Illinois Medicine

A S i l l i n O i S M e d i C i n e | 31 Angelo PeRIno Pe o r i a oMe stuDent seRvice takes place within the community of the college of Medicine. During his M2 year, and his first in Peoria, angelo Perino's classmates elected him to represent the class of 2014 in the medical school's curriculum committee on instruction and appraisal. his membership on the committee came at a critical juncture. across the u.s., medical schools are adopting more interactive learning styles in the classroom, a move away from the traditional lecture-based socratic method. faculty members at Peoria were in experimental mode, adjusting their teaching styles and trying to gauge their effectiveness. Perino's role was to keep his finger on the pulse of his class and deliver feedback to faculty members. he gleaned pretty quickly that student feedback was too important to be constrained by the standardized checklists and rankings at regular intervals, which didn't allow for more spontaneous, real-time reactions about what worked and what didn't. Perino began reaching out to students more informally and developed a PowerPoint presentation on different teaching methodologies; toward the end of his M2 year, he invited faculty to hear what students had to say. twenty to 30 faculty members showed up to see Perino's presentation, after which he led breakout sessions to discuss more specific feedback and suggestions. assistant Professor John Pula, MD, who taught the class of 2014's M2 neuroscience course, was an early adopter of active-learning styles. students broke into groups to complete question sets before coming together as a class to discuss them. the students pushed back at first because the questions were more challenging and thus generated more wrong answers. however, the questions fostered better and deeper discussion, and the students realized that working through challenges together illustrated for them more vividly the right and wrong ways to come to a solution. at the end of their M2 year, Perino's class voted to award Pula the Golden apple, a college of Medicine tradition honoring excellence in teaching (see "Passion bears fruit," page 24). it was a testament to how much the class came to appreciate the interactive environment, Perino says. "it's a much more engaged setting to learn in, and it allowed us to dive in and use the material in a way that fostered better retention. by the end, everybody was a big fan of it," he says. AYodele oKe C h i c ag o yoDele oKe, a fouRth-yeaR stuDent, spent the first six years of her life on a farm in nigeria before moving to chicago—first the north side and then the south suburbs. from rural nigeria to chicagoland, young oke was disturbed by a common theme: People in her life suffered because they couldn't afford medical treatment, or they didn't have the resources or education to properly manage their health. her passion to address these inequalities pushed her toward medicine and made her a natural fit in the urban Medicine Program at the college of Medicine's chicago campus. students in the program work in chicago communities on issues of health care disparities; community education; and research, policy and advocacy. back in the classroom, the medical students discuss the needs they observe out in the field and the solutions they can provide as caregivers and active community members. oke chose to work in north lawndale. With a background in early childhood education, running the young Doctors club at lawndale community church was a natural fit for her. the yDc is a pipeline program for north lawndale students founded by carmen cancino, MD '13 and anne Jennings, MD '13, two urban Medicine students who handed over the reins to oke when they graduated. With a few new mixed-use developments popping up in the neighborhood in recent years, north lawndale has seen attempts at revitalization but still struggles with crime and unemployment. the jobless rate among residents ages 20 to 24 is 59.4 percent, and 34.6 percent of residents ages 18 to 24 lack a high school diploma or GeD. "We want to encourage the students and the north lawndale population to graduate from high school and … pursue their interests," oke says. beyond getting them excited about the health field, she uses the sessions to provide health education. a lesson might start with the kids learning basic anatomy of the cardiovascular system, move on to dissecting a cow's heart, and conclude with oke connecting healthy hearts to diet, exercise and regular checkups. oke, an M4, works with up to 20 kids every friday, and they have become close. they exchange phone numbers, and oke recently treated a group of them to a day at the spa. "these kids are not a project for me, they've become a part of my family," she says. "their success means so much to me. i never had someone to explain the process of [entering this profession], and i want to be that mentor i wish i'd had."

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