams and USMLE Step 2 will be expanded from a 6-month to a 12-month subscription, alleviating the financial burden expansion places on our students. Thank you to the UICOM administration and student leaders for making this happen!

December 2017 – SCB is excited to announce that one of the first ever student-led initiatives, the highly successful “10 for 15” program designed by previous SCB members (then called SET) and the Class of 2015, was published in the journal Teaching and Learning in Medicine. The “10 for 15” program was a student-initiated effort to partner with faculty and administration in identifying and providing key USMLE Step 1 resources to students and fostering a sense of community approaching the common class-wide goal of raising the UICOM-Chicago Step 1 score. Congratulations to Lindsey Schwartz, MD (Class of 2015) who served as the first author on the paper and was one of the lead students responsible for the “10 for 15” program!

August 7, 2017 – UICOM Launches Its New Student-Centered Curriculum – UICOM faculty and students were excited to welcome the incoming first-year Class of 2021 which will experience the new and innovative curriculum. For more details, check out CMSC’s new quarterly newsletter, The Medical Messenger.

June 5-6, 2017 – Joseph Geraghty (G2, former head of SCB) was selected to attend the AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) Pilot meeting in Washington, D.C to represent all campuses of the University of Illinois College of Medicine along with several faculty and administrators. For more information about this project, check out the AAMC Website: https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/coreepas/

April 17, 2017 – SCB has been nominated to receive the university-wide Outstanding Student Organization Award. In addition, three of our members have been nominated to receive the Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Award for their work this year as part of SCB: Joe Geraghty, Ally Young, and Kenji Kobayashi. Congratulations to all members of SCB and our student leaders!

March 29-31, 2017 – Several students from SCB including Joseph Geraghty, Ally Young, and Tiffani Berkel along with Julie Mann (former Associate Director of OCA) and Abbas Hyderi (Associate Dean of Curriculum) presented both poster and oral presentations on the Student Curricular Board at this years AAMC Central Group on Educational Affairs (CGEA) meeting. There was a lot of interest in our innovative program that involves students in curricular decision-making at all levels, and the team received an award for “Outstanding Student Innovations in Medical Education.”

Previous Events

  1. SCB Academic Medicine Workshop – AAMC Core Entrusbable Professional Activities (EPA) for Entering Residency Pilot – On Tuesday March 27, 2018, SCB in conjunction with our very own Dr. Abbas Hyderi, Associate Dean of Curriculum and one of the leaders of the AAMC pilot, held a thought-provoking interactive overview and discussion on the AAMC Core EPA pilot. UICOM is one of ten institutions across the nation that has been selected by the AAMC to participate in this pilot, which is changing the way we think about preparing students for day one of residency training.
  2. Curricular Town Hall: “Discussing Diversity in Medical Education” – Our recent town hall on Tuesday, January 7 focused on how to better address issues related to diversity, implicit bias, health disparities, and cultural competency during medical training. The session was hosted by Dr. Laura Hirshfield in the Department of Medical Education as well as two of our very own, Joan Marc (M2) and Sarah Russel (M1). Thank you to all those who came and provided valuable input! A report is being drafted based off of student input provided here and will be submitted to the administration shortly.
  3. Phase 2/3 Curriculum Retreat – Several student leaders met from across all three University of Illinois College of Medicine Campuses on October 9-11, 2016 at the Phase 2/3 Curriculum Retreat in Peoria, IL to discuss the implications of the new Phase I curriculum on Phases 2 and 3 (ie, the M3 and M4 years). Students shared their opinions as they participated in various discussion groups pertaining to topics including clerkship structure, required clinical disciplines, common assessments, increased opportunity for feedback, improving clinical reasoning skills, longitudinal clinical skills, integrating the basic sciences with clinical practice, student wellness, and incorporating themes such as health care systems, professional development, and health, illness, & society into the Phase 2/3 curriculum. Of the 14 total students who attended the retreat, six students were selected to attend from the Chicago campus: David Lee (M4), Mark Looman (M3), Kenji Kobayashi (M3), Tara Bylsma (M3), Ally Young (G2), and Joe Geraghty (G1).
  4. SCB Academic Medicine Workshop Series – As of this year we are piloting a series of workshops facilitated by experts in medical education for SCB members. Topics range from developing a research question, conducting a literature review in medical education, and understanding different teaching methodologies (i.e., passive vs. active learning).
  5. Wellness Dialogue with the Deans – On Thursday, March 23, 2017 there was a Dialogue with the Deans centered on the topic of “Wellness & Resilience.” This theme touched on multiple areas including Curriculum, Student Affairs, Counseling, General & Mental Health Services, and more. A needs list was presented to the administration by Cory Reiter, Rachel Bervell and Megan Rodriguez of the Student Task Force on Wellness & Resilience commissioned by CMSC leaders.
  6. M1/M2 Orientation (August 2018) – SCB is excited to play a role in the orientation for the incoming M1 and rising M2 students this Fall. We plan to introduce SCB and the various roles our student leaders serve as well as advertise opportunities for more students to get involved
  7. SCB Appointments – Following M1/M2 Orientation this fall, CMSC and SCB leaders worked together to appoint all new student representatives from the M1 and M2 classes.