Advocacy and Child Health
Mission:
Empowering medical students in the Advocacy and Child Health concentration to discover their potential as pediatric advocates. Our program fosters growth through mentor-guided experiences. By exploring the diverse facets of the advocacy world, our graduates emerge as skilled, adaptive, and passionate champions for children’s unique health needs.
Directors: Wan-Hsuan Chen DO
Administrative coordinator: Linh Trinh
Maximum number of students/year: 12
Student selection process: Students would be introduced to the concept of concentrations in the fall of their first year in the program. The concentration application process will begin in January of that year with a reflective essay on an experience or observation related to child health. The concentration committee will review the essays, and selected students may be asked to interview. Students selected for participation in the concentration will be notified by March of their first year.
Timeline for student completion of concentration requirements: 3½ years
Concentration requirements (didactic and experiential):
- Develop an advocacy project with a faculty mentor. This project is the key part of your rotation. You will develop skills in project planning, development, implementation, analysis, and publication. The project will be centered around your interests, and the co-directors will work with you to identify a key mentor to guide this project.
- Develop, organize and implement your advocacy project with guidance from a mentor.
- Present your advocacy project at a local, regional, or national meeting.
- Submit your advocacy project for publication, if possible.
- Participation in the Pediatric Student Association or other local child health organization. This can be within or outside of UT systems, provided approval by the co-directors
- Membership in the student section of a state or national organization focused on child health such as the American Academy of Pediatric Section of Physician Trainees, which is free to join or the Texas Pediatric Society Medical Student Section, which is less than $25 dollars a year as of 2023. Total of 15 hours of shadowing pediatric focused providers such as general pediatricians, pediatric subspecialists, pediatric therapists, or other related staff). Please report the name of the provider and number of hours shadowed.
- Attend all pediatric grand rounds while on the pediatric MS3 clerkship, which is already a clerkship requirement, and four additional grand rounds to be streamed on a child health topic of your choice. In place of 4 additional grand rounds, you may attend an additional 4 hours of community-based meetings on child health topics. For example, you may watch a webinar on pediatric food insecurity. Please submit a list of the 4 additional topics observed.
- Read required articles on Canvas. New articles will be periodically updated.
- Complete a UT Summer Research Program or Summer Structured clinical experience. You are not required to go through a specific program provided you list the name of the provider and number of hours completed.
- Draft a letter to the legislator on your advocacy topic and send the letter to co-directors for review. It is acceptable to build upon the letter you will draft as part of your second year Persuasive Writing Workshop in your small group ethics rotation.
- Draft a letter to the editor on your advocacy topic and send it to co-directors for review. It is acceptable to build upon the topic you may draft as part of your second year Persuasive Writing Workshop in your small group ethics rotation. If you desire to publish your topic, please contact the co-directors for guidance.
- Complete a reflective essay on an encounter with a pediatric patient (1 page) to highlight what you have learned from your patient.
Advocacy projects
The co-directors will work with students to match them up with mentors that best fit their interests. Students will have a certain amount of flexibility in the selection of their project. Potential project categories include clinical research, data analysis, policy brief development, patient screening projects, public health education campaigns, and a variety of other topics within population health, political advocacy, and public health.
Scholarly projects will first be developed by the student with mentor guidance. The student’s final proposal will be reviewed by the faculty mentor with approval from the concentration co-directors. Advocacy is driven by passion. The goal for the advocacy project is to identify a topic that the student is passionate about and has the potential to provide impact and scholarly products. Oversight of project completion will be the responsibility of the faculty mentor.
At a minimum, all senior students in the concentration will present their project during a Pediatric Grand Rounds session to the assembled students, residents, and faculty in the spring of their fourth year. In addition, students will be encouraged to submit their project as an abstract or poster (as appropriate, with guidance from their faculty mentor) to local or state professional meetings.
Resources
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Student Section
https://www.aap.org/en/career-resources/medical-students/medical-student-membership/
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Student Resources
https://www.aap.org/en/career-resources/medical-students/
The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)
http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Medical_Students_and_Residents/Medical_Students/Home.aspx?hkey=c280dd86-6e53-41ae-8779-6d84b98fda7e
Texas Pediatric Society (TPS) Medical Student Section
https://tps.imiscloud.com/tps/Web/About-TPS/Medical-Student-Section.aspx
Scholarly Concentration Faculty Mentor
| Faculty Name (Affiliation – Department) | Contribution(s) to Concentration |
| Wan-Hsuan ‘Sherly’ Chen, MD (MS – Gen Peds) | Mentor, Co-Director |
| Mark Hormann, MD (MS – Gen Peds) | Mentor |
| Jon Tyson, MD MPH (MS – Neo, Clinical Research) | Mentor |
| Michelle Barratt, MD MPH (MS – Adolescent) | Mentor |
| Christine Markham, PhD (SPH – Child Health) | Mentor |
| Melissa Peskin, PhD (SPH – Child Health) | Mentor |
| Essam Imseis, MD (MS – GI) | Mentor |
| Susan Tortolero Emery, PhD (SPH – Child Health) | Mentor |
| Pedro Mancias, MD (MS – GI) | Mentor |
| Soledad Liliana Escobar-Chaves (SPH – Child Health) | Mentor |
| Allison Davidson, MD (MS – Neonatology) | Mentor |
| Michelle Ruda, MD (MS – Child Abuse) | Mentor |
| Sandy McKay, MD (MS – Gen Peds) | Mentor |
Note: If students have specific research interests, they will be matched to appropriate faculty in the department; this list is not exclusive.
Notes: Students must remain in good standing throughout the four years of medical school to continue in the concentration. If a student is considered to be not in good standing by Student Affairs, they will be dropped from the concentration program.
Special recognition in the MSPE, the transcript, and/or in the graduation program is dependent on completion of all requirements. Failing to complete one or more requirements of the concentration will result in no special distinction being provided.
Contact:
Wan Hsuan ‘Sherly’ Chen, MD
[email protected]
Zoabe Hafeez, MD
[email protected]
Updated as of 1/16/2024