These organizations are prominent student-led activities but are not official BCM student organizations for various reasons. To learn more about how to join these groups, please contact the members directly.
Block the Blaze is the Houston chapter of the national John Wayne Cancer Foundation based in California. We focus on raising awareness for melanoma, including the causes, incidence and at-home detection, in hopes of reducing melanoma incidence over time. We are dedicated to service learning and training medical students to be certified melanoma educators to provide high quality education for K-12 students within the greater Houston area and beyond. We especially want to target underserved communities and are expanding to integrate social determinants of health into our curriculum and education program.
Student Leaders: Dina Zamil and Shelly Fu
We are an a cappella group comprised of medical, PA, nursing and graduate students from across the Texas Medical Center. We perform a concert at the end of each semester with various other gigs throughout the semester. We hold auditions at the beginning of each semester that are open to all.
Student Leaders: McKenna Richards, Annie Turney and Carolyn Chen
Best Contact: docappellatx@gmail.com
We are a student organization working closely with OHP to administer influenza vaccinations to peers in order to increase overall school compliance.
Leadership: Ola Soliman and Mirza Baig
Faculty Advisor: Dr. James Kelaher
The purpose of the Service Learning Program is to facilitate greater engagement in community organizations and initiatives, learn about challenges facing underserved populations in the greater Houston area and emphasize the importance of understanding social determinants of health. SLP entails a yearlong commitment to a community partner with additional requirements in education and reflection domains. Completion of the SLP requirements is recognized by the Dean’s Distinction in Service Learning for the respective academic year and is reflected on The Deans’ Letter for residency applications. Most SLP sites are open to volunteering opportunities without participating in the yearlong program, and some SLP sites are designated as Student Organizations so students can engage with the service projects in other ways.
SLP Student Leaders:
- Tejas Joshi, MS4 (Indigo Squad)
- Jonathan Welsh, MS3 (Yellow Squad)
- XinYee Ooi, MS3 (Teal Squad)
- Dominique Cope, MS2 (Green Squad)
- Camaren Cuenca, MS2 (Burgundy Squad)
- Krishna Chandra, MS2 (Orange Squad)
